Someone Like You (Jacquees)

Chapter Thirty-Five

     As much as it pained me to get up, I threw my covers off of my body and rolled out of the bed. My mother smiled and I walked out of the house to see Jacquees leaned up against his car. The damp and cold lawn wettened my feet and the bottom of my sweatpants as I shuffled over to him. He slightly smiled at me but I just glared at him.

"Hey" he finally said. 

     I didn't know what I was feeling right now. Sadness, anger, upset...maybe all three. I hoped that my face hid it all though.

"What are you doing here?" I asked putting my hands into the pockets of my sweatpants and resting my weight on my left leg.

"I uh...came to say that I'm sorry for the other day. I shouldn't have said what I said to you and I really would like for us to just put it all behind us" he said as if it were nothing.

     I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Put it all behind us?" I asked. "Okay yeah, let's do that. Let's just forget about you saying that we shouldn't have been together in the first place. Let's just forget about you doubting that I was in love with you because you thought that I was trying to hold on to you. Let's forget about you not saying anything to me or giving me just a simple wave for a week!  No no, let's forget about the main one: you didn't even say that you were in love with me back!"

"Nicole, I am in love with you"

"No you aren't. If you were, you wouldn't have called me a liar"

"I didn't!"

"Basically you did by saying that I was bullshitting you to get you to stay with me!"

"Okay, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you. I should've trusted you. I overreacted and I realize that now"

"So why didn't you just forgive me when I apologized?" I asked.

"Because I felt like I would be letting you off too easy"

     I scoffed at that remark. What kind of bull is that. Now he sounded like my mom.

"Look, as fine as I seemed these past few days, I was going through it too! Everytime I saw you at school when I came to pick up Tre, that was hard for me. I missed holding you, kissing you, talking to you...just everything about you. I know that I nearly messed everything up but I really don't want to lose you"

     I looked downward shaking my head.

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me" he finished.

     I looked up at him with a surprised expression. The best thing that had ever happened to him? That was a stretch considering the fact that we had only known each other for a while and had been going out for even less. But it was just something about us that made us attract like magnets. I quickly looked away hiding my face from him. He walked up to me and lifted my head up with his hand and kissed me passionately. I kissed him back and our lips moved in sync, our noses nuzzling each other as we did so. I placed her hands against my chest and pulled away from the kiss looking down again. He lifted my face back up to his to continue the kiss. Our lips barely brushed against each other before I pulled away again.

     It wasn't until now that I had realized how toxic our relationship was and how it probably wasn't meant to be.

"Que...I think we should just chill out for a minute"

"You wanna...take a break?"

"Actually, I just want to break it off all together. I just...I think we both have a little bit too much going on in our lives right now to be worrying about each other. All this shit happened right when we got together and now I'm starting to believe that it's a sign or something"

     He looked down at the ground and sighed.

"It's all my fault..." he mumbled sadly.

"Not all of it is your fault. I'm to blame in some of this too. If I hadn't been so naive about the Khalil situation, we wouldn't have argued the first time"

     But Jacquees wasn't convinced shaking his head to prove it.

"I mean we can still be friends though, right?"

     He sighed and looked up at me shaking his head again.

"Nah, Nicole. I can't just be friends with you"

     I looked down at my feet confused as to what to say now. I wasn't expecting that answer. He was willing to throw away our friendship entirely over this one thing?

"Jacquees, I don't wanna lose you as a friend"

"Nic, you can't have me like that. I'm sorry"

     I sighed and bit my lip.

"Well, that's unfortunate, Que...I should be getting back inside"

      I gave him a small smile and walked back toward my house.

"Wait" he said causing me to turn around to face him. "Can I take you out somewhere?" he asked.

"You do know that I'm still grounded, right?" I said pointing back over to my house.

"I think I can convince your mom" he said biting his lip.

      I sighed and motioned for him to follow me into the house which he did. When we entered, our mother was over by the counter eating a Snicker with her magazine in her hand. She instantly closed the magaizine when she saw that.

"What's wrong?" she asked still chewing her Snicker bar that was still halfway in the wrapper.

     I looked at Jacquees and he gave my mom a kind smile, the same one that had charmed me when we first met and the same one that charmed her when they first met.

"Um...I know that Nicole is on punishment right now but I was just wondering if I could take her somewhere real quick for lunch" he said  with a hopeful look.

     My mother looked at him concerned. I don't know what she thought we were going to do though. She took a deep breath and looked over at the clock on the oven. It was 12:45. She looked back at us.

"Be back before 2:30" she said. 

"Thank you, Ms. Parker" he replied with another smile.

     I gave a slight smile and went to my room to go get ready.