The Player Next Door ✓

35 | Not My Friend

"Find out," Bianca dictated, "And we'll make her life misery. No one disrupts our system."

"We have first dibs on our men," Omi reminded them.

Bianca laughed, "She has no chance of that."

**

"We'll have the brown butter toffee milkshake and..." Jake stared at the menu again, "Want to share the watermelon wave?"

I nodded enthusiastically.  I had wanted to try that last time.

Jake handed our menus back to the waiter and, after the waiter left, he draped his arm over my headrest again.  

I blushed. He saw how uncomfortable I was.  I didn't mean to be, but I could still feel the eyes of other seniors' staring at the back of our heads.  I felt like a parasite. And I didn't want the attention.  I really didn't want attention.

"Sorry," Jake apologized, "Is this too much for you?"

He thought he was making me uncomfortable. I felt guilty, since he was everything but that. It was the others; how they were judging us. I was about to respond when a famous face dropped in on us. 

"Am I interrupting something?" Luke asked, looking between us like we were guilty of something.

I looked up at him, remembering how I'd pushed him out of my shop and how he left me at Austin's party to be with the coach's daughter. 

"Someone left your cage open?"

Jake sat back in surprise and stared at me like I was a different person.  In a way I was.  I was shy around Jake.  And nice.  But Luke brought this out of me.  

"Aha," Luke chuckled, "Missed this."

He leaned forwards, arms crossed over the booth, as he looked down at us like we were little kids.  His eyes narrowed on Jake's arm, draped over my headrest.  He slapped it.

Jake retracted his arm, glaring down at our table. 

"Here we are!" the waiter cheerily returned, carrying a tray of our order, "One brown butter toffee milkshake and a watermelon wave." 

He placed the items on the table between us, alongside spoons for Jake and I to share.  

"Where's the whipped cream and cherries?" Luke asked, "Isn't that how you like it?" 

He was right - I totally would've ordered double chocolate with all the toppings.  But Jake had ordered for us.

I glanced at Luke whose mischievous look betrayed that he knew me.  Luke was a smart guy.  And he was way more perceptive than I gave him credit for.

Luke feigned surprise, "Did you order for her?  Wrong move, buddy."

"No one invited you here," I told Luke, not pleased with how he was treating Jake. 

"Do I need to be invited?" he smirked, with a bar full of his friends behind us.

To be fair, if anyone was expected here - it was him.  We were the intruders.  Well, just me.

I stuck to my point, "For this booth, you do.  Friends invite friends.  They don't just show up."

Where was all this anger coming from? Luke had unlocked so much passion in me. I felt brave around him and it was coming out in this aggressive form.

"Well you don't want to be my friend and he is definitely not my friend."

What did Luke mean by that?  I looked between them now.  How did they even know each other?

There was an awkward silence.

Were they enemies?

I stared between them, expecting one of them to speak.  I didn't even want to dwell on the part of Luke's sentence when he said 'you don't want to be my friend'  because that was also news to my ears.  It made it sound like he did.

"OK, one of you speak." I told them, my curiosity breaking the silence, "What's going on -why aren't you two friends?"

"Jake isn't my friend," Luke repeated, dragging this out and enjoying it. Jake squirmed in his seat. "Jake isn't my friend. Because he's my brother."

...

...

...

My jaw dropped.

"She always looks like this," Luke said to his... brother.

I swear I'm not crazy. They don't look super similar at all.

"B-b-brother?" I stuttered.

"Yes, well done for catching up Millie," Luke slow clapped, "OK, I'm done here.  Enjoy your little picnic." 

Luke lost interest in us.  He'd already caused enough damage.  He leaned over and took a chocolate flake out of the watermelon wave.  I watched him put it between his lips before he snapped it in two.

He doesn't even like chocolate.

Then Luke left. I looked at Jake, still stunned.

"I didn't realize it would affect you Millie. To be honest, I didn't think you knew my brother. It doesn't really seem like you two were in the same social circles."

I could have laughed at that. Boy was he right.

"It's not your fault Jake," I said.

Poor Jake.  His brother comes in, drops a bomb, and then leaves Jake to clear everything up.

"Luke and I are half brothers," Jake explained, "It's a long story but we're not fully related."

I didn't say anything.  Family issues were private and I was not about to pry.  I wish I had known sooner!

Jake picked up the spoon and dropped it into the milkshake.  He sighed and leaned back, his black leather jacket rubbing against the leather booth.

"Our father was married to my mother when he had an affair with Luke's mother," he said, his eyes closing at the pain of the story, "Both women got pregnant at around the same time. When my mother found out, she divorced him and took me to live in Minneapolis. After a couple years, dad married Luke's mother."

What do you say to that?

Jeez.

"My mother's life is... complicated right now.  So I decided to try living with my father," Jake said, "And his assh*le kids."

Jake smiled when he saw me trying to contain my giggle.  I don't know why I found that funny, but I did.  I was trying to keep it hidden because I didn't want to detract from the sad story.

One of his kids is an assh*le. That's definitely true.

"Go ahead," Jake encouraged, "Laughter is medicine for the soul."

I laughed and he picked up the toffee milkshake, drinking half of it in one gulp. A man with a sweet tooth to rival my own.

I always thought the sex god next door was Luke.  But now that Jake was living in the same house, he was next door too.  Which one was The One?

A/N: A little plot twist.  Gotta keep things spicy.