Triple Threat (ON HOLD)

{23} Friends?

Non-edited

My hand reached up to cover my mouth in shock, trembling slightly as I slowly swiped the glass away to pick up the picture once again. I sucked in a breath as a piece of glass slit my finger once more, before grabbing the picture and crumpling it into the pocket of my jeans. I stayed seated, letting the remaining tears glide down my cheeks, before roughly rubbing my nose with the sleeve of my shirt.

"Jordyn, for fucks sake." Jake growled through the door, "it's not what you think."

I sniffed quietly, hyper-aware of the fact that I didn't want anyone to know I was crying. I breathed heavily, in and out, like the guardians at the foster care had taught me to, when my emotions begin to spiral.

In...out...in...out,

I gradually raised myself to my feet, wiping my eyes once again before glancing at myself in the small oval shaped mirror on one of the sparsely decorated walls.

It didn't look as though I had been crying.

Blowing a quick breath out for good measure, gently swiping my sleeve along the bottom of my eyelid to remove any mascara that had managed to smudge, I strode to the door; flipping up the lock.

The door opened as soon as the lock sounded, with Jake seemingly shell-shocked that I actually opened the door.

I had only been in that room for twenty minutes or so.

"Jordyn, this is all a misunderstanding. I know what it looks like, it looks bad. Strange even but-"

I fixed him with a glare, looking up at him "How the hell could you go months without mentioning that we were a couple, Jake? What the hell, you absolute tool? You are— were, my boyfriend."

Jake's face clouded over with a different range of emotions fleetingly before his face returned to its usual stoic expression.

"Don't get it twisted. I knew you. Before I mean. We were not together." I was ready to protest before he fixed me with a stern glare, "I know what it says, we were friends, nothing more. We could never function as a couple anyways." Jake explained, watching me grow incredibly agitated at the little vignette of my past he'd revealed.

"Why do we look so...cuddly?" I muttered, feeling the picture burn a hole in the pocket of my jeans.

"Dunno. Guess you were a different person back then. A little more tolerable."

Although it had perhaps been a joke, it stung.

"And on the back- it said 'happy valentines blondie'- that doesn't make sense. If we were just-" I argued, throwing my hands outwards in confusion.

"Can friends not wish other friends a happy valentines? It's not that deep. We knew each other. We were mutual friends. You were a little more bubbly back then, more approachable. Made friends easier, opened up better so naturally we got along. We weren't close."

I listened intently to everything he said, but as I watched him explain our friendship in the past, I began to quickly pick up on the fisting of his hands and the tick in his jaw, every time he said 'friend'.

"That's how you knew all those little things about me, back at school that day." I breathed out, the thought striking me by surprise.

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I can't. The plan-" Jake quickly cut off, looking heavenwards before his eyes connected with mine once again, "I just can't."

"There you go with that fucking plan again. You're not telling me something." I blurted angrily, stabbing a finger into his chest angrily whilst taking a threatening step forwards "Matter of fact, all of you absolute twats, are not telling me something."