By Chance (Accidentally In Luck #1)

30. Gone Ghostbusters On Him - Cora

I let out a big breath and hoped to God I was right. If I wasn't... well there wouldn't be a strong enough word to express how bad and mortified I would feel.

As I continued looking back and forth between the two boys, I wondered who would crack first and either admit I was right or inform me how horribly wrong I am.

I knew how stubborn Theo is, so I focused on Jay. I met his eyes and I didn't break the contact.

I stared that boy down.

Finally, after not too long, he dropped his head back and groaned loudly. "How did you figure that out?!" He picked his head up and looked at E, grinning ear to ear in disbelief. "How did she do that? No one can ever break me like that! I played it off so well and I know it was believable because I almost had you crying," Jay pointed at Elle, his smile falling immediately. "Oh, no, no, no. Shit, Elle, I'm so sorry about that, I didn't realize you would take it so seriously. I didn't think either of you would actually! Oh, Elle. Please don't be mad at me! I swear, I've been planning this since Theo and I started fighting. That's why he knew. I used to take theatre in school and I always got the lead because I was pretty good, so I thought this would be a good prank one day, but I never had a anyone to pull it on before..."

Since, I've known Jay, I've never once known him to trail a sentence off. I looked over at E again and saw his face mirror my own slight surprise.

Together we looked at Elle. Her hand wasn't over her mouth anymore and instead they were now both curled into tight fists at her side. She looked like she was debating between settling on 'beyond angry' and 'completely relieved' and I found myself secretly trying to send her relieved thoughts. We didn't need to end today with an angry Elle on our hands.

Turns out she went for a bit of both. She stalked over to Jay and started whacking him on the arms, legs, torso, everywhere but his head basically. Then she started talking at him. Not to him, no. At him, and all the while still hitting him while he cowered behind his arms. Some big mighty fighter he was, huh? "I swear to the dear Lord above and on all that is holy, Jayden Cohler, I will smack the ever-loving crap out of you for that stunt! I would do worse, but I'm too freaking happy that you're alright!" At this point she finally stopped smacking him and dove on top of him on the bed and tackle-hugged him.

After a stunned second of silence, Jay hugged her tightly back.

I turned to give them their moment and I saw E already looking straight at me. He opened his mouth to say something, but never got to it.

"Hey, C, Theo," Jay's voice sounded quietly, "would you mind giving us a minute?"

I glanced back at the two of them and barely held back a smile. They were sitting next to each other on the bed now, pressed against each other due to the space restriction and Jay still had one arm around Elle's back and a hand resting lightly on her waist.

I nodded at the same time E said, "Yeah, sure. We'll be in my room."

We snuck out the door and walked down to E's room. Once inside, we just stood there staring at each other for a minute, neither of us knowing what to do or say.

I remembered that just a minute ago he was about to say something. "Did you, uh... I mean, were you gonna say something back there?" I hooked my thumb at the door.

He grinned a little wryly and nodded. "Yeah. I was actually gonna ask you if I could talk with you for a minute."

I laughed. "Jay has good timing. So what for?"

E looked down for a second. "Can you let me change and clean up first? I'd rather not stay in these and look like this." He motioned to shorts he fought in and the bruise on his cheek.