Play No More (Player Next Door sequel) ✓

21 | Dysfunctional

Oh, not to mention - he throws a little party there... while I'm across the street... studying.

And now, Bianca is coming to the jake house?!  Damn it, I got to stop saying that!

"Why is Bianca coming?" I asked, keeping my cool.

"She asked." He shrugged, his eyes focused on the road ahead, "She's having a tough time at home. Her parents have been arguing a lot lately and we have a spare room."

"Can she not?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" he glanced over and saw my expression was serious.

He pulled up to the side of the road. When the car stopped, he turned to give me his full attention.

"You know I care about you more than any other girl. It's not even close," he told me, "But I have friends who are girls and sometimes, they'll need me to be a friend."

"I get that," I said.

I do. 

I mean, I don't have many friends, but I get that you need to help them. It's just, this feels like Bianca's trying to get with him. And that's a whole new level of friendly.

"I've known Bianca, Jamie and Oma since we were kids."

"I'm not trying to get between your friendships," I told him.

I knew he was thinking about the incident with Jamie. It almost stopped us from becoming... us. 

I had incorrectly thought there could be something going on between them – because Austin called her "Luke's girl" at his grotto party all those months ago and because she went over to Luke's house late at night.

I mean, who doesn't run 1,000 scenarios in their head when the boy they're crushing on is hanging out with another girl?

But what Luke doesn't get, is that he still thinks I was angry about that. In truth, I was angry because he followed her inside his own house right after I told him I liked him. That one hurt.

He basically ended the conversation after I said I was falling for him.

Now I'm not suspicious of him and Bianca. I'm not afraid.

I still have memories of my ex-boyfriend cheating on me, but I'm trying to compartmentalize. That's my word of the day by the way. Compartmentalize.

This is a new relationship, and it's better than any I have ever experienced before. I don't want to ruin that.

But I also don't want to be around Bianca.

"OK Luke, I haven't really told you this," I confessed, "But Bianca has not been nice, to say the least. She said she was your one constant and when you tire of me, you'll go back to her. So excuse me if I don't want to spend this weekend in her company."

"She told you that?"

Why was he laughing?

"Yes," I said.

"So why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I don't want to get between you and your friends," I said, hoping Luke would see that I'm not trying to disrupt his life.

"Next time, tell me."

I continued to explain, "I'm fine for you to hang out with her, because I trust you. But she has explicitly told me that she wants to be with you and that makes me uncomfortable. I don't want this romantic weekend to include her."