SKYE
I drag myself out of my bed and make my way toward the sound of alt-rock buzzing from my living room stereo. Ollie is stretched out on my couch scrolling through his phone.
"Finally!" he says as he sees me and sits up. "Dude, I thought you were gonna sleep forever. You realize it's like, one in the afternoon?"
"I'm on a late schedule for the tour," I groan, rubbing my eyes as I make my way over to the armchair and sit down, setting my phone on the coffee table.
"Oh, so it has nothing to do with your late-night dates and phone calls with a certain infamously big-dicked superstar?"
"Eww Ols!" I screech, picking up a pillow and smacking him on the shoulder with it. "First off, no, we just hang out and talk late because we're both on that schedule. Secondly, we are not having those kinds of late nights. And why do even you know anything about his– wait, no, I don't want to know."
"I'm just teasing, Skittles. And come on, you know I googled it."
I roll my eyes and lean back in my seat.
"What are you doing here, anyway?"
"I missed my sister," he says with a shy smile. "You've been gone for ages and you're only a few days from going back out on the road. I missed you, okay?"
I smirk and move over to the couch, scooting in next to him and giving him a big hug.
"Okay, dude," he says, shrugging me off. "That's enough hugging. I don't want to catch your cooties."
"I'll show you cooties!" I playfully hug-attack him, squeezing him tight as I pucker my lips and make kissy noises. He shrieks and tries to push me off.
"NOOO! GRODY!! HELLPPP!"
I push his shoulder and laugh as I relent.
"Big baby!"
I walk into the kitchen to make myself some coffee.
"So how are things with Jacks, anyway?" he asks, following me to the kitchen bar.
"I don't know..." I fill the coffee maker from the faucet. "It's complicated."
"Good complicated or bad complicated?"
"Both I guess. I just... I'm really enjoying spending time with him."
"Well, I can see how that would be terrible."
"It is if I'm starting to catch feelings for someone completely unattainable."
"Starting to?" He raises his eyebrows at me but seems to decide against teasing me further. "I know it's a totally different deal with this guy 'cause he's hella famous and all, but I don't necessarily think he's unattainable."
I keep trying to remind myself that even though he's the Jacks I know, he's also Jackson Ford. The sexy pop star is not someone you imagine a future with. In the end, he's going to go on to marry another beautiful celebrity and have beautiful celebrity babies. I'd have better luck of having a serious relationship with Bigfoot.
"It's just, all the times we've hung out we've had to be at his place or mine or somewhere super private. Maybe I'm just gun-shy after everything with Greg, but I'm starting to feel like I'm somebody's secret again."
"You know things are different with Jacks, though. He's in the public eye. Of course he can't go public places like everybody else."
"True," I say with a sigh. "But he certainly has been out in public with his past dates. I don't know, maybe I am being paranoid. I can't even tell anymore. I don't even know what I want from him. I literally just broke up with Greg, I shouldn't be jumping right into another relationship anyway."
"Should is the dumbest word in the English language."
I chuckle. Ollie has never been a big fan of woulds and shoulds. If anything, he sees expectations as an invitation for defiance.
"I'm having fun with him, I know that. I just want to spend time with him and not overthink it. But I'm starting to think I'm not even capable of that."
The burble of the coffee maker slowly grows louder.
"You're worried he's fucking around?"
I groan and run my hands through my hair.
"I guess... I mean, I'm not expecting him to be madly in love with me, but it would make me feel better if I knew that I was more than a friends-with-benefits situation."
The click of the coffee machine lets me know my cup is ready. I pour the coffee into my mug and grab some milk from the fridge.
"Why don't you just ask him?"
"Because I don't want him to think I'm a clingy psycho, okay? You don't get it. You're a dude. Guys never get accused of being clingy. As a woman, if I ask one question or make any assumption about a relationship, I'm suddenly the pathetic, desperate chick who couldn't take a hint."
The last thing he needs is another delusional lovesick fling thinking she means more to him than she really does. I'm not going to be pathetic.
Okay, maybe I already am pathetic, but I'll be damned if I let anyone know that.
"So what? If he thinks that, do you really want to waste your time with him anyway?"
I huff as I pour the milk into my coffee and give it a swish.
He's right. I shouldn't care, but I do.
"It would be so much easier if I could read minds," I say with a chuckle.
I walk back into the living room with Ollie in tow, sitting down in my chair. He takes a seat on the couch and scrunches his face as if he's deep in thought.
My phone buzzes against the table near Ollie. I reach to answer it, but he manages to pick it up first.
"Oooh! Who's this?" he asks, holding up the screen that shows just a smiling emoji.
"Give it," I say in a serious tone, holding out my open hand.
"Ohhh I knew it! Speak of the devil!" He jumps up and runs back into the kitchen with my phone. "Hello?"
I chase him into the kitchen, but it's too late.
"Give me the phone!" I whisper. He smirks and shakes his head.
"Oh hey, Jacks! This is Ollie."
My heart thumps in my chest and I lunge in an attempt to grab the phone from his hands but he dodges me.
"I'm great, thanks," he says with a smirk. "My sister's just busy right now so I answered for her."
I try to wrestle it away from him but he uses his height to my disadvantage to keep it out of my reach.
"Yeah, she's just in the other room." He continues smirking as I slide a finger across my throat and point to him. The threat doesn't seem to deter him. "Her ex showed up trying to win her back. You know how it goes."
WHAT IS HE DOING?!
"Apollo Phoenixfire Kennedy!" I shout. "You give me that phone right now!"
He leaps away and takes off out of the room, saying "I'll let her know you called!" through grunts and heavy breaths. He hangs up and throws the phone through the bedroom doorway and into the bed.
"I'm gonna kill you!" I yell as I chase him into the living room. When I'm close enough, I jump on his back and lock my arms around his shoulders, tackling him to the couch. I grab a throw pillow and start smacking him in the head.
"What is wrong with you?! Why would you say that?!?"
"You wanted to know how he feels, so I figured we'd put it to the test. Let's see what he does with that information."
I swing the pillow again and it collides with the side of his face.
"That is not what I meant!"
"You said you didn't want to ask him!" he shouts, holding up his hands in defense.
I collapse into the sofa and pull the pillow to my face, using it to muffle a frustrated scream.
"AAAAHHGHGHH!!"
I drop the pillow in my lap and groan. Ollie sighs in relief and begins to chuckle.
"I can't believe you full-named me."
"You deserved it."
After a bit of chatting with Ollie, and a couple more hits with a pillow, I walk back to my room and close the door behind me—locking it for good measure. When I'm relatively confident that Ollie won't be hijacking my call this time, I grab my phone and face the consequences of my brother's rogue phone prank.
Part of me knows game-playing rarely ends well, but another part of me is curious if Jacks had any reaction to Ollie's comments.
Is he jealous? Is he worried? Would he say anything about it?
Whatever the case, I was going to have to clear this all up, with a heavy emphasis on blaming Ollie for everything.
Pretty much the same excuse I used when I got in trouble throughout my childhood.
I pick up my phone and lay down on the bed, looking at the screen glowing above me.
3 Missed Calls.
Oh. That's a good sign, right? Maybe?
I open the notifications and see that all three are from Jacks and I smirk slightly.
Does that mean he really is interested?
With a deep breath, I hit the call button and hold the phone up to my ear, feeling my heartbeat pick up as I listen to the first ring.
"Hey, Buttercup!" Jacks answers, his voice a bit softer than usual.
"Hey!" I say. "I um... I wanted to say sorry about my brother earlier. He's just an idiot and thought it would be funny to answer my phone. Just ignore him."
"Yeah, yeah. No worries. Sorry if I called too much. I know you were in the middle of something I just thought maybe... I thought I heard you yell in the background at the end of the call. Just wanted to make sure you were okay and didn't slip and fall or something like that."
I can't tell if that's really why he called or if it's an excuse and he called because of what Ollie told him.
"It's fine, I wasn't really in the middle of something," I say with a sigh. "Ollie is just an idiot with a limited understanding of boundaries."
Understatement of the century.
"Oh, he just said you were... talking with your ex."
"Yeah, no. He's just being an annoying brother and messing around."
This is so embarrassing. I'm never letting Ollie near my phone ever again.
"Oh," he says with a bit of a laugh. "That's great, I mean- Good that I wasn't interrupting anything. That's good to hear."
"Nope. Just the usual dumb brother antics." I emphasize the last part with the hope that Ollie is listening in through the door. "You know, annoying siblings and all..."
"Yeah I've got a sister of my own," he says. "So I guess I am the annoying brother in our family."
I laugh and smile at the thought of some girl out there at her wit's end with her brother, the charming pop star.
"That must be weird for her to have a celebrity as a brother. Is she famous too?"
"No, she's a normal teenager going to high school in Tennessee. She absolutely hates that I'm famous."
"Oh no! Poor thing. Why does she hate it?"
"A lot of her friends have crushes on me and I guess it's pretty awkward for her. She doesn't want anyone to know we're related." He laughs for a moment. "I'm making it sound like she hates me. We're actually pretty close, she just doesn't want her friends to hang out with her just to get to me. But it definitely makes for some awkward moments when I come home to visit."
"Does she pretend she doesn't know you?"
"No, she just pushes me down in the car when we drive past her friends."
I burst into laughter at the idea of Jacks being the embarrassing big brother to this teen girl.
"Aww, poor Jacks," I tease. "You're the black sheep!"
"Oh that's cold, Buttercup."
"It's okay, I am too."
"Why's that?"
"Well, Ollie is the golden child and my older brother ingratiated himself with our parents when he and his wife had kids. So by default, I've gotta be the black sheep. I was just starting to get points with my mom when I got engaged and she could plan a wedding. She's not going to be happy when I tell her that I broke up with Greg."
"You haven't told her yet?" he asks with a more serious tone.
"I've only told Ollie. And you, of course."
"Why?"
Because I like spending time with you and I don't want to come back to reality right now.
"I just don't want to deal with the drama, especially while we're out on tour," I say, which is as close to the truth as I'm willing to share right now. "I know this sounds weird, but I just want to enjoy the calm before the storm."
"No, I get that," he says. "I always have to figure out what parts of my life to share with the world and when. Sometimes I like keeping things to myself for a while."
Am I one of those things?
"Exactly."
"Are you planning on telling everyone when we're back on tour?"
I hadn't actually given it much thought. We'll be back to work in just a couple of days. If I tell people I broke up with my fiancé, everyone will give me that sad pity face and try to cheer me up. Sticks will probably flirt with me. Kay will try to press me for details and push me to get together with Jacks. It'll be a whole thing.
"Actually, since you're the only one who knows on the tour, would you mind not saying anything to anyone? Especially Kay. She's been bugging me about Greg for a while and I know I'll never hear the end of it from her."
"Oh, uh..."
"I just don't want everyone to make a big deal out of it and be all sad. It's not like it's a secret or anything, I'd just like to slowly let people know on my own terms."
"Of course."
The calm before the storm is a great place to be—until the storm, of course. But that comes later.
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