"For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
Ephesians 2:10 NLT
🌼Serena's POV🌼
A couple weeks had gone by since Becca and Danny's make up and they have been going strong. It was a little weird to see how similar they are and how they're always together. It's cute but a bit unnerving. And I still don't know what they're all planning but I'm keeping it in the back of my mind. They haven't acted completely strange since that first day but I'm holding my breath. The only thing they'd do is talk in codes which in my opinion, they sound really funny doing it.
They had played three pranks on me-dressing as a clown(she knows that I hate them) when I was eating cereal, screaming bloody murder when I was sleeping, and having random things pop out at me. It was not fun, no matter how many times they would laugh. Sure I'd quickly get over it but they needed pay back. I think it was a way to get their weird behavior off my thoughts.
"Boo."
"Ahh." I turn to whoever did that, and to my surprise, it's Jacob. That jerk.
"Not you too." I whine.
"No," He chuckles, "I just wanted to do it once since Danny and Becca got all the fun."
"You're really mean."
"No I'm not." He laughs while lightly poking me in the stomach.
"You are." I say, reciprocating the same action towards him.
See, these are the kinds of things that make me doubt how he feels about me. I know that I like him. I've been thinking about Carmen's question ever since she asked it. Till now, I've been thinking of what made me like him—his laugh, his smile, his love towards his mom, his eyes, his joking nature, his kindness towards me.
I wish I could know how he feels for me, it'd solve so many problems. But I'm too scared to ask, too scared that I'll look like a fool if I do ask.
"Are you gonna get them back?" He asks once we've stopped poking each other.
"Definitely. I just don't know how."
"Need help?" He asks.
I turn to him, "Yes please."
"But what do I get in return?"
I stiffen, "Um... my everlasting gratitude? The knowledge that you were able to scare your best friend and mine?"
"Hm," He hums, "Those do sound promising but I was thinking of something better..."
"Like what?" I ask, desperately trying to control the beat of my heart. Could he mean...? No of course not. Only in my mind will he ever want to actually kiss me. Just a silly and stupid fantasy, nothing more.
He pauses for a bit, and if rethinking his demands, and says, "You have to cook for me for a week. Anything I want, to an extent of what you're able to make."
My body relaxes but a tiny part of me saddens. I was right, he doesn't want to kiss me. Who would?
You'll never make anyone happy. Never make them satisfied. I was stupid to go out with you in the first place. I only did it out of pity. That's the only reason why people would actually talk to you. Out of pity. You're not worth anything to anyone. You will never be worth it!
My eyes cloud with silent tears and I quickly blink to push them back, not wanting Jacob to see them and question their appearance.
I can't believe I let myself be weak against him, that I broke down my own walls for that sorry excuse of a man.
"Sure but you have to get the ingredients."
"Deal." He takes his hand out. I shake it and relish in his warmth before letting go.
"So what are we going to do?"
"What is one of Becca's fears? What does she hate to even look at?"
"She is afraid of cockroaches." I say, remembering when we were watching tv and a commercial came on. It had a few cockroaches on it and she squealed before throwing her water bottle at the tv and hiding behind the couch.
"Interesting." He says, rubbing his fake beard.
"What are you thinking?"
"What if we gave her an inconspicuous gift, with Danny's name on it?"
"The bugs will be inside?"
"Duh." I push him.
"Just making sure, okay?" I say defensively.
"I know." He laughs.
"So what will we do for Danny's prank?"
"...Is there a way for you to get some temporary hair dye?"
"Yes." I smirk, knowing exactly what he's thinking of.
We both grin at each other.
***********************************************
The next day, I am giddy with excitement about what we're about to do. This is a nice way to take my mind off the stress.
The doorbell rings and I open it. Jacob stands before the threshold carrying a few plastic bags.
"Put it in the upstairs bathroom inside the guest room." I tell him and he does just that.
I go outside to the shed where the holed box filled with fake cockroaches are. I take it in my hand and gently open it. They are still intact and real-looking. We thought about getting real ones but I thought better of it. If she ended up throwing it, I didn't want to have to round them all up.
I bring the box inside and wrap it in some purple tissue paper before placing it nicely in a box. Tying a blue ribbon to secure it next, I hid it in one of the cabinets inside a pot. Jacob comes back down soon afterwards and leans against the counter with a smile on his face.
"Did you put it in another shampoo?" I ask.
"Yep. And I made sure that there were no other shampoos around."
"Good." I smile evilly.
"That smile is creepy as f*ck."
I gape at him, "That's rude."
"It's true."
"Doesn't mean I wanted to hear it."
"Would you rather someone else tell you more rudely?"
"...No." I mutter.
"Exactly. You should be thanking me."
"Thank you." I bite out.
"You're welcome." He says cheekily.
"So when are they getting here?"
"In some ten minutes."
"That's going to take forever." I groan.
"You could make me food."
"That's after they're pranked."
"For practice?"
"You're so annoying." I chuckle.
"It makes you laugh doesn't it?" My breath hitches at his words and facial expression. Kill me with your words, why don't ya?
"Yeah." I choke out, the air around us suddenly charging with new energy.
He comes closer to me and my nervousness sky-rockets. Will we actually–a knock on the door interrupts my thought. Are you serious?! Again? Jacob seems to have the same reaction before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
"Let's get our pranking on." He says half-heartedly.
I walk to the door and open it. Danny is standing there with his arm wrapped around Becca's waist.
"Hey guys." I say cheerfully.
"Hi." They say back, just as happily if not a little cautious.
"So what's with the invitation to your happy home?" Danny asks.
"I am making food and I thought you guys would like to have some. I...lost a bet with Jacob so now I have to cook him stuff."
"Free food?"
"Hell yeah." They are so compatible, it's weird.
I roll my eyes and beckon them in. I glad I was able to come up with an excuse. Wait, do I even have stuff to make food? I'll just continue to wing it. I look through the fridge and find some tortellini in the back. I hope my mom wasn't thinking of eating this later. I go through the cabinets and find some alfredo sauce.
I follow the instructions on the packaging as everyone continues to watch tv in the living room. Jacob soon comes back to the kitchen just as I am mixing the sauce.
"How are we going to get him into the shower to get clean?" He whispers as he peeks over my shoulder to look at the food.
I roll my eyes before leaving a single piece of pasta onto the spoon to cool. He smiles at me and takes it in his hand. He curses before shoving it in his mouth.
"Hot, hot, hot." He breathes while waving his hand in front of his mouth. I laugh at his face, clutching my stomach as he starts to bounce on the balls of his feet.
He finally calms down as does my laughter.
"Are you okay now?" I ask between breaths.
"Yeah." He chokes out and another fit of giggles escape my lips.
"You think this is funny?"
"Yes." I say without hesitation.
"That's mean."
"Well I'm sorry, but you should've known better. I just put that piece on the spoon and you just take it. Why couldn't you wait a few minutes?"
"...I got excited." He says shyly.
"Excited?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Yes. You made the food so I knew that it'd taste good." Heat begins to cover my cheeks at his statement.
"Thank you... but you still should've waited for it to cool down. Everyone knows that." He sticks his tongue at me and I do the same.
"So onto the topic of why I actually came here," He starts, "What are we going to do to get Danny to take a shower?"
I think for a moment, "A tiny food fight?" I suggest.
"Good idea, but everyone will need to get dirty or it'll look rigged."
"Alright. Now go back to the living room or they'll suspect something." He nods and goes back.
Probably five minutes pass by when I call everyone to the kitchen. I tell them to get their own plate-bowl and leave it on the counter. After they're all filled, they grab them and sit at the table.
"This is so good." Danny says.
"Thank you."
"So you invited us over just for food?" Becca asks.
"Okay, I'm sorry. Next time I make food I won't tell you, you'll have to buy your own food." I tell her.
Her eyes widen, "Okay I'm sorry. Thank you for letting us eat your food."
I roll my eyes at her and smile, "You're welcome."
As we continue to eat, I peek at Jacob and nod my head, signaling him to start. He takes the hint and flicks some sauce at Danny. He in return gapes at Jacob.
"What was that for?" He asks while wiping it off his face.
"I was bored." He replies and I snort.
Food is thrown at me and Becca is to blame. I toss a piece at her and she throws some at Jacob. I throw some at Danny, aiming for his hair and I accomplish that. We continue to throw food until I tell them to stop once we're all dirty enough to take a shower.
"We are so childish." Becca says.
"It's part of the fun, babe." Danny says as he pecks her forehead, cringing when he gets a taste of something weird.
"Okay so we all need to take a shower. Becca you can take mines, Danny take the one in the guest room that you last slept in, Jacob take the one in my mom's room."
They all do as I say and I make sure that her 'present' is still perfectly intact. I actually didn't get too dirty so I put my hair up in a messy bun. I'll just take a shower after Becca's reaction. Jacob comes down first.
"Could you tell who is most likely going to finish first?" I ask him.
"No but I do know that Danny takes long ass showers so I think we're good."
"Okay." I sigh.
We both begin clean up the kitchen. As we finish it up, Becca comes down with some clothes that I let her borrow and her hair in a bun.
"You feel better now?" I snigger.
"As a matter of fact I do, thank you for asking."
"Well good because Danny gave me something to give you."
"Really?" She asks, "But why didn't he give it to me himself?"
"He didn't know if you'd like it or not." Jacob says.
"Oh." She says, "Well can I have it now?" She asks excitedly.
"Sure." I smile. I go to the cabinet where I put it and take it out of the pot.
"Why is it there?" She asks.
"He didn't want you to find it too early." She nods understandingly.
I place it in her hands and she eagerly rips off all the wrapping. She takes off the lid and a shrill scream leaves her lips. She throws the box away from her and jumps in places. Jacob and I start to laugh.
"Ew, ew, ew." She screeches, shuddering every other second.
Danny suddenly comes charging into the room with only his boxers. That furthers our laughing and I have to lean against the table for fear of losing my balance.
"Why are you screaming? What's wrong?" He asks frantically, checking all over her body.
If I wasn't doubling over in laughter, I would have gushed at his concern for her. A few minutes pass before our laughter dies down and Becca has calmed down.
"Why would you do that?" She yells, smacking Danny in the chest, seemingly oblivious to his lack of clothing.
"Ow, what did I do?"
"The box of cockroaches."
"I didn't give you a box of bugs. Why would I?"
"Well Serena said–" She turns to me with a sinister glare.
"Hello." I say innocently, coughing as giggles threaten to leak from my lips.
"You!" She runs over to me and I yelp.
We run around the kitchen and into the living room.
"Why did you do that?" She asks as we circle around the coffee table.
"Payback."
"For what?"
"Pranking me."
"Huh?" She relaxes and stops.
"All those pranks you did to me."
"Oh." She says in acknowledgement, "But what about Danny? He helped me."
"Oh I've got that covered." I say vaguely. She tilts her head just as Danny screams-
"Holy f*cking sh*t! Son of a b*tch! F*ck!"
Becca's eyes widen I begin chuckling. Both of us follow the sound of his yelling. The sound leads us to the bathroom in the hall. Jacob's laughter is soon heard.
"Danny?" Becca asks.
He walks out of the room and that has me laughing up a storm. His hair... is blond. Oh dear Lord. Becca chokes on air before laughing her butt off. Jacob is now leaning against the wall because of all the laughing he's doing.
"It's not funny." He growls.
"Oh babe," Becca says while chuckling, "You look amazing."
He glares at her and that makes me laugh harder.
"Dude, blond is not your color." I say.
"This isn't fair," He starts, "Becca only got scared by bugs and I have to deal with yellow hair."
"Relax you big baby. I have your natural hair color dye." Jacob says.
"Thank God." He groans.
Danny goes into the bathroom and Becca takes it upon herself to fix his hair. Both Jacob and I continue to laugh.
"Did you get a picture?" I ask. Please tell me he did.
"Of course I did. I'll need it incase he does something."
"Send it to me?"
"Sure." Wonderful. Now I have embarrassing pictures of both guys. Now I only need Becca.
I go into my room, intent on taking a shower, and Jacob follows me.
"Woah, what are you doing?" I place my hand on his chest to stop his movement.
"I've been in your room before."
"Yeah but not when I'm going to shower."
He gets a gleam in his eyes, "Can I join you? I may have not done a good job on my own in my previous shower."
"Go away."
"You sure you want that? We could have some fun." He winks.
I close my eyes while taking a deep breath, "No."
"Alright fine." He raises his hands in surrender before walking out.
I huff before getting the clothes I'll need for after I've taken a shower. Walking into the bathroom. I strip.
Once I've finished changing after cleaning all the food off, I walk back into my room and put the dirty clothes in the hamper. I turn around and shriek. Jacob is just lounging on my bed, eating some skittles and playing on his phone.
"What are you still doing here? I told you to leave. What if I was naked?"
"Then I would have gotten one hell of a view." He smirks.
"Why are you here?"
"I like your bed."
"Well then how did you find my secret candy stash?"
"Yeah, some secret stash." He snorts, "You call putting candy in a pot under some flowers in the hallway a secret stash?"
"Oh!" Well never mind, "That was my mom's secret stash." Mine is still unknown. Good.
"Wait. You have your own secret stash somewhere else?" He gets off the bed and walks closer to me, bag of candy still in hand.
"Yep."
"Damn. Does your mom know where it is?"
"Nope." I say cheekily, "No one knows where mine is, and I'd like to keep it that way."
"I'll find your secret stash." He says determinedly as he chews on some more skittles.
"Good luck with that."
"Do you doubt me?"
"Yes."
"Don't underestimate me, princessa. I'll find your most treasured secret... and I won't stop till I do."
He walks closer to me and his eyes give away some deeper meaning of his sentence. My heart beats erratically in my chest as our bodies come closer, as he eliminates all the empty space between us. My eyes flicker to his lips, he does the same to mine. I lick my lips out of nervous habit and he follows that action, his eyes darkening by the moment and his muscles tensing.
Oh goodness gracious. Please for the love of all that is cheesy, please let this be our first kiss. His face comes closer to mine and I tilt my own up. His hands come up to my hips under my shirt and my body shudders at the feeling of his heated hands on my bare skin. I gingerly lift my hands to his chest and he visibly shivers, I grin at the affect I have on him. His lips meet mine for the briefest of a second before my door is slammed open and both Becca and a newly brunet Danny walks in.
We jump away from each other and I am so close to throttling the both of those interrupters. Jacob clenches his fists before letting a deep breath out and relaxing. I count to ten in my mind, three times.
"His hair looks like the prank never happened." Becca says proudly.
"Yeah, but I like the blond on you better." Jacob teases. I laugh, trying to act like I'm not mad at them in the slightest.
"F*ck off." Danny says.
Becca looks at her phone briefly before pouting.
"Well that's my dad," She says, "Matt did something stupid and I need to be good cop. See you guys tomorrow." Ugh, school.
She grabs Danny by the collar and drags him out of my room.
"Ow," He whines, "Why do I have to go?"
"Do you want to be third wheeling? And you're my ride anyways, you doofus!"
"Oh yeah." I chuckle at Danny's forgetfulness.
They both leave the house and I turn to Jacob who is now back on my bed, this time munching on some kit kat.
"Seriously?" I ask.
"Yep."
I roll my eyes at him. "Don't you have to get back home?"
"Yeah, but not for a little while. I still have time to annoy you."
"Thanks." I pan out.
"You're welcome." He smirks, "For how else would you entertain yourself?"
"A book, a movie, eating, sleeping, homework, etc."
"Okay damn. Drive a knife through my heart, why don't you?" He grumbles.
I laugh at him, "Your mom is right, you are sensitive."
"Am not." He says defensively.
"Sure you're not."
"Don't make me tickle you." He warns and I stiffen.
"No thank you. No tickles please."
"Then tell me that I'm not sensitive."
"But it's okay to be sensitive sometimes. If you weren't, you wouldn't be human."
"Yeah but... it's not... manly." He mutters. Oh poor thing.
I walk over to the bed and sit next to him, placing a hand on his cheek and rubbing his jaw.
"Having feelings is manly. It means you're proud and strong enough to show them, even when you don't want to."
He looks up at me and a new vulnerability is shown in his gorgeous hazel eyes.
"Are you okay?" I ask hesitantly.
"Yeah, I just–thank you, I guess." He lifts his body up and rests on his elbows.
"For what?" I try to move my hand away from his face and he holds it still. I continue to rub his jaw and he smiles.
"I... I'm going to tell you something I've only told Danny and Nick, okay?"
"Okay." My stomach flips at his words. What could he possibly be telling me.
"My dad, wasn't the best at his job as a father. He left when I was eight." He sighs uncomfortably before flopping down on the bed again.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I tell him gently.
"No. I want to tell you, I just–it's a little hard."
"Then tell me when you're absolutely ready." I rest my body next to him and begin to draw random patterns on his abdomen.
"I am. I know I am, but it's hard to get it out of my mouth."
"Take your time."
"... Well my dad couldn't hold a job for too long, we lived in a crappy apartment. My mom had two jobs and that wasn't enough because my dad kept buying booze and cigarettes. He always yelled at me for the tiniest of things. Remind you I was a kid. If I scraped my knee and shed one tear, he'd yell at me for not being a man. Splinters, paper cuts, bruises, other kinds of cuts, he would not allow me to cry and show weakness.
"I remember being at home and burning my hand because I touched the stove while it was on. My mom tried to comfort me but dad told her to leave me alone. He told me that I had to get over it since it was my fault for touching it. That's not something you tell your six year old kid. I was always in my room doing whatever because I was scared that my dad would yell at me. If my dad got a missed call from the school, he'd hit me, then later find out that it was for something I did good and not apologize.
"There's a difference between discipline and abuse. He thought he was on the right side, we all saw the real truth. I couldn't even go to school for weeks at a time because the bruises were in uncover-able places and very very noticeable. He chose who I hung out with, and no one was good enough. I had to deal with his 'friends' always parading around the house. Mom... she was always so uncomfortable when they were around. And mom knew about his... fun. I was so disgusted with him. He was basically bragging about his conquests, right in front of her." He finishes off with a sneer and my heart breaks.
I raise my head to look at him and my heart clenches further. His eyes are shut tightly as if in pain, his hand is fisted so tight that his knuckles are now white. I slowly lift my hand up and put it over his fist. His tensed body slowly unwinds and he lets out a deep breath.
"Thank you." He croaks.
I smile gently before intertwining our fingers, "You're welcome."
We lay in silence as he rubs my back and I play with his fingers. This is nice, just laying around quietly.
"Are you okay?" I ask after a while.
"Yeah, thank you. It was nice to get this off my chest."
"You're welcome. That was very brave of you."
"Brave? How?" He asks while tilting his head down to look at me.
"It's not an easy thing to talk about something like that."
"I know," He sighs, "I'm just glad I was able to tell you."
"You are? Why?"
"I don't know, it's just very easy to talk to you."
I smile gently before getting closer to him.
***********************************************
I planned to update sooner but Pinterest and Netflix distracted me. I hope that once school is over I'll update sooner and regularly.
Thank you to all who read my book and vote and comment. You guys are amazing and make me all.. idurhsksshdieowhdsjs.
That is more or less the noise I make when I get all happy and excited.
I hope that I will update the next chapter much quicker than I did this one. Until next time you guys.