I woke up this morning to see Jade cuddled up to my chest. I feel relaxed and so blessed to wake up to this again. But as I glance over to the clock, I jolt a little from noticing that it was already a quarter past ten in the morning.
"Jade... Jade?" I shake her up, "It's almost eleven, you missed your morning work."
"Huh?" she sounds groggy and nuzzles her face into my chest, "Don't worry over it. I decided to skip work for today to be with you!" she says with her cute voice when she just wakes up. Her words make me flush in embarrassment though, and the fact that she just cuddled up to me was really making me feel all warm and fuzzy. Is this what it's like to feel butterflies?
Not knowing what to say as a comeback, I just let out an 'oh' and wrapped my arms around her body and immerse in the moment. I couldn't help it either, so I just gave her a deep kiss on the forehead.
Nothing can ruin this moment...
Moments later, Jade's phone rang. I just jinxed us. "Jade? Can you hear your phone ringing?" I chuckle at her still sticking close to me.
"Leave it. I'm not in the mood for other people today." she says with her eyes still closed, like she's sleep-talking.
"Not in the mood for other people today, eh?" I smirk, "So... You are in the mood for me?"
Jade then flinches from my words, and slowly opens her eyes to pout at me, "Somehow that didn't come out in the right way?"
"Oh, you were doing that on purpose!" the ringing finally stops, "Now that we're undisturbed, can I have a little fun with you?" I tease.
"Chris." Jade warns me with a pout, and I kiss her on the nose.
"But princess! Your pouty lips are so irresistible right now~!" the moment I point that out, Jade flushes into a bright pink color and shields her lips with her hands for me not to kiss them. "That won't work." I lick my lips then quickly give her a peck on the tip of her nose.
As I take away her hands and slowly come in to kiss her, her phone rings again, killing the mood. Pissed off, I yell, "Who the h*ll is so annoying today?!" Jade then calls me, noting me for my cursing, and I had to retort, "What?! They started it!" and she just giggles at me, which makes me laugh at myself too.
The call then ended as I was about to grab it, but it soon rang again. Without looking at the caller I.D. and not taking into account that this was Jade's phone, I answered the call, "WHAT?!?!!"
"Chris?!" the caller exclaims, "That's a very rude thing to do after you ignored my first two calls! Besides! This is Jade's cell!"
This voice!
"S-Sam?!" I exclaim, and Jade's eyes widened in shock.
"In the flesh baby~! Well, not really, cause I'm not in front of you."
"Hey! Don't forget us too!" I had to press the loud-speaker button so Jade can join in the call too.
"Mae?! Who else is there?!!" she sounded really excited.
"Jadey~! So nice to hear from you again after so long! Isaac and Victor are here as well."
"What about Jennifer and Laurence?" I ask.
"Laurence didn't want to be absent from school, he's a teacher in Texas. And Jenny and her husband are over at Guam because of an invite by a business partner." answers Samantha.
"Oh... That's a bummer." I quote, then ask, "Where are you guys?! What are you all doing together?!!"
"Hey dude!" chimes in Isaac, "We're actually in LA right now! Where do you wanna meet?"
"Let us come to your place Chris!" asks Victor.
"No way dude! You guys are just gonna mess the place up!"
"Chris!" Jade scolds me. Oops! Haha! "We'd love to have you guys over! Come as soon as you can!" Jade said through the speaker and told them the address with a bright smile on her face.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When the gang finally arrived at our apartment, we welcomed them with open arms. There was a lot of hugging from the girls' side and a lot of noogies from the guys' side. In short, there was a lot of love going on in the doorway area.
"I missed you guys so much~! Haven't seen you lot in three years!" beamed Jade as she was still hugging Mae and Sam.
"We missed you too Jade~!" answered Mae.
"Let's all chat in the living room." I said as I began to lead them there.
Isaac saw the painting of Jade in the corner, and he had to tell everyone, causing them to surround the painting. "Did you paint this Chris?" asked Mae.
"Nah... I had it painted for me as a gift for Jade on her birthday. I could've never made it turn out so realistic anyways."
"As if you could've ever draw anything so realistic anyways." Sam mumbled to the side.
"And what was that?" I asked in a monotone voice and expression.
"Oh, you heard nothing~!"
"I definitely heard something."
"Nope."
"Yup."
"Nu-uh~!"
"Yea-huh!"
"No."
"Ye-"
"O-kay~! That's enough of that!" Jade had to intervene, or else, that argument would never end. She then asked, "Did you guys come with your significant others? And where will you all stay while you're visiting here?"
"Can't we all stay here?" asked Sam with her so-called puppy dog eyes.
"Can't you see this place can't fit six people?" I had to retort.
"Chris you kill-joy!" pouted Sam.
"Yeah yeah, what else is new?"
Sam was about to give out her comeback, but Mae covered her mouth and spoke, "Sam, we didn't come here to have pointless arguments, now did we?"
Sam rolled her eyes then spoke up, "My husband's in Italy. I asked him if I could have a little reunion with my high school friends, and he gladly agreed. So, I wrangled up these guys to make my request more enjoyable."
"My husband's on a business trip in Singapore right now since three days ago, and I excused myself from my job to see you guys too! Oh! And me and Sam are staying in the classiest and closest hotel to your apartment." answered Mae.
"My wife's at home, back in Texas, and I asked permission to tag along. And me and Victor are gonna stay in the same hotel too, but probably a different floor, since Sam over here wants to choose the most exquisite suite." noted Isaac and Sam punches his arm, and Isaac complained after.
"My fiance's also back in Texas, and yeah, I asked permission too." said Victor.
"Fiance, huh? When's the wedding? Inviting us?" I chimed in.
Victor chuckled and answered, "Of course you guys would be invited! Just remember to invite us to your wedding as well!"
"Of course!" I boasted and then peeked over at Jade to see her blush, and I had to tease, "And as soon as we do, I'm rockin' our honeymoon!"
Jade blushed even more and gave me a hard push as she whined, "Chris you perverted dodo brain!"
"I see the nickname's are still there." commented Mae, "Even though I was the one who came up with calling Chris a 'dodo'." she laughed.
"You did, didn't you?" - Sam
"Okay... Enough with all that." called out Isaac, "First of all, where we goin' for lunch?"
We then ate lunch at a descent restaurant and walked around a park together just talking the afternoon away about almost anything we could think of, and I'd say Sam was still walking closer to me than she was to Jade. Mae was the closest one beside Jade and Victor to me. I see he still hasn't changed at all either.
In our gang, the only high school friends who got together were me and Jade; Isaac, Jenny, and Laurence are married to their college lovers; while Sam and Mae are married to their lovers who they met at work; and Victor is engaged to a woman whom he met at a book store, coincidentally she was borrowing the same book he was, where they started talking and meeting, until they eventually dated and are now engaged.
[Jade's P.O.V.]
We then stopped over at a cafe to talk about what we should do and where we should go to bond tomorrow. Then my phone vibrated for the nth time today. It was Luke again, I had been ignoring his texts and calls for the entire afternoon, so I texted him to call to settle things out.
When he called, I excused myself from the table to talk outside, "Sorry guys, I gotta take this. It's from work, and I have to notify them why I wasn't able to attend today and that I won't be attending tomorrow either."
Well, it is from work and I have to tell Luke why I couldn't attend and won't attend tomorrow, so that when anybody asks, he can answer for me. Besides, I bet he's very anxious now because of that scene yesterday.
They all responded with an okay, but Chris had a rather pained expression on his face. It's like he had an intuition that Luke was calling me. When I was outside, I answered the call, "Hello?"
"Jade... I deeply apologize for yesterday, I didn't expect things to turn out that way, and I just got caught up in the moment and wanted to cheer you up, and-"
"Shh... Shh... Lucky... Lucky... Calm down. It's alright, okay? What happened, happened. I get that you are sorry and all, and I forgive you. I just don't know how Chris will react once he sees you again. But I hope that he'll forgive you too."
"I doubt it. It's the second time he caught me doing unacceptable things to you, and I already accept him resenting me for it. But... How was today? You didn't notify me that you were skipping."
"Yeah..." I sigh through the line, "I spent the morning with Chris, and we also made up last night. In the afternoon, we're spending it with our old high school buddies who surprised us by coming here. They're also staying for a bit in LA too to have a 'bonding time' for old time's sake."
"Oh... I get ya. Just text me whenever you'll be back at work, okay?"
"Sure thing!"
"I apologize one last time. Bye Jadey. Have fun with your friends."
"Thanks Lucky, bye bye." after the call, I then began walking back to our table to listen in on what I've missed.
I do hope that Chris won't scare me anymore.
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Hey Guys!!!
The gang's back for a visit~! :3 I really wanted to bring them back, but I had difficulty where I wanted to add them in, and finally decided that this chapter was the best timing... :D
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