a/n:
•Happy thanksgiving!!! I'm grateful for all my amazing, wonderful readers.
11 - 27 - 2014
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~Mikayla's pov~
After thinking this, I swiped my phone from my back pocket and ran up the stairs to my room. Once in there, I kicked the door behind me closed with my foot and threw myself at my bed, already holding the phone to my ear and listening to the dial tone.
"Hey, Miki."
I wasted no time in telling her. "I have a problem," I said already looking around for a sweater.
"What happened?" she asked more seriously. I found the grey sweater I still had yet to give back to Jacob, at the foot of my bed. Then put the movies me and Jacob were supposed to watch in the large pocket. Looking down at myself I realized why I liked it so much. It was oversized making me feel comfortable, it was warmer than what you'd think, and it smelled like Jacob―even though he told me he barely ever wore it. I always liked the way Jacob smelled―whether I knew I liked him or not. He smelled like . . . I couldn't explain it, but there was a hint of cinnamon, and something else, I'm sure.
Zipping up the sweater, I answered, "I have to tell you this in person. Are you at your house?"
"Yeah, but Max is here with me." I halted in the middle of the staircase.
I shook my head even though she couldn't see me. "He can't hear."
Being my best friend, she understood without needing my reasons for coming over. "I'll have him go to the store when you get here, he bought his parents car." She paused. "Or we could just pick you up, Max'll drop us off at the house and then he can go to the store. I don't want you getting sick walking in the rain."
I sighed, heading back to my room just in case my father came from . . . wherever he was at. "Alright, but it's important," I informed before saying our goodbyes.
***
By the time Alyssa texted me she was a block away, I heard the engine of my father's beautiful car parking in the garage.
I panicked when I saw a car coming around the corner onto the lonely street I live on. The door joining the house to the garage slammed closed and I instantly knew he was at a bar drinking his life away. His uncoordinated footsteps bounced on the walls of the quiet house and I heard the bathroom door close, don't even ask how I know it was the bathroom door, when you live in a house for as long as you've been born, you know.
I groaned when I heard the honk outside. If my father comes out of the room while I was walking out of the house―the bathroom was right under the stairs and directly in front of the stairs was the front door―who knows what he might do.
'There's a chance that he's puking his guts out and won't even be out by the time you've left.'
I decided to take that risk and, with a deep breath, opened my bedroom door, my whole focus zeroed in on the wooden front door.
I made it down stairs with no interruptions.
I took the first step to my destination when I heard the faucet in the restroom start to run. Envisioning my escape being discovered by my father, he'd have this caught-off-guard expression because I'm rarely ever home when he is. This could go two ways: he'd get angry and take these menacing steps towards me that only he can make intimidating and no matter how fast I run he's always going to be close behind me, walking, like Micheal Myers and his victims. Or he's going to walk away and leave for what would seem like an eternity and when I think that he actually ran from home and things are really looking up for me he shows up in all his drunken glory; it wouldn't be the first time either. But, both lead up to same endings.
Shaking my head, I opened the door before me without a second thought. I released a sigh when I was on the other side of it and leaned against the door, because, victory is mine. And though I know it may sound ridiculous, I didn't care.
But my proud-self was short lived when I moved to begin walking and the door swung open revealing my father slightly leaning against the wall with his hand supporting his weight on the wall neighboring the door.
My eyes grew to the size of golf balls and I tried to secretly look over my shoulder at the car in my driveway waiting for me. Alyssa and Max were looking out the car window suspiciously, especially Alyssa, but I smiled at them to dismiss their faces. My father wouldn't do anything to me in public, drunk or not; but from the looks of it, the guy wasn't drunk. The usual signs that told me he was intoxicated weren't there, like the bloodshot eyes, slurred and incoherent mumbles under his breath, and the stagger in his step.
His eyes flicked to the awaiting couple, but I don't think he payed much mind to it. He nodded his head at me, as if to say 'hey you' because he was too nice to remember my name. "Where y'going?" he asked.
"Why would you care?" I questioned back.
Without so much of a pretend smile, like a real dad would do, he backed away and shut the door.
I don't see why he bothers to ask me, it's not like he cares.
"You ready?" Max asks once I was in the safety of the car and strapped in.
Smiling, I nodded and then we were backing out.
***
Max waved at us through the open window. "I'll be back in a while."
Alyssa rushed me in the house when he left and pushed me down on the couch and ran over to the other one facing mine. She got comfortable, knowing this was serious. "Okay, so what happened?"
I sighed but other than that nothing came out.
She looked at me expectantly. "Well on with it then. Max is going to be here in like ten minutes," she hurried.
Ten minutes was all I needed really.
I didn't know how to say it so I started from when we were watching The Sandlot, eating grapes and when Jacob asked for one I purposely missed his mouth and then we ended up tickling each other. Then I gushed to her about how we'd had gotten unexpectedly, physically close and how he held my cheek to help calm me down. Finally, my smile fell when I described how I felt when the people outside laughed and he pulled away and said he should leave, making me feel . . . empty.
"I like him," I ended and I heard Alyssa squeal in excitement.
"Like, like like?" During the time of my story she'd switched couches so she was sitting next to me when things became a little interesting to her.
I nodded mutely.
She threw her arms around my shoulders. "I'm so happy for you, I'm so happy for you!" she repeated over and over that I decided to tune it out because I wasn't exactly happy for myself. "It's about time you tw―"
"Why are you so happy?" I asked with bitterness in my voice. "Did you hear the last part? He left. He didn't want to talk to me, nor did he want to look at me, how can that be a good sign?"
"Gahh." She made a movement with her hands so they looked like they were cutting off the air in someone's throat, mine I'm guessing because she was so exasperated with me. "Don't you see? The fact that he was about to kiss you proves it. If he didn't want to, he wouldn't have stroked your cheek like you told me he did."
"He was probably lost in the moment?" I tried, my sentence coming out like a question.
Alyssa's words made my heart start fluttering and my stomach feel funny, but I didn't want any false hopes. "And even if he did want to, why would he stop?"
She eyed me like I was missing the big picture. "Because, the people who laughed ruined the moment."
I opened my mouth to argue, but the doorknob jiggled from the other side and I heard laughs. Five laughs to be exact.
Five familiar laughs from the boys who go by the name of Adam, Jesse, Max, Ethan, and Jacob, to be precise.
My eyes went wide.
The door slowly opened and the boys made their way in.
Like they were magnets, my eyes were glued to Jacob as he walked in, followed by Jesse. When I got the feeling his eyes were going to pass me, I looked away and went to greet the boys but still watched him from the corner of my eyes. My stomach dropped when Jacob didn't react to seeing me, like I did when I saw him. In fact, it looked like he didn't even see me, like I was nothing. I'd rather know I was being ignored that be nothing, at least I knew I was present in their mind.
"I found them at the store, can they stay for a while?" Max asked Alyssa and she nodded.
But then I felt like flying when Jacob's eyes snapped back to me, well not me, but what I was wearing. I looked down at my attire, in confusion. There was nothing out of the ordinary. I was wearing some blue skinny jeans, and a black long-sleeve with the gray sweater Jacob lent―Oh. It may have looked funny, after we almost kissed I wore his sweater, like I was desperate to be close to him in any way I could.
After my hug with Jesse, I decide to take it off when I saw Jacob still looking at the sweater, it was a little warm in here anyway. I slipped it from my arms after unzipping it, and hung it on the back of a chair. That seemed to get Jacob out of his daze because he shook his head and joined everyone on the couches.
"Here, I got you something," Max said and slapped a bag of Jolly Ranchers on my hand.
I smiled. Max already knew me so well. "Thanks." I made myself comfortable on the couch, tearing open the plastic bag and not a second later, Jesse hopped onto the spot next to mine.
He smiled cheekily at me. "You mind sharing that?"
I smiled back. "Yeah, I do mind." I giggled at the look he gave me when I threw one into my mouth. It was a green apple one, I knew green apple was his favorite.
He pouted and put his hands together in a pleading motion after he was done glaring at me.
"Fine." I dug in my bag. "Here." I plopped the grape flavored one in his outstretched hand.
He smiled widely before looking down at his hand and glaring at me again when he lifted his head back up.
"You're a bad friend, you know that?"
I shrugged. "It's not like I care," I shot back, smirking.
I laughed at the expression on his face because he wasn't expecting me to say that. He was probably thinking I'd take offense to it and give him a green apple one so he'd take his insult back and I could call myself a good friend.
I was going to give him one he wanted when he snatched the bag out of my hands and ran off to the kitchen.
"Jesse!" I yelled as I ran after him. "Give it back," I growled when I encountered him at the other side of the island in the middle of the kitchen. I mirrored his movements and he did the same to mine. Caught up in trying to get my candy back, I didn't notice Max walk into the room and head for the fridge. He put in some of the soda cans in so they can get cold when we wanted them, and then sneaked up behind Jesse, who still hadn't noticed him.
Careful to not let Jesse notice he was behind him, he seized my bag of candy. "I bought these for her, not you, with my money. You have your own."
I was actually glad Max helped me because I was actually planning on hopping over the island, I had my hands on it ready to push me up and everything. I could have fallen because I was just that unskilled.
Max tossed bag at me, careful with the candies because it was open. Smiling at him and saying my thanks, I turned to Jesse and gave him three green apple pieces. "There," I said when his face lit up and walked back to the living room.
Once on my seat I hopped off of it again when Ethan was complaining there wasn't anything to watch. "I brought movies!" I knew I'd end up staying at Alyssa's house more than I planned so I brought the movies I was supposed to watch with . . .
"Cool, let me see." Alyssa grabbed the movies from me to put them in the DVD player because no one else wanted to, or didn't know how. The thing was too complicated to work even Alyssa got frustrated with it sometimes. "Which one do you want to see first? There's Ride Along, World War Z, and Paranormal Activity," she asked looking at the movie titles.
We ended up taking a vote because we all wanted to see different movie. Me, Jesse, and Max voted for Paranormal, Jacob and Alyssa voted for World War Z, and Ethan and Adam wanted to see Ride Along. Paranormal obviously won in the end.
The raining and darkness outside seemed to only make the movie more intense, except for the funny parts, if anything they just lightened the atmosphere. But we always had to shush Alyssa when she would almost give out spoilers, because she already saw this movie when it came out in theaters.
When the movie was over Alyssa was off her seat in a second. "Who wants to see Ride Along?" she asked holding the case over her head.
Ethan and Adam raised their hands.
"World War Z?" Alyssa raised her hand after asking, along with Jacob.
"You guys have to vote, too!" Adam whined, referring to me, Jesse, and Max.
"I guess World War Z would be okay with me," Max said and Alyssa smiled at him. Cheater.
"I'm in the mood to laugh so, Ride Along." I shrugged and opened a Jolly Rancher.
Jesse stole one from me and I made a move to grab it back but he moved away from me. "Ride Along," he answered quickly before dropping the Jolly Rancher in his mouth because I was so close to taking it. I huffed.
Jacob and Alyssa groaned, but nonetheless Alyssa put in the winning movie.
I turned to Max. "Did you get any popcorn?" I asked. Maybe if Jesse had something to snack on he'd stop stealing my Jolly Ranchers, which he kept doing during the first movie we watched.
He nodded, not taking his eyes off the TV because of a preview. "There's three bags on the counter."
I pushed myself off the couch and made my way to the kitchen. Like Max had said, there were three popcorn bags sitting on the counter, next to the microwave. Pushing the buttons and closing the small door after placing the bag in there, my phone vibrated in my pocket.
Dropping the two other bags from my hands, I slipped my phone from my pocket and read the contact name, but it was unknown.
"Hello?" I asked.
"Mikayla, is this you?" they asked.
"Yeah." I laughed. "Annabelle?
She blew out a sigh. "Sorry, it's just I got a new phone and number after I moved schools so I lost yours, but I had an idea of what it was," she explained.
"Yeah, I've been needing to get your number back, too." The popping in the microwave stopped and I opened the door, pulling out the bag at the very corner so I wouldn't get burned then threw another one in before replying. "Is that all you needed?" I asked, pushing the same amount of time I did with the first bag of popcorn.
"No!" she said hurriedly like I was going to hang up. "Sorry," she apologized again and I knew she was blushing out of embarrassment. She was always a little quirky but it only made her that much more lovable.
"It's okay." I pushed myself on the counter because the bag still wasn't done yet and I still needed one more left, not to mention Annie could be very talkative when she wants to make sense, sometimes though she could make sense the first time but she'd think you wouldn't get it so she explained even more to the point where you didn't understand anymore.
"What's up with you hanging around Jacob now? I thought you loathed him." She was also a girl of gossip, well . . . she was a girl of many things.
I shook my head. "I never loathed him." Then more quietly when I glanced in the direction of the living room said, "I just didn't like the fact that he left me to be the lonely girl that I was." I shrugged. It was true, after me and Jacob stopped hanging out, I realized just how many friends I had. Close to zero. Yeah sure, there was Layla, but it'd have be the same case with Jacob and his new friends, I would not fit in and feel like an outcast with them. I couldn't go up to Annabelle because, at the time, we weren't as close as we are now. Good thing me and Alyssa started getting to know each other more and more or else I would have been a loner.
"Well, why were you talking to him? Because last time I promised myself and you I would never talk to him because of what he did to you, even though you didn't like my decision. And then today I break that promise because you told me you'd explain. So explain," she demanded.
So then I found myself telling the story of me and Jacob reuniting that day, the first time being when I told Alex in the hallways, stopping in the middle of it to repeat my actions with the popcorn and replace it with the, thankfully, last one and then continued on the part when I think I decided I trusted him all over again at the party, and how he held me till I fell asleep and how we woke to the boys taking pictures of us because we looked 'so cute'.
And like I suspected, when I was finished with the story, the first thing that came out of her mouth was, "Do you like him?"
I groaned. This would be my first time answering, 'yes, yes I do.'
She squealed like Alyssa had done once I admitted it.
"Wait, you're happy? Why?" I asked in confusion.
I could imagine her shrugging as she said, "Why not?"
"Because he was with the girl you despise? You decided you'd never trade words with Jacob with the horrible reason that he left me alone, and now you're in joy because I like that same guy now, but you're putting aside the fact that he was Kate's boyfriend, a better reason to not like him?"
She thought about it. "You can't deny Kate is gorgeous, any guy would be lucky to be with her. And Jacob said it himself, she deserved it. I think that's enough proof to me that he isn't as bad as I thought he was." She paused. "So when did you find out you like him?"
"Mmm . . . " I rounded off the hours in my head. "Like three hours ago or two hours after we saw you."
She stayed silent.
I laughed, I knew she wasn't expecting that. "Annabelle?"
She cleared her throat. "You're slow." She laughed. "Or maybe fast, because you and Aiden broke up on Monday. I still can't believe he cheated on you for that long, I honestly thought you guys would last a little bit longer after high school, and Kayla once said she wouldn't be surprised if she saw your guy's picture in the paper with the caption 'Soon to be Mikayla Woods' a couple years after we graduate."
I laughed at the caption she made. "Sure," I muttered and hopped off the counter the second I was sure the popcorn had stopped its popping.
I was about to say my farewell to her when she asked, "What made you know you like him?"
Trying to avoid the subject I replied, "Are you always going to be this much of a gossip queen?" I faked a laugh that I hoped sounded believable.
"Mikayla . . . "
I groaned, knowing I'm going to have to tell her. "Wealmostkissedbutwedidn'tandthenheleft," I said in a rush so I wouldn't torture myself with the replay in my mind. I face-palmed and groaned once again. "The party is going to be so awkward," I complained.
"You go to parties?" Annie didn't bother trying to hide her disbelief. "Since when?"
"Since last week," I answered. "Jacob practically forced me to go or else he wouldn't let me tutor him and today before all this happened, he invited me because he would've been all alone, but I don't know if I should go now, Jacob's avoiding me and the only reason why I agreed to go was to keep him company. He's probably going to find one of his friends there and then I'm going to be alone."
"Want me to go?"
I immediately shook my head. "I don't think that's going to be a good idea. And even if you did, we still made plans to go visit someone before the party."
"Why won't it be a good idea? I'd love to show all those people just because I moved schools doesn't mean they affected me. And about the whole Jacob thing―"
"What are you doing in here?"
I jumped at the voice and the sudden illuminated room. Ethan was standing in the entrance, his hand just leaving the light switch.
I lifted my phone to show him I was talking to someone. "Talking to a friend," I said dismissively.
He walked over to the spot where I had the ready-bags of popcorn waiting on the island next to where I was standing. "Well, if you don't mind, we want popcorn in there so," he grabbed all three bags without even wincing from the heat, "I'll be taking these." He started his way to the living room but stopped. "Who are you talking to?"
"Why is it important?" I don't know why, but I was being really sassy today.
He shrugged. "You missed the first thirty minutes of the movie and you're one of the people who voted for it."
"I think talking to Annabelle is more important," I let her name slip.
He furrowed his eyebrows. "Annabelle who?" He began walking towards me.
Already sensing what he was planning to do, I hid my phone behind my back and I heard a low "Mikayla?" come from my phone.
His eyes grew big. "You know Annabelle Cale?" And with that he was reaching behind me trying to steal my phone.
"Why is it so important to you?" I asked, almost toppling over the other side of the counter to get away from him.
"Can I talk to her real quick?" he asked.
"Why?" I asked suspiciously.
"I've met her before," he said and reached for my phone.
I held up a finger. "Stay here," I warned, I don't want to do running for something that was mine a third time.
He nodded. "Promise." He pulled the phone to his ear the second I handed it to him. "Annabelle?" he asked to confirm it was her. "It's me, Ethan." I looked at him weirdly, it was odd for him to be this excited about something. "Mikayla's right here." He furrowed his eyebrows again. "Jacob's one of my best friends, how can I not know Mikayla, even before they stated talking again he pointed her out to us one day and said --" he cut himself off when he seemed to remember I was in the room with him. Then he frowned. "You're going to the party tomorrow? Are you sure that's a good idea?" He paused as she said some stuff. "I don't want you --" It seemed she cut him off. "Fine," he sighed with defeat. "But if anyone tells you something, you come to me. In fact, don't leave my side," he ordered like an older brother. "I thought Mikayla was going to be with Jacob the whole night." His eyes flew to me briefly before looking back in front of him. "Fine," he said again, gruffly and handed the phone back to me. "Why aren't you going to be with Jacob at the party?"
"What made you think I was?"
He shrugged, a habit he had doing I noticed. "You guys have been going places everyday, I just thought . . . " he trailed off.
"That he invited me and promised not to leave my side?" I finished for him. "It was the opposite of that actually. He invited me because he didn't want to be alone because he figured Alyssa was going to be with Max if he went, you and Adam are probably going to be with some girls, And Jesse's going to try and make friends with Alex and her friends because he's worry they'd feel weird around us."
"Then . . . why don't you think you're going to keep him company now? At the party, I mean," he clarified.
I ran my hand through my hair and shook my head. "Something just . . . happened." I didn't feel like repeating the whole thing, and out of the five boys I feel like I know Ethan the least, honestly.
He laughed and clapped. "It's about time!" he announced to what I felt like was the whole neighborhood.
"Be quiet!" we heard from the living room.
"What do you mean?" I asked but he waved me off with a knowing smile.
"Nothing." And then he was walking back in to the living room to watch the movie.
I put the phone back to the side of my face. "You still there?" I asked and Ethan came back into the room and grabbed the popcorn he left on the table when he was talking to Annie.
"It's about time." I imagined her eyes roll.
"Whatever," I waved off. "How do you know Ethan?" I asked once he was out of the room.
"I'll make you a deal. I'll tell you and you let me go to this party with you. And if you think about it, you get two things out of this. You'll have me, not Jacob, to talk to because that would go awkwardly and you find out how me and Ethan know each other while I get to go to the party."
It wasn't that great of a deal, but I was dying to know why Ethan looked so anxious to speak with Annabelle.
"Okay," I agreed.
"I'll tell you at the party, I promise."
"Wait, how are you getting there?" I asked. "I think we're meeting up somewhere, but Jacob didn't say where because he's going to be driving."
"I could have Ethan pick me up. I'd take my car, but I wouldn't know where to go."
"What were you going to say about Jacob, before Ethan came in?" I asked because I got the feeling she was about to hang up.
"Oh yeah, well I say you suck it up, deal with it, and talk to him like nothing happened to show him he doesn't have an affect on you."
I felt like groaning. Again. "But then I'd be lying."
She scoffed. "He doesn't have to know that," she reasoned.
I nodded after a while, sucking in a breath as if to prepare myself even if I'm supposed to prep myslef tomorrow. It never hurt to get a head start.
"Alright."
"Cool but see you tomorrow, I have to go, my dad got pizza!" she exclaimed. It made sense, she'd do anything for a slice, it made me wonder how she weighed so little all the time. "Ciao." I heard the beep to indicate she hung up first.
Grabbing my bag of Jolly Ranchers off the counter, I started making my way back to the living room where everyone else was when I bumped into a gray clad chest.
I mentally rolled my eyes knowing it was Jacob because I somehow ended up taking in his appearance from head-to-toe when he was hovering over me on my couch. 'Suck it up, deal with it, and talk to him like nothing happened to show him he doesn't have an affect on you,' I repeated Annie's words in my head and shortened them down to: 'Suck it up, deal with it.'.
I forced on a smile. "Sorry."
He looked confused for a second, then a smile adorned his face -- if anything it was fake, you could just tell -- and he seemed uncomfortable even with the supposed smile he was sporting. "S'alight." And then he continued his venture to the fridge to grab a soda.
Good idea.
I turned to him. "Can you grab me one?" I may have come off collected on the outside, but I was the complete opposite on the inside. I felt like my heart had dropped down to my stomach and my stomach flutter above the level it was supposed to be scientifically located at and my breathing quickened.
"Yeah." He didn't look at me as he said this.
This was all coming along surprisingly easy. He tossed me a can and walked out without another word. I followed him and parted ways when I took my place next to Jesse.
***
"Bye," Adam waved after Ride Along and hugged me. "Wait, do you have a ride? I can take you."
I smiled in appreciation but shook my head. "No thanks, I'm getting one with Max because we live on the same street."
After saying bye to everyone else I saw the sweater hung on the back of the couch I was sitting on. Maybe it was a good idea to give it back to Jacob so I wouldn't be tempted to wear it.
"Ethan!" I called before he was out the door. He was going to catch a ride with Jacob so he wouldn't leave without Ethan.
"Yeah?" He turned to me.
I grasped the gray sweater and walked to him. "Can you give this back to Jacob? I've been needing to give it back to him."
He nodded. "Sure." He held out his hand for the sweater.
"Thanks."
There was a honk across the street, "Mikayla! Hurry up," Max hollered.
I rolled my eyes before walking to Alyssa and hugging her goodbye.
Once at the front doorsteps, I saw Ethan back away from the driver side of Jacob's car and run over to me. He gave me the gray sweater I'd given him to give to Jacob mere moments ago. He shrugged. "Jacob said you could keep it. You've used it more times than he had, something like that," he explained when he saw my perplexed expression. He then walked back to Jacob's car and hopped in.
I looked at the sweater grasped in my hand and was on my way to just throw it through the window of his car and walk away, my legs already moving, but his car wasn't at the end of the drive way anymore. Adam's pickup truck took his place as he waited for Jesse to fasten his seat belt.
There was a honk. "Mikayla, come on!" Max vociferated again.
"Shut up! I'm comin'."
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a/n:
•Vote & comment if you enjoyed this
•sorry if it was a bit boring
•i love you!❥