-Chapter Thirty Two-

“Tell London that I am going to go to the party with you guys on Friday, and that I’ll be at your house soon so we can all talk about it. Then I can finally make a move on Jake ;)” 

I sighed heavily at Lily’s text message that she had sent me seconds ago. I didn’t bother replying―what could I say to that? She’s going to make her move on Jake?

I can’t even begin to explain how bad I feel about not telling Lily about me and Jake yet. If I were her, I wouldn’t want someone to tell me that the person that I’ve been in love with since forever was taken by the new girl. Would you like that? But, I don’t want her mooning over my boyfriend, either.

What if Jake likes Lily, though? And if he broke up with me to be with her? Then what?

 Gosh, Alex, shut up. Get these bad thoughts out of your head already! I told myself. Yeah, okay. Don’t jump to stupid conclusions. What’s the point in that, to make me feel even worse?

I turned over on the couch, slightly changing my position. My phone ‘dinged’ again, and I turned it on, reading the new message. It was from Jake this time.

“Hey, Alex. Mason’s on his way to go ask out Danielle ;) Don’t tell her.”

I smiled. Are you kidding me? I have to tell her now!

I looked over at her on the couch parallel from mine. On the couch she was lying on her back, her left leg was hanging over the side of the couch lazily, and her eyes were focused on her cell phone. A pair of old sweats covered her body; her hair was pulled back into an extremely loose ponytail. I would say she looks like crap, but she looks somewhat decent. . . Well, no. She’s wearing I-want-to-laze-around-the-house-all-day-and-do-nothing attire.

“Danielle, you should take out your hair,” I told her.

She gave me an odd look. “Why? Are we going to go see the President? If not, then I’m not doing. . . Well, anything really.”

“The President isn’t coming, but someone just as important in your world is coming over. Jake’s coming and Mason is tagging along this time.”

Gasping loudly, she widened her eyes a fraction. “I look like a pile of dog shit!” she exclaimed. “I have to go change. I’ll be right back.”

I smirked at her and decided to reply to Jake. It would be great to have him here right now, even if I did see him early this morning.

“Okay, I won’t tell her :) Can you come over too?”

He replied within the minute. “Sure. Be there in ten minutes.”

“Okay, see you soon, then.”

I attached my eyes to the television screen in front of me. It has been on for at least an hour and a half by now, but neither me nor Danielle were paying attention to it. It has simply become nothing more than mere background noise.

Minutes later, Danielle’s feet came padding into the room. I looked at her for a few seconds to take in her new appearance.

She was wearing a pair of dark, denim shorts and a white V-neck tee shirt. She deserves a cookie for this. I thought she was going to go all out―maybe wear some six inch heels and make her face closely resemble a clown’s with too much makeup.  But, nope! She actually looks casual.

“How do I look?” she questioned.

I smiled at her, “Better than you did earlier.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“No problem, bestie.” I winked at her and heard a pair of feet coming down the staircase.

London walked into the room. “Hey, ladies. I’m back!”

“Where did you go in the first place?”

“I was upstairs in Vicky’s closet dress fishing for the party. Why go buy a dress when there’s practically an entire fashion outlet upstairs?”

I smiled at her. “I did the same thing when I went on my date with Jake. And since we’re talking about the party, London told me that she’s decided that she’s going too. . . She’s planning to ‘make her move’ on Jake there.”

“Are you kidding me?” Danielle exclaimed.

I shook my head. “Negative.” Just then, three knocks sounded against the wooden, front door. Jake and Mason are here already? Wow.

The three of us walked up to greet them both. I looked through the peep hole on the door and frowned. It wasn’t Jake, or Mason for that matter. It was Lily.

Speak of the Devil, I thought. I opened the door to reveal a very cheery Lily.

“Hey!” she greeted us. “What’s going on?”

Oh, nothing, just talking about you, I thought.

“Nothing much,” London answered.

“Well, that’s nice, I guess. And London, I’m going to the party with you guys.”

“So I’ve heard,” London forced a smile. “And you’re planning to make a move on my lil’ bro. How’re you going to do that?”

“I don’t know, maybe I’ll ask him to dance with me. Is that a good idea?”

I thought it should be the other way around. . . I couldn’t stand hear and just listen to her ‘plan’. Just as if on cue, the doorbell rang.

I opened the door again and saw Mason standing there, on the front door step, with Jake standing behind him. “Hey, guys!” I sighed contently, silently thanking God that I was able to get out of the conversation. “Hey, Jake.”

“Hey, Alex,” Jake replied, smiling warmly at me. He came and stood next to me. I felt his arm snake around my waist, but I quickly shrugged it off, shaking my head. I looked up at his face, and he was clearly confused. I made a mental note to explain everything to him later, whenever I have a chance to do so. I couldn’t let Lily see us together.

Everyone went their separate ways in the mansion.

Lily and London went back to exploring the hidden depths of Vicky’s closet. Danielle and Mason went to Danielle’s bedroom for some privacy. Jake and I went to the living room.

Basically, it was just us six here alone by ourselves. Vicky and Matt had gone out on a date, and then they were going to some fancy hotel for the night. My parents took Peyton with them to go see our relatives―most of them lived in Fountain Valley and the surrounding cities.

I took a seat on the couch in the exact spot where I was sitting ten minutes ago. I moved my laptop to the coffee table so Jake could sit next to me.

“What was up with what you did back in the foyer?” Jake questioned.

“You see. . . Lily doesn’t exactly know about us yet.”

“And? Why don’t we just go tell her now, then?”

I lowered my voice to a whisper. I have to tell him now! Gosh, my life. This could only happen to me; out of seven billion other earthlings, why me? I do not like being murdered, and I never thought this is how I was going to die, by Lily killing me. Oh gosh. Well here goes nothing.

“Lily is in love with you.”

* * *

Rain, rain, go away. Please come back another day, I silently begged, vaguely remembering the nursery rhyme. This is the worst night of my life. It’s pouring―yes, I mean pouring―rain. It just won’t stop!

About an hour after I told Jake the Top Secret news about Lily, it started raining, and it just got worse with every passing minute. And my parents wouldn’t becoming home tonight due to extreme flooding a couple of miles away.

Danielle, being the amazing genius she is, decided to play Spin The Bottle. She was more than happy when she span and the bottle landed on Mason. Good for her. I still couldn’t wrap around my finger what went down in her bedroom earlier with the two of them.

It was now Lily’s turn, she was the second one to spin, since the game had only just begun. At first, the bottle was spinning at a good pace. . . Until it was nearing Jake and slowed down.

I spoke up and stopped the bottle before it could land on him. Sorry, I wouldn’t exactly enjoy watching Lily make-out with the guy had been dying to kiss all day long. “Okay, I think we’ve had enough of this game now,” I interjected.

Lily game me a confused look. I know she was going to be mad at me. She was oh-so-close to lip-locking with Jake.

“I think that may be a good idea,” London agreed. “I’m not in the mood, anyways. . . How ‘bout we watch a movie instead?”

“Sounds like a great idea!” Danielle said with a smile. Lily stared at the three of us girls, giving us a ‘what the heck’ kind of look. I shrugged it off. I really just wanted to have fun tonight and make the most of it.

“What movie are we going to watch?” Mason asked, standing up. I followed suit and stood up.

“Ooh! Let’s watch The Notebook!” London exclaimed. She sighed. “I love that movie.”

“Do you know how many times you’ve forced me to watch that movie?” Mason asked her.

“Yes. I also forced Jake. Now come on! Hurry, hurry!”

I laughed as the boys groaned. I wonder how many times she’s forced them to watch it! I’ve only seen it once, and I was asleep for the last thirty minutes. It’s not that the movie was boring; it’s just that I started the movie at one AM, so you can probably do the math now.

“I’m sitting next to you,” someone whispered in my ear. I jumped in fright, not yet realizing that it was Jake. I nodded, telling him ‘okay’. We all took the elevator down to the basement―the place where we could have surround sound in the mini movie theater.

The movie theater was a place where you would want to live. I know for a fact I could live in there, even if it meant living off of buttered popcorn and a variety of sodas.

There was a snack bar in the back of the small movie, where you could get any of the snacks and drinks you could possibly want, ranging from M&M’s to pretzel sticks, from sparkling water to Barq’s Root beer.  A total of twenty red, leather recliner sofa-chairs were spread neatly around the room in two rows. In my opinion, this was the best room in the house, other than Vicky’s closet, of course.

“I’ll go put the movie in,” I announced and made my way to the back room.

I turned on the light switch. In this room, there were book shelf-like things on all of the walls. Though these shelves weren’t filled with books, they were filled with DVDs and VHS tapes, neatly organized in alphabetical order. The Notebook wasn’t on any of the shelves, it was already next to the DVD player in its case.

After starting the movie and dimming the lights, I returned to the theater. Everyone was settled in. Jake had saved a seat for me. I thought Lily was going to snatch that opportunity out of my hands too, but instead, she sat two rows in front of us with London.

Jake tapped my thigh as I was reclining. “Yeah?” I whispered to him, making it loud enough for him to hear.

“In a few minutes, go to the basement’s main lounge area. I’ll meet you out there shortly after you go out.” Even in the dim lighting, I could see his heart-melting smile, which I automatically returned. Something about his smile just makes me want to smile back.

A few minutes passed. With a quick ‘I’ll be right back’ to everyone, I left, going to the main lounge area where there was the seventy inch HD TV. I sat on one of the paint-splattered couches and waited. Shortly after, Jake came out and joined me, sitting next to me.

“Jake, you cannot tell Lily that I told you her secret,” I told him.

“I know, I know, but I have to tell you something.”

“What do you have to tell me?”

“Believe me when I say this, I have been dying to kiss you all day long, Alex Turner,” he said.

The pit of my stomach began to stir, like it wanted to do a complete flip. I love that feeling. The corners of my lips curved upwards as I said, “And believe me when I say this, I’ve been dying to kiss you, too.”

I closed the space between us, letting my lips touch his soft ones. What kind of chapstick does he use? I thought. Shut it, Alex, I mentally scolded myself.

The kiss started off soft and light. I weaved my fingers into his light brown hair. One of his hands was on my neck, the other one was on my lower back, pulling me closer to him. It felt like he was the only other object on the earth to me, and I didn’t want to let go of him. Right now, this is where I wanted to be, in his arms, kissing him. I had to have him here; I had to be with him. It seemed as if all of the Lily drama had disappeared, like it just vaporized into thin air.

All of that drama was gone and put behind me, put behind us. . . And if I weren’t so involved in this kiss at the moment, I would’ve noticed that the drama was absolutely not gone, and that Jake and I had just started a lot more of it.

“What’s going on here?”

As all good things must eventually do, the kiss ended when I pulled back to look into her brown eyes. Her face was pale and it looked like she had just seen a ghost that had come out of the movie Paranormal Activity 4; it looked like she wanted to just fall to the ground and cry.

Lily, I’m so sorry.  

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