“Okay, you can do this, Libby. You can do this.” I mumbled to myself as I paced back and forth in my room. Yesterday, after the whole L word confession thingy, we kissed on the pier for quite a long time and then we came back home and acted as if everything was normal, like all we did was go to the store and buy some funfetti cake. I’m pretty sure Jackson told Ryder and Tommy, because he tells them everything like a best friend does with other best friends.

Which is why when we got home yesterday, I made sure that I talked to Holly. I didn’t tell her anything, but we did plan to go out for lunch today, just us two. She would have said no if Kale didn’t make plans with the guys, but he did so we’re going to lunch today. We were leaving in an hour, actually, and I was incredibly nervous. I was hardly okay with not telling her about hooking up with Jackson multiple times, but I can’t not tell my best friend that he dropped the L bomb. And I did too, really. That’s not something you can hide from your best friend, it just isn’t. I mean, he didn’t ask me to be his girlfriend or anything, but love is such a… dramatic word.

And I did love Jackson. I didn’t know it until yesterday while I was sitting on the pier and spilling my heart out to him, but I do. And whenever I thought about it, it brought a smile to my face. Not just a smile, a full blown grin. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt so happy and relieved and like everything was finally going right.

But I still had to tell Holly, and since we’re going to lunch, there’s really no way that she can escape me and the news that I bare. I don’t know how it’s going to go, but there might be a fight. Not like a fist throwing, physical fight because that would just never happen. But Holly could potentially get very mad and depending on what she says, I may get very mad and nothing will turn out okay.

As I paced frantically around my room to waste time, there was a knock on the door of my room.

“Come in.” I called, very shakily.

Ryder walked in the room slowly with a concerned frown on his face. “You okay?”

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

“Then what’s up with the pacing? And the dress.” Ryder asked. I looked down at my blue sundress, it was pretty and it matched my white sandals. I figured that I might as well look pretty today, since I was going out to lunch and everything. I even had my favorite necklace on- it was a rainbow cake, and I was using my best phone case, it was white and on the back it said “You’re my favorite human” on the back. I didn’t think any of this would make this lunch go any smoother, but it makes me feel better for some reason.

“Well, I’m going to lunch with Holly in a little bit.” I explained.

“Okay, you go to lunch with Holly a lot, don’t you?” He asked slowly, shutting my bedroom door and coming into the room completely.

“Well, yeah, I guess. But I know that you know what happened yesterday.” I told him, forcing my feet to stop moving and to do that, I sat down on the edge of my bed.

“Yeah, he told me.” Ryder admitted.

“I figured that.” I huffed. “Well, I’m going out to lunch with Holly to tell her… everything, I guess.”

“Why would you do that?” He asked me incredulously.

“Because best friends tell each other everything. I should have told her when all of this started during Tommy’s party, but I didn’t. And sneaking around to have sex is one thing, but that word. The L word, I can’t hide that from her. That’s huge. That’s huger than huge. You and Jackson are best friends and he told you everything from the start because he’s a good best friend, unlike me.”

“That doesn’t make you a shitty friend.” Ryder told me. “If Jackson was messing around with Andy, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t tell me.”

“That’s because if he was messing around with Andy, Tommy would like, murder him ruthlessly.” I muttered, rolling my eyes.

“Tommy or not, he wouldn’t tell me.” Ryder said. “Because it would be weird. Look, I’m not telling you not to tell her, I’m just saying that it’s okay to not tell her. I know you’re best friends and shit, but that doesn’t mean that you have to tell her everything.”

“Maybe not in guy world, but in girl world, you tell each other everything. We’ve told each other everything since elementary school and I’m not a good liar, I was not born to lie.”

“Well, it’s your decision. I’m going to go before I make you cry, because every time I talk to you, I seem to say the wrong thing and you end up crying. So I’ll see you later.”

“You don’t make me cry.” I defended.

He chuckled, but didn’t say anything else as he left the room and then I was alone again. Unable to sit still, I decided to venture outside of my room and found myself in the patio- the one that I came to with Brendon at the beginning of the summer. Oh, how simple things were back then. I miss Brendon. Not as in I miss him as a boyfriend, but I miss him as a friend. I haven’t talked to him all that much since we agreed on mutual avoiding, but I didn’t like that anymore. Now, I think it’s obvious that I’ve completely moved on, and I wanted to talk to him again. Right now, though, I just wanted to calm down and spend a few moments by myself.

“Libby?” Jackson’s voice piped as he walked into the room. I was sitting on the couch that faced the door so I saw him walk in.

I gave him a faint smile, I haven’t talked to him since we got back to the house yesterday, so I don’t know what was running through his beautiful head right now and that made me even more nervous. “Hi.”

“What are you doing in here?” He asked in confusion, walking into the room and sitting beside me on the small couch.

I shrugged. “Thinking, I guess. And trying to calm down.”

“If you want, I can go with you to talk to Holly.” He offered.

“I thought you said that it’d be weird.” I chuckled.

“Oh, it would be.” He agreed. “Really uncomfortable and weird, but if you really want me to, I will.”

“No,” I laughed. “It’s okay. We’re best friends, we’ll work things out no matter how bad she takes it.”

“What are you going to tell her?” He asked curiously.

I shrugged. “I’m going to tell her what happened at Tommy’s party. Well, the rated G version of it.”

Jackson smirked. “There’s a rated G version?”

I rolled my eyes and blushed profusely. “Okay, well I’ll at least try for PG-13. Anyway, after I tell her that, I’ll briefly explain what’s happened since then and then I’ll finish it off with the events of yesterday.”

“That’s a lot.” He admitted.

“I know.” I breathed. “But who knows? She might not even be mad, she could be happy that I’m over Brendon. After all, that’s what she wanted at the beginning of the summer.”

“That’s one possibility.” He humored me. “And while you’re at it, you might as well tell her one last thing.”

“What’s that?” I asked, frowning in confusion.

Instead of answering me, Jackson leaned down, placing his lips on mine. It was a soft kiss, but it still sent those butterflies into my stomach. That was only the second time that I’ve ever kissed him without it leading to something dirty, the other time being at the pier yesterday. “You can tell her that we’re together.” He murmured against my lips.

“Together?” I squeaked.

“Yeah.” He laughed. “Like boyfriend and girlfriend. If that’s what you want.”

“Is that what you want?” I asked in a high pitched- incredibly shocked voice.

“Why wouldn’t that be what I want?” He laughed incredulously.

“Well, I don’t know. It could be that you’ve hooked up with Victoria Secret Angles like Barbara Palvin, Adriana Lima, Candice Swanepoel, Miranda Kerr, and there’s a lot more. The point is, I guess is that… I’m not them.” I ranted softly.

“Okay, well for the record, I have never slept with any of the people that you named off. And it’s been a really long time since I’ve had a one night stand at all. And I know you’re not them. You’re Libby, that’s why I love you. That’s why I want to be with you.”

“But you can get anybody that you want.” I croaked.

“And I want you.” He insisted, cupping my face in his hands before pressing his lips to mine for one soft kiss. “So is that a yes?”

I nodded and tried to remind myself how to breathe. “Y-yeah.”

“Good.” He grinned. “Then let me take you out. Like on a date.”

“Really?” I squeaked.

“Yeah.” He said with a small smile. “I mean, it won’t be that great, but when we get back to America, I’ll take you on a real first date.”

I didn’t say anything, mostly because my air passages felt like they had closed up on me and breathing just wasn’t in my instincts anymore. I really had to think about it to get air through to my lungs.

“Are you okay?” Jackson asked worriedly.

“Sorry.” I croaked. “I just momentarily forgot how to breathe, I’m good now. I’m good. I’m great.”

This made him smirk and laugh at the same time and he had such a pretty laugh- I’d never thought of his laugh as pretty, but it really was. “You should go find Holly, it’s about time for you guys to leave, I think.”

“Yeah, I guess I should go do that.” I mumbled, not standing up. I didn’t want to leave- this moment was so perfect, I didn’t want it to end.

Jackson gripped my waist and pushed me to my feet. “Go, I’ll be here when you get back.” He assured me, standing up as well and giving me a short kiss on the lips- because, you know, that’s what couples do, and we were a couple- before leading me out of the door. I started walking away from him to go find Holly when I realized that I wanted to kiss him again because kissing him felt so nice. So I turned around and ran back towards Jackson, placing my lips on his for another kiss, yet this one wasn’t so innocent. There was tongues and hands but when I let out a soft moan, Jackson pulled away.

“I’ll go now. For real this time.” I said, sheepishly, hurrying back down the hallway to find Holly.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“This is nice.” Holly commented as we were sitting down in the small restaurant just up the street from the house. Neither of us knew our way around town, so we couldn’t go far.

I smiled genuinely. “Yeah, this is nice.” I agreed, and it was. We’d been having a really good lunch- talking about things that I haven’t talked about in a long time. I was still nervous because I had yet to tell Holly anything about me and Jackson.

Me and Jackson. That sounded so pretty, even in my mind. And, despite my total and utter fear about telling Holly what I had to tell her, I was actually a bit excited, because I haven’t been able to tell anybody anything about what’s been going on, so maybe after Holly cools down from the news, she’ll let me tell her and we can happy dance around my room and she can help me get dressed for dates and stuff like that. I really hope she isn’t too mad after I break it to her.

“Holly, I need to tell you about something.” I muttered softly just as the waiter walked up to our table with our lunch- I got a hamburger and Holly got a grilled cheese sandwich.

“Is it about your new boyfriend?” She giggled.

“What?” I shrieked. How did she know? It hasn’t even been an hour!

“Oh, please, I can tell by your face.” She said, rolling her eyes. “You can’t hide anything from me, Libby Cross.”

“Yeah.” I sighed, incredibly relieved that she was so calm about the news. I was expecting at least a little bit of a freak out or something. “But that’s not what I need to tell you.”

“Oh, okay. But for the record, you and Damon will make the cutest couple.” She cooed.

“Wait, Damon?” I echoed. This happened last time too, but this time I have to set the record straight.

“Yeah, you’re boyfriend.” She put unneeded emphasis on the word boyfriend. “So, how did he ask you out?” She grinned excitedly.

“Holly, it’s not Da-“

“You have to tell me.” She said smugly. “I’m your best friend, I need to know everything.”

“I’m trying to tell you everything.” I whined quietly.

“Good, then spill.” She chirped.

I sighed heavily, leaning back in my chair- why is this so hard? “Well, we were at the pier, and then I was upset about something and then I was walking away and he yelled ‘I love you’ and then he said some stuff and then I said ‘I love you too’ and then we kissed and that was it.”

“Love?!” Holly shrieked, causing me to laugh. “That’s so cute! Did he actually ask you out, though?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. “The next day, he asked me and I said yes, obviously.”

“When’s your first date?!” She asked excitedly.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure, but Holly you have to listen to me, I’m not talking about-“

“You’re not sure?” She scoffed. “Didn’t he say? We’re leaving in a month, you don’t have much time!”

I sighed in frustration- this girl just does not listen, especially when she’s excited about something. “No, we have way more than a month.” At least, I really hope we do.

“Oh, so you’re going to try the long distance relationship again? I mean, that’s cute and all, but you should have a boyfriend who’s right there with you, that’s just my opinion, of course.”

“That’s what I’m doing.” I muttered.

“Is he moving to America?!” Holly squealed. “Oh, that’s so cute! This is definitely true love.”

“No, he lives in America, it’s not-“

“This is like… cuter than the notebook.” She sighed contently.

“Can you just listen to me for like two seconds?” I asked with a pleading look.

“Okay.” She said with a small smile. “Yeah, I’m listening.”

“Thank you.” I sighed, ready to tell her, finally. “But before I tell you, you have to promise you won’t like, freak out, please?”

She nodded. “Okay… I won’t freak out.”

“Good, now I just want you to know that I really like him. No, actually, I love him and I didn’t know until the beginning of the summer at Tommy’s party, but now I know and I think he’s just amazing and when we kiss it’s like the best thing in the world and I love him, Holly. I really love him and it makes no sense at all. Like, I don’t understand it, but I don’t have to because I just know that it’s… right.”

Holly grinned at me before she frowned, looking at something over my shoulder. “It’s Jackson.”

“What?!” I squeaked.

“Yeah, what’s he doing here?” She asked, motioning to something behind me. I spun around to look at the door and saw Jackson, Ryder, and Tommy walking in the door.

“Oh, come on!” I grunted, throwing my face into my palms. Was the world against me telling her this or was it just not my day? Or month. Or summer.

“Hey, we didn’t know you’d be here.” Ryder chirped, walking up to us.

“Yeah, well here we are.” I mumbled.

“Are we interrupting?” Jackson asked, looking at me.

I nodded and was about to say yes when Holly spoke first. “No, I guess not.”

“Well, I was just about to tell Holly that-“

“Libby has a boyfriend!” Holly squealed. “I’m sorry if you wanted to tell them, but I couldn’t help it, this is so exciting!”

“Really?” Ryder gasped, causing Jackson to subtly smack his shoulder.

“And who is it?” Tommy asked curiously.

“Damon, our Australian neighbor.” She told them.

“Really, Damon?” Jackson asked amusedly, causing me to blush.

“Yes, and she told me the story of how he asked her out. Do you want to tell them or should I?” Holly squealed.

“You go ahead.” I muttered softly, just giving up on telling her anytime soon. Why was this so impossible?!

“Yeah, we’d love to hear the story.” Ryder smirked and I rolled my eyes. I know that all three of them knew what was happening and Holly just looked ridiculous and multiple times while she was telling the story about the pier, I tried to interrupt her to tell her the truth, but she wasn’t having any of it at all and I grew tired of it so I just gave up. If she didn’t want to hear it then fine. I know that she was just happy for me, but she really needed to learn how to be quiet every once in a while. “And it was absolutely the best day of her life.” Holly finished with.

“I didn’t say that.” I objected, my face burning a bright red.

“But it’s true, isn’t it?” Holly asked me and then all eyes were on me.

“Um… well I guess so.” I admitted softly.

“That’s just the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.” Ryder cooed, causing me to glare at him- in fact, everybody at the table except for Holly was glaring at him.

I just wanted to leave this restaurant. I give up on telling Holly about me and Jackson. I give up on trying to even have a simple lunch without something going wrong. I just… I give up.

“I’m not feeling to well.” I spoke. “I think I’ll just go back to the house now.”

“But we just got here.” Holly whined.

“I know.” I sighed. “But we’re going to the movies with Taylor this weekend, we’ll spend time together then.” I promised her.

She smiled and nodded. “Okay, I guess so. Go on and get home so you can feel better.”

“I’ll drive you and then you guys can take the other car.” Jackson piped.

I was just planning on walking back, but driving sounded even better. And it’s even better that it’s with him, giving us some time alone.

“Okay, I’ll see you back at the house.” Holly said her goodbyes and Tommy and Ryder waved a goodbye, but I could see their I-know-what-you’re-about-to-do smirks. I mean, who said we were going to do anything except for drive home? It’s not like nobody was at the house, Andy, Kale, Isaac, and the twins should still be at the house.

I stood up from my chair along with Jackson and we walked out the door and silently into the SUV that was parked right outside the entrance.

“That girl is so infuriating sometimes.” I groaned, leaning back in the seat.

“What happened?” He asked. “I mean, I figure you’d tell me if Damon asked you out… the exact way that I did, it kind of takes away from the originality of it, don’t you think?”

“This isn’t funny.” I said, but I couldn’t hold back a small laugh.

“It’s a little funny.” He laughed, pulling out of the parking lot.

“Okay,” I appeased him. “But only this much.” I said, pinching my fingers together to symbolize a small amount.

He slipped his hand onto my thigh nonchalantly, but it was very noticeable to me because it sped my heart rate up to a billion and two. “So what exactly happened?”

I relayed the whole conversation to Jackson as quickly as I could even though my mind was really focused on his hand on my thigh.

When we got back to the house, we didn’t see anybody else as I forced him to come with me to my room so that I could continue to rant about the failed lunch.

“I mean, I thought that it was fool proof, how can she ruin a plan like that? Go to lunch, tell my best friend the truth and be done with it. It’s that simple, but she just makes it so hard.” I continued to rant inside of my room, kicking my shoes off in the corner and flopping onto the bed. “It’s so infuriating and now I just have no idea what to do. I mean, I have to tell her. I have to. But I don’t know how, and I-“ I stopped talking with my voice got caught in my throat, due to the fact that Jackson sat right beside me on the bed and his hand was back on my thigh like it was in the car, only this time, he wasn’t trying to be nonchalant and he knew what it was doing to me. “Jackson, I’m trying to rant here.” I scolded him.

“Sorry.” He laughed, leaning forward and placing his lips on mine. Man, that still felt so good, kissing him. Damn his soft lips. Damn them to hell. “Please, continue. I love to hear you rant.” But he didn’t move his hand, well he did, but not in the right direction, because it was going higher up my thigh, moving the fabric of my dress, and not down like I’d wanted. Well, kinda wanted but not really because he was driving me crazy.

“We’re not alone, people are in the house.” I whispered to him, knowing that we couldn’t possibly do this when we had no idea where Isaac or anybody else were in the house.

“Just be quiet.” He murmured, pressing his lips to my neck. “They’ll never know.”

“You’re insane.” I huffed, but I knew this was a losing battle. He’s very attractive and we haven’t done it as boyfriend and girlfriend yet, considering he only asked me out this morning.

“Well, I can be, but you just said that we need to be quiet.” He murmured against my neck, causing me to laugh before pulling his lips to mine and finally succumbing to the powers that Jackson Thorne held over me.

So unfair.

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I updated my website (writerbug44.weebly.com) and there's a poll where you can go vote for your favorite characters/couples :D

The cover to the side was made by SweetNothingxoxo <3

Also, there will be 30 chapters, they are all written and ready to go, so 30 is the official count of chapters (: