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𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗠𝗘

CHAPTER ELEVEN
darling, you're the one I want

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IMESSAGE GROUP CHAT

the idiot (ft. the idiots, not you tina)
mjane [ mary jane ]
tina 💞 [ tina ]
kdawg [ karl ]
no lan [ nolan ]

mjane
so am I stupid
or what

kdawg
yeah

mjane
I didn't even say
what I was stupid
about

kdawg
oh
whoopsies

tina 💞
you're not stupid
>:(

mjane
sure does feel like
it

no lan
would you like to
share with the class
we really can't
help you if you don't
tell us anything

tina 💞
YEAH
tell us what's wrong
sweetie

kdawg
how about we don't
listen to her and just
let her suffer

tina 💞
KARL NO.

mjane
karl I swear to god
I'm going to drop
kick you across the
state of north carolina

kdawg
I was joking
love you mj <3
now tell us what's
wrong

no lan
WAIT HOLD ON
LET ME SIT DOWN
okay I'm sitting
what's going on

mjane
how long has
luna liked noah
and how long has
noah liked luna
read at 6:08 pm

mjane
guys seriously
come on
we need to get
real here
and don't lie to
me
that's literally the
last thing I need

no lan
doesn't this seem
like a conversation
you need to have
with them and not
us

kdawg
I second that

mjane
please
come on
I have to know
I realized things
last night when
luna came back
crying
and nolan weren't
you just excited to
hear the tea

no lan
I plead the fifth

tina 💞
without saying
too much, I think it
was obvious from
pretty much the
beginning that it
was something
there

mjane
oh so it's just a
me being stupid
thing
cool
love that for me

no lan
to be fair I don't
think foolish has
realized it yet

kdawg
yeah he doesn't
know
but WE know

mjane
and lunes?
was it from the
beginning?

kdawg
congrats mj!
you got it!

tina 💞
KARL
ENOUGH

mjane
so you're telling
me luna has liked
noah this ENTIRE
time and kept quiet
about it?
why didn't she yell
and scream at me?

no lan
because she wanted
you to be happy
that's all she's ever
wanted actually
she's kept quiet this
long even after you've
broken up because
she doesn't want to
hurt you

mjane
oh my god
my sweet girl
brb literally gonna
go SOB

kdawg
I love when the
truth gets revealed

tina 💞
I don't think karl
should have phone
privileges anymore

kdawg
WAIT NO

no lan
mj?
you okay?

mjane
I'm fine
I just wish I had
realized everything
earlier
maybe then we
wouldn't have been
stuck here

kdawg
so the real question
is
what now

mjane
idk
my head's kind
of going crazy rn
I need some time
to think

tina 💞
now go stand in
the corner and think
about what you did!!!

kdawg
tina I don't think
better than revenge is
the best song to be
quoting in this situation

tina 💞
OH MY GOD
MY BAD
MJ I DIDN'T MEAN IT

mjane
don't sweat it tina
thank you guys for
your help <3

no lan
I just realized the
gc name called us
all idiots

kdawg
and you're really
showing us why nolan
thank you

no lan
HEY

＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊

REAL LIFE

MARY JANE BROOKS had been Noah Brown's first girlfriend.

Sure, over the years, he had kissed a few girls here and there, and may have admittedly done something more than kissing on a beach during sunrise, but it had never moved into the official stage. It was always just something casual, and even though he ached to have something more long-term, he went along with it.

When he came to North Carolina, his life got switched upside down.

Even though he did see Luna first due to her window being directly across from his, her best friend was what immediately caught his attention. Mary Jane was quick-witted, a girl who was pursuing her own dreams and was never afraid to put anyone in their place, including him. Foolish was struck by how her hair shone under the sunshine, how her lips were often painted a vibrant shade of red, how there was always a sarcastic remark on the tip of her tongue as a response to anything, how she absolutely refused to call him anything related to Foolish.

So, naturally, they started dating that August. Looking back on it now, Foolish can see how they rushed into things. The beginning of their relationship was marked by electricity — not so much fireworks, but the kind of buzzing that comes when somebody finds a person they absolutely vibe with. Noah felt something for Mary Jane, he definitely did. But as their relationship stretched on, and the arguments got more and more frequent, that something faded from romantic to strictly platonic, no longer wanting to be involved with someone he clashed with so much.

It had been a learning curve for the both of them. Their long civil conversation, as advised by Luna, forced them to toughen up and realize that this wasn't healthy. And so, Noah Brown's first girlfriend was no longer a girlfriend, and neither of them were sad. The air between the two had immediately brightened when they stepped back over to platonic from romantic, and as much as Foolish had thought his first breakup would hurt like an absolute bitch, it made him start to realize some things.

Foolish sat on his couch of the house he shared with Nolan, a stream pulled up on his TV to watch. The second he had seen she had gone live, he abandoned all of his plans to try and clean his bedroom and just sat, his eyes glued to the screen like it was the most interesting thing he could watch . . . which it was by the way.

And the stream he was watching was none other than the girl he classified as his best friend (even though Mary Jane would fight him on it), Miss Luna Hayes. She was in the middle of just talking to her chat, something that he knew she loved to do, something that he admired her for greatly. Actually, he admired practically everything about her.

Now, Luna . . . Luna, he was absolutely enchanted by. While Mary Jane stumbled into his life like a fucking hurricane, Luna came in the tailwind — nothing but the eye in the storm. Those two managed to balance each other out, just like Luna and Foolish balanced each other out. Foolish never felt as much peace with someone as he did with her, and Luna had never been so outgoing around anyone else besides Mary Jane.

They brought out the best in each other.

It was no secret that the two of them just clicked. From the second they had their first conversation, Foolish knew that this girl, the one who drew stars when she was anxious and practically always itched to strum a guitar or play the piano and made hair bows her thing, was going to be his friend whether she liked it or not. But judging it off the little giggles he got out of her every time he said something, he assumed that she did like being his friend.

At least he hoped she did, because being her friend was the greatest thing to come out of his streaming career, in his opinion.

Foolish hugged the pillow closer to him, tilting his head slightly at the screen in front of him as Luna reached back and adjusted the bow she had put in her hair — a purple one, to match the purple flowers on her shirt, he truly allowed himself to think for a second, the sound of her laugh fading to the back of his mind.

Ever since last night, when he had held a crying Luna in his arms and drew stars on her back to calm her down, Foolish couldn't quite get her out of his head. He means, sure, she probably always was. Wake up, talk to Luna through the window — eat lunch, remember how Luna only liked peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — stream, ask Luna to play with him sometime. But there was just something different about how Luna just practically sank into him for comfort. Maybe he had been reading into it all wrong, but it seemed to deliberate that she didn't say no and threw her arms around him without a second thought.

In the three months that he had known Luna — not just the face of Twitch or the girl rising in the music industry, but truly knew her, she always seemed so calm, so sweet, so happy. Yet last night when she saw her brother again, there was a tension in her body, a sharpness in her gaze, a melancholy that surrounded her aura. He had never seen her like that, and it really shocked him down to her core. Foolish had absolutely no idea how much pain was hiding behind the smile that could light up a whole town.

And he was trusting him with it. Luna honestly didn't have to tell him — or Karl and Nolan, for that matter — her past with her family. But Luna trusted him enough to let Mary Jane explain, and trusted him enough to see her in such a vulnerable state.

Foolish continued staring at Luna on the screen, who now had that beautiful smile on her face as she read a message, he felt his heart start to race against his chest and his stomach flutter with something that resembled . . . butterflies. He pushed his long hair back away from his face, and as much as it sounded psychotic, he kind of wished that she had been the one pushing it back. Maybe she would even press a kiss to his forehead, too, and give him a smile as sweet as fucking honey.

Woah.

The fuck?

Foolish blinked a couple of times as if it would suddenly change things, change his thoughts. Newsflash — it didn't. He felt the same, and everything suddenly increased as he looked at her on the screen again. Foolish sighed, running a hand over his face. Shit, shit, shit. This literally couldn't be happening.

This happened to him whenever there was a girl he was interested in, and of course, it had to be with the girl he couldn't be with.

If he was being honest, as he was having his moment of absolute panic, maybe it had always been there. His eyes had been stuck on Mary Jane the day they truly met, but he remembered Luna in her bedroom, scrambling to find a piece of paper to talk to him. He slipped away during TwitchCon to make sure she was okay because the thought of losing her in such a big crowd was enough to cause his mind to spiral. Foolish messed with her just to get her to laugh. The thought of her going to Karl's house when he was at her house was enough to tip him over the edge. He wanted her to keep his hoodie because it looked better on her anyways, and hell yeah it did.

Shit.

Luna had been there all along, and he hadn't seen it. And now that he had seen it, they couldn't — they shouldn't. Foolish was Mary Jane's ex, and Luna was her best friend. That would just be absolutely fucked up, wouldn't it? There was definitely some sort of promise or code against that. And knowing Luna, even if she did like him back, would say no because hurting Mary Jane would be totally against her moral codes.

Foolish continued watching Luna on the screen. His eyes slid over to his window and up, looking at Luna's bedroom. He couldn't see her, but he saw her multicolored lights. Foolish groaned and tilted his head back, covering his face with his hands in frustration. This was just how the universe worked, didn't it? He finally realized that the right girl was right there in arm's reach, but he couldn't reach out and make her his.

There was always the option of burying it down deep inside until it didn't exist. However, Foolish had a feeling that there was no way he could do that with Luna. Luna . . . yeah, it was definitely game over with her.

Over the sound of Luna's stream, Foolish heard his front door open. He didn't even glance over to see who it was — by the sound of the footsteps, he already had a feeling it was Nolan. Foolish stayed there in his position of agony, not dropping his hands from his face. If there was one person he could trust with this, it was Nolan, but the thought of admitting it out loud scared the ever-loving fuck out of him.

"Hey, Foolish," Nolan greeted, his voice echoing from the doorway. "Ah, you have Luna on. What's she doing?"

He didn't respond. All he did was groan again. This time, he actually did drop his hands. Foolish rolled his head over to look at Nolan. Nolan paused in his tracks, frowning at the distressed look on Foolish's face.

"Foolish?" Nolan repeated slowly. "You okay?"

Nope. Not in the slightest.

Foolish swallowed nervously, looking at Nolan with his eyes serious.

"I think I like Luna."

-ˏˋ ♥̩͙♥̩̩̥͙♥̩̥̩ ˊˎ-

WE GOT A CONFESSION LET'S GOOOOOOOO

anyways the gracie abrams haircut? I'm sliding down the fucking WALL