🎱. . .CHAPTER 29 ! -----
( real life . . . )
❛ i'm not pretending ❜

ᵣₑₐₗ ₗᵢfₑ !

Mikayla pinches at the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut at the fact that chris basically just admitted his feelings towards her. she's confused on whether or not she feels the same towards him, conflicted with her feelings towards abel, even though she has yet to feel the same spark with him compared to chris.

"abel's calling me," miks mumbles, rising from her position on the comfortable, baby pink beanbag. she doesn't want to stop talking to chris, but she needs time away to think about everything. "maybe the cake's done."

chris looks up at mikayla, standing in front of him with a glint of desperation in his eyes. "so are you just gonna act like i didn't tell you i want to be more than friends?" he questions, standing up and almost towering over mikayla. "you're just gonna go pretend you like abel and his stupid fucking dried fruits?"

"i'm not pretending," she sharply responds, stepping back as an attempt to ease the escalating tension between them but he just chuckles.

chris rolls his tongue inside of his cheek, shaking his head at the same time. "okay mikayla," he says with a grin knowing internally that he doesn't believe mikayla at all. as they continue to maintain eye contact, their gaze not shifting away from each other's features, the door suddenly swings open revealing abel.

mikayla immediately glances at him, slightly cringing at how the sight in front of him must look. she feels bad, pushing her lips into a thin line as she notices the confused expression plastered across his face.

"hey..." abel's eyes flicker between both of them, narrowing them slowly as he purses his lips. "uh...nate's downstairs," he mumbles, while only shifting his focus to mikayla.

she takes one last look at chris before making her way towards abel's position in her doorway, pushing past him slightly and disappearing as she treads down the staircase, leaving abel and chris in her room.

the air surrounding them is thick as they stand in silence but abel clears his throat, preparing to speak. "so is that where you kissed talia?" he points at the bed, a crease between his eyebrows.

chris' lips part as he tries to find enough words to showcase his disbelief at what abel just said to him. "you don't know shit, okay?" he takes a step closer towards abel, his eyes turning into slits at the smile on his face.

"i know that you were only 'fake dating' miks," abel states and chris' mouth just hangs open at the audacity. i mean, what the fuck? this new guy is already getting in the middle of everything, only ruining his chances at getting mikayla back.

chris' jaw ticks as he's now standing directly in front of abel. he looks up at the guy in front of him, hating how smug he looks at this moment, only wanting to wipe the grin off of his face. "fuck off abel," he says through his teeth, harshly shoving him out of his way. however, as he exits mikayla's room he's now face to face with nate – the first time in a while.

his expression softens at the sight of his best friend, chewing on his bottom lip. he opens his mouth to speak, instantly shutting it as nate speaks up first. "are we finally gonna talk about it?" he questions and chris just nods his head. abel dabs up nate before he makes his way down the stairs, leaving them in privacy so that they can talk properly.

nathan leans on the wall, his arms folded over one another. "are you gonna explain everything, or what?" he utters, the overprotectiveness of mikayla visibly showing through his tone of voice.

After finally finishing recording the most awkward baking video ever, miks proudly looks at matt and nick, applauding them just as nate and chris show up, oddly civil with each other especially after everything that happened. it seems like they talked it out with each other, but that doesn't mean there still isn't tension between them.

abel throws his arm over mikayla's shoulder and she looks up at him, an ear to ear grin growing and only revealing her dimples. she feels almost at peace with him, not having to stress over nate's reactions to any sort of physical touch compared to how it was with chris.

he looks down at her, a wide smile plastered across her face but chris notices this, his jaw tensing out of pure anger towards the events unfolding in front of him. he finds it stupid how she looks at abel as if they've known each other since they were kids because she definitely hasn't, not unless abel's suddenly chris sturniolo. he feels that familiar feeling of jealousy setting in the pit of his stomach just as he watches them pull away from each other.

see, to chris, there wouldn't be an issue if abel and mikayla were just friends, but friends don't look at each other like that, especially considering the fact that as every day passes by, she's starting to look at abel just like how she used to look at chris. it's also the fact that abel's pretending like he's been there with mikayla through everything, because he definitely hasn't.

not like how chris was.

middle school

Mikayla happily sits on the huge swing at the park local to her school, swinging her legs as she sings to herself. she's alone while waiting for her mom to pick her up, not complaining since she loves her own company sometimes.

the summer weather reflects her mood with a warm hue of yellow and orange surrounding her, caused by the rays of sunshine bouncing off of her skin. as she hums, still waiting for her mom, she notices a trio of boys coming towards her. they look friendly, but that demeanor suddenly changes as they stand in front of her, in a row.

"get off the swing loser," the boy in the middle spits with folded arms and his friends all laugh. "not like you have anyone to push you anyways."

a frown appears on mikayla's face, shocked at the way they're acting towards her. there's a crease between her eyebrows, her joyful mood dropping at the boy's serious tone. they step closer to her and miks shakes her head. "i'm not a loser," she says sharply while her eyes narrow at them.

"get off of it now," he takes a step closer, making mikayla slightly tense up at his attitude. "or we'll just make you," the grin that spreads across his face is almost demonic with his threatening tone. "do you want us to force you to get off, or are you gonna listen to us?"

a defeated huff of air escapes from mikayla's lips, scared since it's three versus one, so she hops off of the swing, her shoulders drop as she walks away while listening to their giggles. she honestly would've fought back, but she has a lack of energy to do that.

mikayla can't really keep track of time without her phone, but the fact that the sun's setting and her mom still isn't back from dropping nate to hockey practice makes her slightly upset. she takes a seat on the bench, crossing her legs and tapping on the wood as her eyes are glued to the road, waiting patiently.

her eyes continuously glance at the trio of boys laughing at her and the fact that she's sitting along as they swing together. she feels slightly disheartened but there's honestly nothing she can do except for sit in silence.

but it's as if the world is on her side when she notices a familiar face riding a bike towards her. there's a confused expression on his face as he stops pedaling right in front of her, a crease between his eyebrows.

miks can't help but smile as she realizes that it's none other than christopher owen sturniolo and it feels like fate. she's honestly had a small crush on him, not telling anyone except for maria about it. especially nate because he would genuinely freak out if he found out about that, even if they're only teenagers.

"what's up miks?" he questions, hopping off of his bike. chris kicks the black metal bar, propping the bike up so that he can lean on the seat. "shouldn't you be at home or something?"

"yeah," she quickly responds, a dimpled smile on her face as she's still wondering how perfect this timing is. "i'm waiting for my mom here, and i was on the swing until they kicked me off," she points at the boys and chris immediately glances at them.

his jaw ticks at the sight, genuinely mad at the fact that a couple of random boys have so much entitlement. seeing as how mikayla is basically his little sister, he thinks it's necessary to do something about it. "wanna go back on the swing?" and mikayla replies by rapidly nodding her head.

it's as if chris feels like he's some sort of superhero with the way he walks over to the swing area, because it's not even a minute later and the three boys are already off the swing after he only said a couple of words to them. mikayla widely grins, practically leaping off of the bench and skipping towards him.

miks holds onto the metal chains for support, climbing up and sitting on the large swing while chuckling at the boy's expressions plastered across their faces. chris starts to push her, smiling slightly as he watches how happy she looks right now. she feels a warm feeling in her heart, watching the sunset — feeling immense comfort in his presence.

Mikayla sits in the living room of the sturniolo's house, watching the television while eating a cream cheese bagel. it's playing shameless and even though it's over eighteens and she still has a couple years left, but she'll forever be obsessed with this show after chris introduced her to it.

with mary lou in her bedroom and jimmy at work, the triplets sit on the couch. chris is sitting right next to her while nick and matt sit on the other one. miks hates what's going on at this moment because for some reason she cannot stop glancing over at chris.

she observes the barely visible freckles littered across his cheeks, his messy hair, the way he looks so perfect when he–

"take a picture, it'll last longer," chris mumbles with a smirk, cutting off her thoughts from continuing, so that only she can hear. he doesn't look up from his phone and mikayla literally feels her heart drop at the embarrassment that she's been caught staring because it isn't even the first time.

miks' eyes widen and her head immediately whips around to focus on the show that's playing. she picks at the skin around her nails, shocked with a red tint spreading across her cheeks. "i literally wasn't shut up," she challenges but chris replies with a shrug.

"you literally was miks," his tone irritates mikayla as he nudges her shoulder playfully. "i dont blame you, you're not the only one."

"sureee," she drags out her words as she rolls her eyes at his snarky reply. but the fact that she definitely was staring and chris knows is genuinely the most aggravating thing ever.

because what's more cliché than falling for you brother's best friend? it's such a typical occurrence in any fictional universe and literally every single romance book that mikayla's read before. she sighs, shaking her head and ignoring the recurring butterflies she feels in her gut whenever chris looks at her.

⋆.ೃ࿔*:･ arianna speaks ¡
i updated 🤓

don't b a ghost reader that's lame 👎👎
crying bc i had the opportunity to make miks and chris like my favs lara jean and peter 💔💔

also STOP THE ABEL HATE ❌❌❌❌
i love him he's my fav