Malibu | j. parker

veintitres

One by one, the doors to the gym had busted open. Layla and Olivia were standing in the hallway facing each other in the middle of an argument when Mariposa ran out with a couple of tears down her face and slightly hyperventilating.  "Oh, look who finally showed up."

Olivia turned around to see her best friend, then turned back to Layla.  "Leave her out of it, she wouldn't have known if I didn't confess to her and she has nothing to do with what happened."

"Nothing to do with it?"

"Exactly. What happened is between you and I."  Olivia stated sternly, right before JJ came out of the gym.

Once Mariposa spotted him, she made a beeline for the double doors that lead outside.  "Posi, if you don't slow down, you're gonna sprain your ankle."

The two girls in the hallway watched the linebacker in the blue suit run after his girlfriend, before turning back to each other and continuing their argument.  "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you messed around with Spencer knowing how I felt about him.  Knowing that you had a boyfriend!"  Olivia said, to which Layla denied being the same situation.  Olivia's brain was running at 1000 mph, and she remembered what Mariposa had told her the time she had asked how she would feel if it was her in Layla's place.  "No, you're right, it's not the same.  I was messed up on drugs when I slept with Asher, what's your excuse?"

Olivia went to continue saying what she wanted, when the doors bust open again and Reina came out.  " do you guys know where Mari and JJ went?"

Layla was reaching peak frustration and gestured outside aggressively with her hand and said, "That treacherous bitch ran outsi—"

"Woah!  I don't care what the hell she did to you, you are not gonna disrespect her and speak out of her name in front of me, entiendes?  Don't you have some relationship to fix?"  Reina looked Layla up and down before scoffing, rolling her eyes, and walking out the doors that Mariposa and JJ had previously walked out of.

Speaking of the couple, they somehow ended up in one of the school's gardens and Mariposa was sitting down with her head facing her lap when JJ finally caught up to her and found her crying. He never liked when she cried, so he just sat beside her and wrapped his arms around her in comfort. The action alone made her break down even more to the point where she completely hid her face in his chest and cried while he rubbed her back. The two sat on the bench in silence and Mariposa was kind of terrified now that he knew.

"When did you do it?" Was the first thing JJ asked when Mariposa finally calmed down.

Mariposa sniffled and slowly lifted her head out of his chest, but not making eye contact with him. "In summer, like two weeks before school started."

The wheels and JJ's brain were turning, and he was thinking of the times that they had slept together, which did add up. When they both got back from their vacations, JJ somewhere in Europe and Mariposa from Mexico, the two were very... excited to see each other. And that was when there was still about a month until school, so they were going at it for a few weeks. "Why did you go to Asher? Why didn't you come to me?"

"I was scared. We're both going into junior year of high school, I didn't want us both to have to put our lives on pause for something we weren't ready for. I thought if I told you, you would convince me to keep it because you love babies, and Liv just got out of rehab so I wasn't trying to stress out her or the Bakers."

JJ shook his head and pulled her back into his chest, basically moving her into his lap. "Posi, I wouldn't have told you to keep it. I mean it would've been nice, but I barely know how to take care of myself let alone a new human." JJ explained, eliciting a little laugh out of her. "At least now we have a animal baby to practice with."