The Art of Still Pretending

Eleven

Jake POV.
•••

"Whose the hottest out of all the Heart Brothers?" Her usual pale skin has turned flushed and rosy. Cute.

Do I want her to answer that? I mean yea. Obviously, I want to be the one she picks. But, I also don't.

I want to like this girl, honestly. Not in any way more than a friend. There's something about her, that just draws me in. I know a lot more about her than she thinks.

   When Grayson would come visit me in rehab, that's all he would talk about. Well, her and Ashlyn.

   But he didn't talk about her as if he liked her, just as if she was his best friend. But maybe he did like her, at least I'm hoping he did. No matter if he did or not, there was something between them. And I'm sure it's against some code for me to be even friends with her.

   I take a sip of my drink and grin at her. "Well Blair, are you going to answer it."

   She huffs and roll her eyes. Something she seems to often do. "Well, I know the answer. I just don't think I should say it."

   Everyone stares at her, waiting to see who she would say. "All the brother are hot, let's start out with that." She says, "but in different ways."

   "I agree." Natalie pipes in. Blake looks offended when she says that.

   "Babe." She kisses him in the cheek, which clearly distracts him.

   "Drew, is handsome, in a frat boy way. Grayson is more boy next door attractive." I look over to Blake and raise an eyebrow. He looks at me and shrugs, clearly not understanding what she's saying either. Maybe it's the alcohol she's drank, or the alcohol I drank, but that doesn't make any sense. "Jake is more like wow. Like, just handsome, hot, pretty. I can't explain it." Pretty? She thinks I'm pretty?

   "Is that a good thing?" Blake asks for me.

   "Yes." Natalie and Blair say at the same time.

   "So like, I am pretty? Or just hot?"

     "No, you're both." She says quickly, her face flushing even a deeper shade of red. Hmmm, I'm pretty. I've never thought that I would like being called that by a girl. But Blair makes it seem as if it's the best compliment.

   "So whose the hottest?" Luke asks.

   She looks at us all dumbfounded. "Did you not hear what I just said? I can't pick, because they are all different kinds of hot."

   "Well, whose your cup of tea out of them?" Noah chimes in, not without shoving a handful of chips in his mouth.

   "Well, clearly all of them." She laughs, "But if I had to pick, probably Jake." My eyes widen at her words. I'm a pretty confident dude, but I was not expecting her to say me. "Anyways, let's take more shots!" She suggests standing up.

***

   And we did, a lot. So now we are drunker than before. And I am currently stumbling upstairs, into my room. I need a break from drinking. And if I'm down there, the boys will make me drink more.

   I groan and lay back on my bed. My eyes are about to drift close, when I hear shuffling outside my door. Then, without a knock, the door swings open. Standing there, is a blonde girl clearly thinking she was about to walk into the bathroom.

   "Oh shit, sorry Jake. I'm just trying to find the bathroom. Be a gentleman and point me in the direction?" Blair gives me one of her innocent smiles. I laugh, knowing she's anything but that.

   "You can use mine, it's right there." I point to the door to the right of my closet.

   "My life savor." She groans walking into the bathroom. She's not in there for long. She sighs, and lays next to me on my bed. I raise an eyebrow at her, which she clearly ignores. She turns her body, so it's facing me. "Sorry I called you pretty."

   "What?"

   "I'm sorry I called you pretty. Noah said that guys don't find it as a compliment and that you might of found it as in insult. Which I don't understand why anyone would think it's bad, I actually think..."

   "You talk a lot."

   She rolls her eyes and rolls back on her back. "Well I have to talk for the both of us. Anyways, back to what I was saying before you rudely interrupted me. I'm sorry, because now I'm starting to feel bad for calling you pretty..."

   Oh my god, can this girl shut up? "I liked it." Her head snaps towards me in shock. "I like that you think I'm pretty."

   She turns her body, so that she's facing me again. "Ohhhhhk." Ok?

   "You're such a strange girl."

   "I think that's the hundredth time you've said that to me." She's staring at me with her blue, grey, I don't even know, eyes. "God, you have such the coolest eyes." She says to me. "They remind me of what the Earth looks like from space. So cool."

   "I like your eyes." Good one, Jake.

   "Yea?" She laughed. Yea, laugh when a guy complements you. Because that's great for a guy's ego. "For a guy, who says he hates me, you sure don't act like it."

   "Sorry, I'll try better."

   It's quiet for a few seconds, before she starts to talk again. "Remember the first day we met?"

   "Christmas?"

   "No, I guess the second time we met. When we met for the first time, a second time." Blair Knight is one strange girl.

   "The frat party?"

   "Yes, do you remember what we did?"

   "We played beer pong?" I ask, "I don't know where you're trying to go with this."

   "We played beer pong because you said you'd never kiss me. Which, might I add, you have done multiple times since." I roll my eyes.

   "One was for a game, and one was to get you to stop crying." I defended myself.

   "And so we played, and I won. Do you remember my prize?" Her prize? Did I give her something?

   "My memory is foggy, care to help my out?"

   "If I won," she sighs. "You'd have to kiss me whenever I asked. And I haven't asked yet." The memory quickly comes back.

   "Yea, I remember now."

   "Ok, so I pick now."

   "What?" My eyes widen in shock.

   "I'm cashing in my prize, kiss me."

•••