Teenage Fever // Jude Bellingham

35

"Don't look at me like I'm the culprit here." I sighed when I saw their faces walking into my room before plopping down onto the end of my bed where Emma wasn't sitting.

It wasn't like we were really fighting or anything, it had just been a little awkward between us since I've come back from Munich. And I hated that. So I had gathered her and my brother here to talk about what the fuck is going on between them - just as I had promised. There was absolutely no way I'd let this stupid affair, or whatever this was supposed to be, ruin not only my relationship with my best friend but also with my brother.

"It's really not that deep." Tiago returned from his seat in my desk stool; which was obviously a lie seen as he also, was avoiding eye contact with me.

"You don't even believe yourself." I stated, "you two can't even look at me."

"Because it's embarrassing." Emma finally spoke up, referring to the way we had left things at the party.

"And is that my fault?" I accusingly raised a brow at her, who was fiddling with the strings of her hoodie. I had never seen her this unsure or quiet about something before.

"No, but we shouldn't make such a big thing out of it. It doesn't have to be weird between us." She replied, finally looking back at me with a pleading look.

"Maybe you should've thought about that before you - what did y'all even do yet?" I threw in, cautiously looking between the two.

"We just kissed." Emma stated, "And not since that incident."

"That doesn't make it any better." I commented before looking at my brother, who was way too quiet for my liking. "Do I have to drag everything out of you?"

"What do you want to know!" He threw up his hands in defense, making me pinch the bridge of my nose in annoyance of this whole situation. This conversation laterally just pissed me off. But there was no way around it.

"Everything!" I exclaimed back, "how the fuck did that even happen?"

"I don't know, Tiana. It just did, okay. Grow up, you can't change what has already been done." Tiago spoke in a annoyed tone, sounding like he was trying to share some of his wisdom as the guy who was a year older than me.

"Oh my god, give the morals a rest." I sighed, before looking at Emma. "How do you not get the ick from that."

"Shhh, I'm trying to ignore it." She mumbled, a hint of her usual playfulness in her voice as I caught a glimpse of her smile.

I tried holding back a smile on my own; I couldn't let them think I forgave them yet.

"So are you like, in love with each other?" I asked, being careful to emphasize the last part of the sentence to make fun of them. I saw Emma scrunch up her nose in my peripheral vision.

Silence.

"So this was a one time thing?"

Silence.

"Oh, so you're in that awkward stage." I nodded, the both of them looking either into their laps or around the room to avoid making eye contact with each other.

"Y'all are weird." I sighed, leaning back onto my bed. This actually seemed hopeless. But at least it seemed hopeless for them too. They have a terrible chemistry, at least when I was around.

"Look Ti, we're sorry okay? I know having to see that was probably traumatizing or something, and I imagine that having to deal with us right now is even worser. But just as you, we don't know what is going on between us right now. So I don't really know what you expect us to tell you here." Emma eventually broke a long lasting silence, seemingly having regained her confidence and directness.

Maybe she was right. What was this conversation supposed to change? If they are gonna turn out to have feelings for each other or it had just been a one time thing isn't something that can't be discussed here. Not yet at least.

Obviously, my attempt of trying to understand their reasons behind it had failed - they didn't even understand it themselves.

Maybe I should give them some time. And in the meantime, I'd just pray that it had, in fact, been a one time thing. Because if it hadn't, we'd have to have the whole damn talk again.

"Whatever. Just please don't make this any more awkward than it already is." I sighed, making them nod.

"Let's just act like it never happened." Tiago added, getting up to leave my room but stopping when he saw both me and Emma's eyebrows accusingly furrowed. "I didn't mean it like that-"

"Just piss off." I said, his eyes rolling in annoyance before eventually closing the door behind him; Emma and me looking at each other before bursting out into laughter.

y'all stop hating on Emma fr😔 she's just in a identity crisis or something idk

chapter's a little boring but it's for the plot (?)