Swan Song

Eleven

If I told you I loved you, would it make you wanna stay? I'm sorry for the way I hurt you and making you walk away.
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The competition went through the early afternoon and we had been lucky enough to finish in second place, which would take us to the finals in a few weeks' time.

Rather than celebrate my feat, I opted to go back to my parents house and dive into my book in an effort to forget about seeing Jake but from where I sat in the windowseat, my dress for the ball kept stealing my attention.

Despite my objection, my brothers brought my dress to my parents house just in case I changed my mind about going to the ball and I couldn't help but stare at it, mourning the perfect evening I had hoped to have.

I hated that I missed Jake but more than that, I hated that I blindly trusted him as quickly as I did. As if that wasn't enough, I hated Bradley for going behind my back but unfortunately as I grew older, I learned that some people just couldn't be trusted and this was an unfortunate case of that.

After reading for a little bit longer, I realized I had been reading the same line over and over so I took another break and set my kindle aside to see somebody coming up the stairs to the front door through my bedroom window.

Jake.

My dad was quick to get to the door and stood tall but was anything from relaxed. From how it looked to me, mom must have told him what happened because he wasn't giving off his normal friendly vibe that he normally did with Jake. He was angry.

I watched the interaction between the two and though I couldn't hear what they were saying, Jake must have been convincing because my dad gave in and stepped aside to allow Jake inside of the house.

I braced myself as I heard a knock on my door and I stood up, walking across the room and opening the door before crossing my arms.

"You really are his daughter, aren't you?" Jake chuckled as he noted that my dad and I both answered the door the exact same way.

"What do you want, Seresin?" I questioned, chewing the inside of my cheek.

"Can we please talk?" He questioned. "Please?"

"We have nothing to talk about."

"We really do though, Odette. Five minutes, that's all I'm asking for."

This jackass really was convincing.

"Five minutes," I replied, letting him in my room and shutting the door behind him.

Jake stood in the center of my room and I could tell he was trying to find the right words to say.

"You're down to four and a half minutes."

"I'm trying to figure out the best way to explain to you what happened," Jake finally replied.

"No explanation needed," I shrugged. "You made a bet if you could get me to fall for you and to go to the ball. I will not be going. Not with you."

"Odette, please. I made a mistake once and I was trying to get out of this stupid bet so I wouldn't make the same mistake as before. I didn't want to hurt you again."

"You did it on purpose both times. You think you can run around and do whatever you want but your actions have consequences, Jake," I shouted at him.

"I fucked up! And I keep fucking up with you but when I realized how much I actually liked you, I was talking with Rooster to find a way to stop the entire bet so please, Odette, please tell me I'm not too late. Tell me you'll still go with me, please."

"You're too late," I muttered.

"Odette," he pled.

"You're also out of time. You should leave."

"What can I do to make things right?" Jake finally asked, his jaw tight as he looked down at me.

"If you really mean what you're saying then you'll tell everyone, especially Coyote, that you were wrong. That you were an idiot to even think of making an idiotic bet like this."

"Done," Jake replied quickly. "What else?"

I sighed and looked away from him as I moved to sit back on the window seat.

"Why did you do it?"

"Because I didn't think you'd actually say yes to go with me and I definitely didn't think I'd get you to even like me," Jake admitted, moving to sit beside me. "Coyote likes to get under your skin."

"You didn't plan to actually like me, did you?"

"No," he sighed. "But I did. And I regret ever making that bet. If I could go back in time, I would in a heartbeat and do things the right way."

The fucker was good. Too good.

"Jake," I sighed. "I don't think things would ever work between us."

"Why not? I've changed and I want to prove that to you."

"Even if you could do that, even if things worked, my brothers kind of hate you right now," I replied. "I might've told them everything when we went on a night flight last night."

"I can deal with it. I can earn back everybody's trust," Jake encouraged me but I stayed silent.

As hard as I wanted to hate Jake, I just couldn't get myself to do it. Something deep inside of me knew that he was telling me the truth but even then, I had a hard time believing him because I was afraid of him shattering my heart.

"Odette," he said softly, breaking the silence. "Come with me tonight. Fuck everyone else, we don't have to worry about anyone else. Please just trust me this one time."

"The ball starts in less than two hours," I replied.

"I'll leave and go get ready and you do the same, although you already look beautiful as ever."

I sighed and Jake rested his hand on top of my knee.

"I'll be back in an hour and a half, okay?"

I looked at him and his eyes were pleading me and I couldn't resist any longer.

"I'll be ready," I sighed.

Jake cracked a smile as he walked towards the door, eager to get ready.

"Oh, and Jake?"

"Yes?" He asked, turning back towards me.

"Don't betray my trust again. Got it?"

"Never in a million years," he replied as he slipped out of my room and quickly left the house, leaving me to quickly prepare for the Navy ball.