Tangled Love

Chapter 32: Not In Control.

Three years ago

Jace's POV.

"Have you ever felt like you were meant to meet certain people?" I ask Cass's friend Tyler from Hawthorne, who has been patient enough to sit here and listen to me blubber about senseless things.

We're sitting at the poolside table, he's smoking himself to death while I'm staring at Cass chat with her other friends across the pool.

I've been thinking about our conversation earlier, about how she doesn't want to lose our friendship cause it's the only good thing she has right now.

Yeah, so here's the thing.... It's not gonna work out.

Our friendship is bound to fail one way or the other.

"You mean like destiny or some shit?" He blows out smoke.

"Yeah, like destiny." I nod.

"Some people will bring meaning to your life and some will bring the kind of pain that will later turn into a lesson so yeah, I believe in destiny." He responds, lifting the joint back to his lips.

I sigh, leaning back in my chair, "So where am I supposed to put her?" I mutter more to myself.

"Cassie?" He asks.

"Yeah." I grab the bottle of booze and I take a swing.

"Dude, she's a heartbreaker." He chuckles.

"Or maybe she's just misunderstood." I shrug.

"Judging by the way she smiles at you, of you course you think that." He says.

"And how does she smile at me?" I ask quietly, looking down at the table.

"Like she can't control it, like you bring genuine happiness to her whenever she sets her eyes on you." He answers.

That answer makes me feel more guilty than I already am cause it proves that Cass likes me back. I think I would have lived with her denying it.

"Okay, sorry I asked." I say, drinking from the bottle.

"I want that for Cass, I know I betrayed her and Jake betrayed her and her brothers are not there and her Mom is barely a Mom and her Dad is a huge dick but it looks like you're getting her mind off of all that stuff and that's-"

"I have a girlfriend." I blurt out before he goes too far with his speech.

"Girlfriend?" He looks confused, "You mean Cass?"

"No. Her name is Olivia," I tell him, "Cass knows, she and I have only been fake dating this whole time but then I caught feelings for her." I now chug on my drink, "And so did she." I add, his face freezes in shock.

"Well that's not good." He shakes his head.

"I know, I swear I'm obsessed with my girlfriend, she's everything a guy wants but then..... then there's Cass." I shift my eyes to her, she looks our way at the same time and waves at us with a big bright smile, Tyler and I awkwardly wave back.

"So what are you going to do?" He asks me.

"Honestly? I have no clue." I grip my hair at the roots in frustration, "Is that bad? Am I a bad person for liking two girls?" My questioning gaze bounces on his face.

"No, man, I don't think so." He sighs.

"You're only saying that to make me feel better, aren't you?" I roll my eyes at him.

He scoffs, shaking his head and looking elsewhere without responding to me.

I stare at my bottle of booze, frowning even. I wonder how much more I have to take in order to let go of all these thoughts and just have fun.