make-believe | jason newsted

xx

chapter twenty: tea and a whole lot more

Jason followed Valencia into her apartment, both of them shivering from their clothes still being wet. Thank god it was warm inside.

"Are you always like that? Just doing anything you want because you feel like it?" Jason asked, still amazed by the fact that she could do something like that like it was nothing. 

Valencia laughed and gave him a towel to dry off. "Yeah, why not? You have to live a little." She teased, heading into her bedroom to change. She was crazy. 

While Valencia was in her bedroom, Jason started to wring out his clothes in the bathroom sink with the towel, trying to dry them out the best that he could since he didn't have a change of clothes. 

Valencia emerged from her bedroom with new clothes, heading into the kitchen. "Do you like tea, Jason?" She asked as she began to set the stove up to make tea. 

Jason walked over after getting out of the bathroom, standing in the doorway of her kitchen. "That's okay Val, you don't have to make me—"

She stopped and turned to him. "I said, do you like tea?" She asked again, trying to give him the hint that she wanted to give him some tea to relax. 

Jason laughed a bit and nodded. "Yeah, I like tea." He replied, watching her smile happily as she began to boil some water.

If he was being honest, Jason hated tea. But, he would accept it from her and tough it out just because it was coming from her. If there was anyone else offering him tea, he would've said no.

She brought him the tea in a little cup with a plate under it, smiling sweetly. He could tell acts of service were possibly her love language, so he didn't want to disappoint her when she did them.

Jason took a sip from the tea once she turned around, trying not to make a noise of disgust as he had the taste in his mouth. At least it helped him to warm up from his wet clothes. 

Valencia sat beside him, having her own cup of tea in hand. Although the TV was on, Valencia's eyes were focused on watching the sun begin to set outside her apartment window.

Jason couldn't help but watch her, noticing how she seemed to be easily entertained by the simple things in life. She always embraced the world around her, something other people didn't do so often. 

"Do you always like to watch the sunset?" Jason asked, taking another agonizing sip from the tea she made him. He was pretending to like it just to make her happy.

Valencia nodded, turning back to Jason. "Yeah. I feel like people don't appreciate watching the sunset and the sunrise enough. To me, it's so beautiful." 

She seemed to have a unique perspective on things, which in turn made her the beautiful and adventurous girl Jason had known her to be. 

"I feel really lucky to be with you right now," Jason said as he watched her. Valencia felt flustered by his words and couldn't resist the smile that formed on her face.

"Me too." She replied, sitting closer to him. Jason wrapped his arm around her shoulders, allowing her to rest her head on his shoulder. 

At that moment, everything was perfect.

Eventually, Jason decided to call it a night, not wanting to overstay his welcome at Valencia's apartment. As he stood outside her door, he said good night and turned to leave.

"Hey, wait! Aren't you going to kiss me?" Valencia called out to him, catching Jason by surprise. His eyes widened at the fact that she had asked him for it directly rather than being subtle. 

Jason turned around, a bit stunned. "I-I...Do you want me to kiss you?" Jason asked. He had no problem fulfilling her wish if she wanted it, but he didn't want to move things too fast.

Valencia laughed a bit. "Well duh, you can't be looking for me all of this time and not kiss me." She said with a bit of a smirk, enticing Jason to come closer.

Jason thought that she was just messing with him and would tell him to stop. But as he kept coming toward her, he saw she wasn't saying anything, waiting for him to make his move. 

Jason was a few inches away from her face when he stopped. He gently tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, watching the way she stood in anticipation of the kiss. 

Not wanting to wait any longer, he leaned in and pressed his lips softly against hers. It was a simple kiss, yet Jason felt like fireworks going off around them. 

What he didn't expect was for her to gently tug on his bottom lip during the kiss, causing him to gasp needily. It caught him by surprise, and it even turned him on a bit, causing his cheeks to turn red.

As he pulled away, she couldn't help but giggle at the way he reacted. "Jason, you naughty boy." She teased. She didn't mind, that was the kind of reaction she wanted out of him anyway. 

It only made the blush on his cheeks turn redder when she said that. She always managed to drive him crazy and say the right things so easily, he couldn't help it.

Jason eventually said good night to Valencia not long after. As much as he wanted to stay with her longer, she had to work early tomorrow and the day exhausted them both.

On the way home, Jason couldn't help but feel as though things were a bit too good to be true. It wasn't anything about Valencia herself, but the nagging feeling that something was going to go wrong at some point. 

He pushed his thoughts to the back of his head. Maybe he was just overthinking things, or maybe he was falling in love. 

Things were going to be completely fine. Nothing bad was going to happen.

Right?