when love lasts || original story

13. underneath it all

"oh! how about this?" bailey squealed holding up a light blue crochet sweater and white denim shorts

jenny's room was a complete mess as bailey helped her get ready for their date with laila tonight at the movies. it's been about three hours since they started with hundreds of different outfit suggestions and the closer they got to the hour the more stressed the blonde girl became.

though bailey didn't say it, she loved seeing jenny this way. it was oddly refreshing; usually jenny would leave girls trailing after her and never thought twice about them - but here they were asking bailey for help to get ready and wanting everything to be perfect. she could tell jenny cared for laila deep down.

"let me see," jenny took the hangers and held the pieces up in front of them to see herself through the mirror and hummed "this works... yeah, this works."

bailey smiled in the corner of the room as jenny re-attempted to apply their eyeliner and failed again - jenny never messed up her makeup. ever.

"fucking shit, what is happening?!" jenny exclaimed as she threw their eyeliner bottle on the vanity

bailey let the light chuckle escape her as she rushed over and took a chair, sitting beside jenny and looking at them through the mirror

"alright cmon, let me. it's what i'm here for," bailey smiled, taking the makeup wipes as jenny whined and forcefully raised their head to face her best friend

bailey focused on applying jenny's makeup, bit by bit and as she prepared some blush on her friend's cheeks, she took a deep breath

"what's that face for?" jenny asked, staying still

"just...never seen you like this before a date." bailey shrugged

jenny sighed softly "yeah, me neither. it's fucking embarrassing,"

bailey laughed "jen, it's normal to be nervous when you like someone,"

"i don't—! i mean-i-" jenny swallowed "it's just a one time thing with another girl. summer flings and all,"

bailey nodded "uh huh, right. you're wearing your best cashmere sweater for a summer one time fling,"

jenny furrowed their brows "how did you know i was going to wear that?"

the blush compact snapped shut as bailey smirked "i didn't."

jenny rolled her eyes "you're a bitch, trent."

bailey laughed while her best friend looked at themselves in the mirror once more, adjusting her hair, tucking it behind their ears.

"it'll go just like you want it to, jen." bailey put her hand on jenny's shoulder "and then you'll come back home and we'll hole up in my room while you tell me everything!"

jenny smiled gratefully which turned to a smirk "everything everything?"

"jen!"

the blonde girl laughed loudly in response

+

meanwhile, liam and ilyas lounged on the living room couches that evening, watching the basketball game that was going on - it was the one sport they could agree on watching together for years; since it was the only sport ilyas deemed entertaining.

"so, what happened today?" ilyas spoke up, acting as casual as he could come off

liam gave ilyas a quick glance before returning his focus to the screen "what do you mean?"

"that girl? mia i think?"

liam pulled his attention away at her name, furrowing his brows and shaking his head "oh — nothing. like i said, we'd just met each other out while i was snorkeling,"

ilyas nodded with a raised eyebrow "uh huh...?"

the curly-haired boy chuckled "dude, cmon, really it was nothing," ilyas nodded again, fiddling with his fingers which made liam raise a brow "what?"

"well...uh-" act cool... ilyas thought "bails— bailey! she seemed a little thrown off," he closed his eyes at that and groaned internally — why did he keep doing this to himself?

because now he knew liam would definitely be more aware of bailey than he was before which meant ilyas would have to hear even more about it from both sides which was just so great for him to hear...

"shit," liam whispered in realization "you think so? wait - did she look like... jealous? or sad...?"

ilyas crinkled his brow "why do you seem excited when you ask that? it's not fun to lead her on dude-"

"relax," liam laughed "i was just asking so i can sense out how she feels about me,"

ilyas swallowed "so... you're still set on bailey?"

liam nodded "yeah, of course," the curly-haired boy leaned back against the couch and grabbed his phone, heading to his instagram to make a quick search.