In Your Dreams

32 || Emmett Larkin

This was a bad idea. An awful idea even. I should have just left the room when I had the chance. Currently, I can't just walk out of the door—that would look suspicions on my end—while Phoebe Summers sings the one song I never liked hearing it again. Out of all the song she can sing for us to know her range, why must be that song?

I don't fucking understand. This is all JD's fault. I grit my teeth and sneak a quick glance at JD, who's busy watching Phoebe. He's the one who suggested that song in the beginning. I roll my eyes when JD begins to clap and cheer for Phoebe after the dreadful song had ended.

I turn to watch as Phoebe smiles and bows her head slightly while her friends and the other cheered for her. As an act of politeness, I raise both hands and simply gave her a slow clap, though my expression doesn't show that I've enjoyed it—which I really didn't because of that song—I force a small smile to appear.

“That was beautiful, Phoebe.” Asher says right after he stood up from the couch. He pulls her into a hug the moment she was in arms reach. “Your voice fits perfectly for ballad songs,” He pulls away before ruffling Phoebe's hair.

“Yeah, that's our Phoebe!” All of her friends yell and made me cringe as their screaming hurts my ears. When they still hadn't stopped cheering loudly, I stood away from the couch with a shake of my head. I can feel Phoebe's eyes roaming to me, but I didn't dare to meet her gaze. The quicker this is over, the better.

I walk towards my equipment and begin packing. Just before I pull out the plug from the speaker, a hand rests on my shoulder that made me stop from my tracks.

“What?” I mutter, not caring whose hand that just placed on one of my shoulders. All I care right now was to leave and get rid of this mushy emotion I'm currently feeling.

The quicker get out of here, the better and lower the chance I'll get to be vulnerable again around Phoebe. I thought to myself as I shrugged the hand off from my shoulder and finally pull out the plug that's connected to the speaker.

“You look tense?” Alecks' voice came through the haze of thoughts that kept running and rummaging around my mind. “Was it because of the song?” Without looking, I can imagine the cheeky grin he's wearing. “Or is it about Phoebe?” I can feel him leaning closer, his voice lowers to a whisper.

“You know damn fucking well it's because of the song.” I grit out as I pull and coil the wire properly. “This has nothing to do with Phoebe. You can keep flirting with her, I couldn't care less of it.” I toss the bundles of wire on the speaker as I finish coiling them all up in a circle before standing up and walk to the other side. The mere image of Alecks winking at Phoebe and making her blush made me feel things I shouldn't feel. It's had enough that I've felt this towards JD, but Alecks adding to the mix isn't helping my case.

“Flirting?” Alecks made a face the moment I turn around and glance at him. “I was just trying to calm her down. That was hardly flirting.” Instead of saying anything else that could potentially swing back around and kick me in the shins, I simply forced a smile and turned to my heels.

Before I could cover a great distance away from Alecks, he places another hand on my shoulder, but this time with enough force that made me stumble backwards and got spun around.

“Could you quit that?” I say through gritted teeth. Simply losing every ounce of patience I got left for today, and I don't know if I still have enough energy to pretend to be civil for the rest of the day.

“No,” He shakes his head while a casual smile plasters her lips. After a few seconds, he narrowed his gaze and lean closer to inspect something in my eyes. I tried my best to make my inside hallow as much as possible before he could have a chance to see anything interesting in there. “Are you jealous?”