Take The Chance (A Limitless Novel) [Book 1]

Nine

I sat on the couch, later that night, watching Bob's Burgers and enjoying some chocolate. It was the rare occasion that I allowed myself to snack on the stuff; so finding it in Jake's fridge was going to be my biggest downfall. How do you stop yourself from going back to something, that you know is bad for you, but is so easily accessible that you can't help yourself? I was screwed.

After dinner, Jake had received a phone call, which he had taken in the studio. He shut the door after his self; it was now three hours later and I still hadn't seen him yet. It was either a horribly long call, or he was working on his music. I didn't want to interrupt either.

It was halfway through the episode, when a hand appeared from nowhere and picked up the remote that sat next to me. The channels flipped over a couple of times before landing on a horrible looking celebrity gossip show. A panel of B-list celebrities sat around a table, discussing the downfalls of other well-known celebrities. It was a horrible TV show, made only to criticise and bring others down. I couldn't understand why someone would want to watch this, yet alone want to be the horrible human ripping people down.

I looked up to Jake, his jaw clenched and his eyes glaring at the screen. Something told me this was going to be seriously bad.

"Now, we all know the band Limitless. They have taken the world by storm and are loved by every nation, but how can we love a cheater?" a brunette hag asked the camera, obviously completely depressed about her own life because she seemed to really enjoy this new piece of information.

"Jackson Owens is currently in a committed relationship with the absolutely stunning actress Hanley Blake. So why was he seen out with this girl?" another lady asked, a picture of Jake and I appearing behind the group of women. I clamped my hand over my mouth, stopping Jake from being able to see the surprised look on my face. It was a photo of us out to lunch, I was laughing whilst Jake was doing his half smile thing. I couldn't believe someone would be so sneaky and violate our privacy, let alone send it out and make Jake look like the bad guy. We really did live in a stupid generation, where men and women couldn't be seen as just friends. Idiots.

"To be honest, I'm really not that surprised at all. He is probably cheating on her with a variety of girls," one lady scoffed, making my blood boil.

"What is annoying is that he is portrayed as so nice, but he's really just like every other guy," the first lady sighed, it was obvious that she couldn't care though.

"Tell us what you guys think, or even send in some more photos. We will be talking about this again tomorrow," one lady smiled into the camera, before they moved on to flogging a girl with insults for wearing a horrible dress on the red carpet for some award show.

Jake turned the TV off and I turned around on the couch, noticing that he was seemingly calm about this. I didn't know if that was even worse than him being completely aggravated.

"Don't let them affect you Jake, they have their facts wrong and you know it," I said, hoping that this wasn't the calm before the storm. I had no idea how he was going to take this, which showed just how much I really didn't know him.

"They are idiots. I'm more worried about Hanley, she is furious with me," he sighed, turning around and walking out of the room. "I'll see you tomorrow," he called from the stairs as he began to walk up them.

I listened as he walked up the stairs and down the hallway, before he shut his bedroom door. The whole house fell silent, no noise and no life.

I turned back to the TV, flicking through the channels and finding a black and white movie was on. I settled down, unable to completely focus on the movie because my mind was racing a million miles an hour.

I stared at the TV screen, completely ignoring the picture on it. Jake hadn't been worried about the rumour, he was worried about his girlfriend. The girlfriend that I was continually forgetting about. Of course he was more worried about Hanley, she was the one he wanted to be with when it really came down to it.

I didn't know what I was thinking by developing this crush on him, it was stupid. I also didn't know what was going to happen, but I was worried that I'd just lost my job before I'd even started.