Don't Make Me Love You

Chapter 7

"You're suck a freak..." Jake mumbled as we entered my room. I shot him a glared. "It's not freaky to like being clean. You should try it sometime."

He rolled his eyes but, didn't argue anymore. We had planned to meet at the arcade but, there was a mix up and it turned out Brandon and Bobby were hanging out there. So we chose my house instead. Against my better judgement.

My clock ticked away as we took places on the floor after setting our backpacks in the corner. "Did you think of anything we could try?" I asked, pulling out a notepad and pencil.

"Did you seriously make a list?" Jake looked disgusted and I frowned. "You have a problem with that?"

"Why would you make a list? Wasn't the point of this whole meeting to think things up together?" He said with a frown.

"Yeah-"

"Then throw away the paper." He cut off. I glanced at my list. He grabbed the notepad out of my hand, tossing it on the bed. "No lists. We do this as a team." He pretended to gag. "That's sicking to think about..."

I sighed. "Whatever. Okay, what did you have in mind?"

"What if we were to sabotage them? We could do things that make them disagree and fight. Then they wouldn't want to spend time together." He suggested.

"I don't want to hurt Bobby." I stated.

"Then this is a lost cause. Bobby will never give up without a fight." Jake said. "I know for a fact."

I ran a hand through my hair. "Then what're going to do? Obviously none of my ideas will work."

"Why don't we try mine then? If we can break them up then everything will be back to normal. Isn't that what we both want?" He asked.

I frowned, disappointment washing over me. If we were going to do anything I had better listen to what Jake had to say. I almost threw up. Gross.

"Fine. What would we do to make them fight?" I asked.

"Well, it sounds cheesy but, we could try distracting them so they won't have time to see each other." He suggested. "If play our cards right we could make it look like they're trying to avoid each other."

I nodded. "That's not bad. But, I'm not distracting Brandon. I'll stick with Bobby."

"He's my boyfriend, you know?"

"Was your boyfriend. Now he hates you. I think it would be safer if you got rid of Brandon while I took care of Bobby." I said.

He frowned deeply. "I'm not pairing with Brandon."

"Well, neither will I." I shot back.

The room fell silent as we glared at each other. Jake didn't look like he was backing down soon but, I wasn't about to fake a play date with Brandon. I'd rather jump in an ice cold lake and drown. However, as the silent glares wore on I glanced around my room anxiously. "I'm not going-"

"Alright. Then I think we're done here." Jake said, standing up.

I sighed. "Fine! Whatever! I'll be Brandon's fucking bait." I said. "Happy?"

He sat down with a shrug. "Eh. It's a start."

I rolled my eyes. The rest of the day we planned and plotted, making excuses to get our point across no matter what Brandon or Bobby did. We were pretty confident by the end of our planning and as I showed Jake out he turned to me. "You know, you're not so bad once you close your mouth and start listening." He said.

I scoffed. "You're not so bad when you're not around."

He chuckled and waved as he trotted off, heading for his own home. I leaned on the doorframe wearily, closing my eyes for the long awaited moment of silence. I felt like I hadn't been in tranquility in forever. It was a relaxing peace before the first battle.

*******

I glanced at Jake and nodded. He nodded back and we both started making our way towards the 'happy couple'. I waited for Jake to take his position before I walked up.

"So, why don't we hang out at my house? We can study then just sit back with some video games." Brandon said.

Bobby went to reply when I stepped up. "Hey, we still on for the park today?" I asked, directing it at Brandon.

He looked surprised and Bobby frowned. "When did you guys become friends?"

"A little while ago." Then I ignored him and turned to Brandon. "Well? I don't want to spend too much time talking 'cause I have to study."

He glanced at Bobby and they shot each other looks of confusion. I sighed and grabbed Brandon's arm. "Let's go, man! I don't have all day."

He cleared his throat but, I didn't let him protest as I dragged him around the corner, giving Jake his chance to move in on Bobby.

"Hey- Hey! What're you doing?" Brandon asked.

"Getting you away from my best friend." I replied. "Now, get moving."

He frowned and yanked his arm away. I didn't let him get away though as I pushed him into a supply closet and closed the door behind us. Everything was going according to plan.

I sighed dejectedly as I thought about Jake getting to talk to Bobby but, brushed it off. I had to make sacrifices to keep my friend away from the creeps. Well, the worse of the two.

There was a rough tap on my shoulder and I glanced back at Brandon. "What?"

"I'd like to go back to my boyfriend, if you don't mind." He stated bluntly.

"As a matter of fact, I do mind. I mind very much. So, I don't really care what you'd like or like not to do." I replied.

He rolled his eyes and pushed passed me. I grabbed his arm. "Where do you think you're going?!" I growled.

He suddenly whipped around and pushed me back, my back knocking over some mops and brooms. I grimaced as they hit the floor. "Oop-" I cut off and froze as Brandon took me by the shoulders and leaned in close.

Our noses almost touched as he stared into my eyes. I couldn't look away, no matter how much I wanted to and my mouth was moving on it's own. "What are you...?"

Silence fell over us as we stood there. Then his eyes changed. "Leave me alone. I just want to spend time with my boyfriend." He said.

I snapped out of his mesmerizing gaze and glared with a blush as I realized what he'd just done. "Excuse-"

He let go of me and quickly exited the closet, closing the door with a slight bang. I stared in the direction he'd gone until I had cleared my head some. His eyes were still planted in my mind though, holding my attention all the way home. I didn't even wait to talk to Jake. I just left.

*******

Hey everyone! Hehe! I have this all planned out. Everything is panning out perfectly. I can't wait to get to the climax of this book. It's going to be awesome! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! AS ALWAYS, VOTE, COMMENT, FOLLOW, AND STAY AWESOME!

-Nekoco