Corner Store Girl: Janoskians: Luke and Jai Brooks Fanfiction

Chapter 32: Hopes

"Baby, I'm scared."  Katherine whines and I give her a side glare and watch as she snuggles herself deeper into Luke's chest. I roll my eyes at her juvenility and continue to find random things to do on my phone. The movie on the screen has just about the worst effects in the history of cinematic horror; it's so bad I don't bother to try and remember the name and the only time I've grimaced at the movie is its lack of reality. I just about stopped watching three minutes in when a random guy was stabbed and dark pink liquid exaggeratedly spewed out from the wound made by a minuscule knife.

I've reached the 4096 tile twice on the 2048 game and read about a hundred tweets followed by twenty minutes of scrolling on tumblr. My last resort is Instagram and because of the amount of time since logging onto the app, I have several notifications. Five people requested to follow me and I recognize four of them: Anne, Ray, Luke, and Jai. It really has been a long long time; some are obviously from a while back. I instantly click the check mark and follow Anne and Jai back, but reject and block Luke and Ray.

I analyze the fifth account, but I'm disappointed to find its private and have to learn everything through the person's bio. I discover it's a girl, her name's Shantell, she's in a relationship, and likes flamingos? Weird, but the kind I admire. Along with the nice smile in her profile picture and flower emojis surrounding her name, I decide to accept her request. Maybe she's from school. It seems as though her boyfriend is in the picture with her; his features seen slightly familiar and I wish I could zoom in to see if I could realize who it is, but I can't. The couple looks genuinely happy and make me feel nostalgic to the last time I really felt happy without something in the back of my mind convincing me to feel otherwise, dragging me down.

I close the app once I see the credits fly across the screen we're surrounding, hoping everyone's tired enough to either leave or go to sleep. But, to my disappointment Anne pops off from Kat's side on the couch and towards the light switch before flicking it on. "Alright, so who's ready for some pool?" Just my fucking luck; I groan.

I have half the mind to run upstairs and jump into the guest bedroom Anne promised me for the night, but my love for the game is what brings me to my feet, following the rest of them to the game room. Zach decides to sit the game out and we divide ourselves into teams; Jai, Anne, and I against Luke, Kat, and Ray. After winning the coin toss, Luke goes first, breaking the set harshly, making the balls explode in every direction. He pots two solids and one stripe ball. Ray's next and pots another solid, but when Kat steps up to the table, she doesn't even get the concept of the whole game and directly hits a striped ball in a pot.

Completely oblivious to what she'd done; she jumps up in triumph, her pedicured feet bouncing off the ground repeatedly. "I did it!" I groan again and bring my hand to the bridge of my nose; how could someone possibly be that stupid?

"No, no, no." Luke shakes his head, and I'm surprised to not see him try to let her down easily. "Have you not been watching? You have to hit the white ball to get the one you want in the whole, preferably one for our team."

He rolls his eyes at her and I almost feel bad for Kat when she stops her hopping and lowers her arms along with her head. "Oh." Her voice is merely a whisper as she trudges back to wall and watches on.

"Whatever. Striped team gets a point on top of the one Kat potted." He shoves another striped ball into a pot and leans against the wall. "Your turn." He says to Jai.

His brother obliges, gets one in, and then it's Anne and she makes one in, but unfortunately the cue ball with it. The game continues as Luke's team goes again, but Katherine misses, but actually follows the rules this time. It's my turn and I can't deny the mix of excitement from one of my favorite hobbies or the nerves from the people intently watching the table, especially my ex-boyfriend. His caramel eyes flick to mine quickly, but once we make eye contact, he pulls Katherine to his front, throwing on arm over her shoulder to intertwine his fingers with hers while he uses the other to hold the pool stick.