Just Friends...For Now-Book Four

Chapter 1

"Then you take the cosign of two squared times the quantity of x. Then minus the square root of three. After that, all you have to do is multiply that by x and that should all equal zero." Brittany Gavins told me, shrugging her shoulders, smiling. "Really, Jacob, it's quite simple."

I stared at her dumbfounded, my mouth hanging wide open. "Yeah, okay." I said sarcastically.

Britt laughed, shaking her head. Then her face grew serious. "Jacob, you have to know this stuff if you're gonna pass your finals. I mean, we're seniors now. It's our last chance."

I sighed, knowing that she was right. I remembered the times when I was better than Britt in math, back when we were freshman. Now the tables have turned and she helped me most days after school.

Oh, hey there! I'm Jacob Sartorius and, at this point and time, I am 18 years old. I am a senior in high school and my life is a jumbled up mess. Here is a little summary of what has happened since the last time you heard from me, which was the last day of my sophomore year of high school...

During the summer leading up to my junior year of high school, I hung out with Britt and Trenton, who were dating throughout that whole summer. Then right before school started, Trenton's parents got new jobs out of state in New York, so Trenton had to move. Britt and Trenton had been dating ever since with a long distance relationship. I never dated anyone during my junior year.

While I was in my junior year, I kept up with making Vines and musicals. By then, on Vine I had three million followers and musical.ly I had 18 million. My success rate had been increasing a lot in my social media business and I began to act in small movies. But for my senior year, I decided to take a break and really focus on school work. I decided no tours, no movies, no videos, just posting every few days on social media. It was a big adjustment.

Anyways, now in this story I am about to tell you, it is the May before I am graduating as the class of 2021 and I was extremely nervous. Well, for starters I was failing my math class, which was trigonometry. I was doing pretty well in English and my other classes, but my math was bringing down my GPA. And I needed to have a good GPA to get into the college of my dreams. But first, I had to bring up that math grade to even graduate, which would be pretty hard since it was an F.

But back to the story now. Britt and I were at my house right after school had ended and we were studying at my kitchen table...

I sighed, looking at the complicated equations on the sheet in front of me, fiddling with my pencil. "I will never use this stuff ever again in my life." I grumbled. Britt laughed. I glared at her. "I want to become an actor or a producer! They don't need to know what equals zero or cosign this and cosign that."

Britt opened her mouth to say something when her phone began to ring. She shut her mouth and dug into her highlighter pink and black backpack. I watched curiously as she pulled out her phone. When she looked at the caller ID, her face flushed and she turned off her phone. She quickly shoved the phone back into her bag and shook her head. I frowned at her.

"Who was it?" I asked, confused. She shook her head, forcing a smile onto her face.

"No one," she replied shortly. My eyebrows raised as she said, "Let's keep on studying."

I nodded my head cautiously as she began to look around the table, feeling for something. She mumbled under her breath, "Pencil, pencil..."

I frowned. "Uh, Britt?" I said as she began to rapidly dig through her backpack, switching to the papers on the table. "Britt!" I said again, louder.

"What?!" Britt yelled exasperatingly.

I pointed to her head, whispering, "Your ear."

She looked at me confused, then widened her eyes. Her hand whipped up to the side of her head, and surely, there was a pencil tucked behind her ear. She looked at the orange pencil and sighed, sinking down in her seat, exhausted. I looked at her worried.

"Brittany," I said softly. She looked down at her lap. "What's wrong?" When she looked back up at me, her eyes were filled with tears and her lower lip trembled.

"The phone call," Britt started out, her voice small. "It was Trenton."

I frowned. "Why wouldn't you want to talk to Trenton?" I asked, clearly confused.

Britt took a deep breath, a small tear running down her cheek. "Trenton broke up with me. About a week ago." Britt said in a shaky voice. My eyebrows raised as she rubbed her eyes with her fists.

"Why?" I asked her quietly. Britt looked back up at me and smiled a tiny bit.

"He was cheating on me with another girl for three months." Britt sighed, shaking her head. She scoffed, muttering, "I guess some things never change." I knew that Brittany was remembering when Trenton used Britt for money back in our freshman year of high school.

I shook my head angrily, my face becoming warm. "Trenton is a fool." I said, balling my fists. I looked up at Britt, who was silently crying, and saw that insulting Trenton would not make her happier.

I walked around the other side of the table and she stood up. I looked into her deep brown eyes and brushed a blonde strand of hair out of her face. She looked into my hazel eyes as I brought her into a gentle hug.

I felt the warmth of her body pressed against mine as she said, "The girl he cheated on me doesn't even sound pretty. Her name is Alice."

My eyes widened, thinking back to a girl I knew years before named Alice. Then I shook away the thought and pulled a way from Britt a bit. I put my hands on her shoulders as she looked at me sadly. I sighed.

"Brittany. Britt," I said, tilting my head and smiling. She giggled, sniffling. "You'll get through this because you are a strong girl."

"Almost a woman." Britt said proudly, straightening out her posture and smiling. I rolled my eyes.

"You may be eighteen, but you still act like a child." I said taking my hands off of her shoulders, smirking as I turned away from her. She scoffed.

"Coming from the guy who still makes vines about hashtag relatable things." Britt said, lightly punching my shoulder. My cheeks reddened as I turned back to face her.

"You still watch my vines?" I asked embarrassedly. Britt rolled her eyes.

"Duh, you're my friend Jacob." she said as she crossed her arms. The word 'friend' seemed to have punched me right in the stomach, taking all of the air out of my breath.

"Yeah," I said shortly, my cheeks reddening.

Britt went back to her seat at the table, but I remained standing. I looked at all the signs I had: butterflies in my stomach, red cheeks, happiness clouding my head. As of the past few weeks, whenever I saw Brittany I got ten times happier. My study sessions with Brittany felt sentimental. When I hugged Britt just then, I felt so much more comforted, even bough I was trying to comfort her.

And then I came to the realization. After all the years, I still liked Brittany Gavins.