Player

Fifteen - All Better

(edited)

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Jake kisses me one more time and lets my wrist go. I climb into the passenger side of Ana's navy blue car and closes the door behind me.

"I'll see you tonight." Jake leans his head through the open window and nuzzles his face into my neck. I laugh and pull away.

"Tonight," I repeat. "See you then."

Jake backs away from the bug and waves. I wave back, leaning my forehead on the window and smiling. I catch a glimpse of Liam in the doorway and I scowl. He looks defeated and I'm glad. He tried to tear me and Jake apart and I was stupid enough to fall for his friendliness. I was an idiot.

"Buh bye, Jake!" Ana hollers from the driver's side, almost blowing out my eardrum. I wince and laugh.

"Bye!" Jake yells back and waves once more before Ana drives off down the road.

I lean into the back of my seat and let out a big sigh.

"I'm happy for you." Ana squeals in her seat, bouncing around. "I wondered how long it would take for one of you to finally confess your undying love. But I never thought that Jake would lose."

"Yeah, well he did and now I am superior." I can't seem to stop smiling. My cheek muscles burn and I place my hands on them, hiding my face from the world.

Jake and I. Me and Jake. Together. An actual couple.

It's insane. At the beginning of the year, I expected the agreement to be agonizing and painful, but it ended up being so much different. I loved it. Every single moment that I was with Jake was just bringing us closer. At the beginning of this year, I hated Jake Cross because he was with a new girl every other week and sleeping with anything that had a vagina.

Now it's weird to think that he won't be with anyone else but me. I won't see Jake at prom with Giselle because she is finally one hundred percent out of the picture. Jake is all mine now. It might make me sound selfish and greedy, but I don't care.

Ana turns into my driveway and we both get out. She skips over to me, obviously as happy and giddy as I am right now. She links my elbow with hers and parades us through the front door, catching my parents' attention.

"Well, you guys look happy. What happened?" Dad raises an eyebrow and sets down his coffee mug on the counter. My mom looks as confused as ever. It must be from seeing me early this morning and how depressed I was. Well, good news.

"Manny and Jake got together, finally!" Ana shouts and jumps up and down, her big blond curls bouncing along with her.

Dad's face goes from emotionless to pure terror. I suddenly get all anxious and want to pull the collar of my shirt up and over my face. Mom's reaction is very similar to Ana's. She lets out a little scream and cheers, running over to me and hugging me.

"I like Jake!" She kisses my cheek about a thousand times and I wonder if I should grab her by the shoulders and spin her around so that she can see dad's face. "He stands up for you and that's good."

"Uh, yeah. Jake's a good kid." Dad definitely doesn't show the same type of enthusiasm as mom, but at least now he looks somewhat happier.

"Manny and I are going to go to a Halloween party to celebrate, we'll be back later. Don't wait up!" Ana fills my parents in on our plans like she owns the place. Dad looks like he's about to disagree, but mom quickly shoots him the stink eye to shut him up.

"Okay, honey." Mom smiles cheerfully. "Just call if you need a ride back or anything, okay? Be safe."

I could tell that by 'be safe' she meant 'use a condom', but I didn't say anything about it. When I'm ready, I'll have sex with Jake. I'm not stupid, I take my birth control every morning and I know better than to not use a condom. Jake and I got close once and we both knew to use protection.