Hearts ✓

Twenty - Two 💕

I was wrong

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Jake is still crying but I decide to hug him from behind. He flinches but instantly relaxes when he realizes that I'm not a stranger.

As I take a seat next to him, I can see from the corner of my eye that he is trying to rapidly wipe away his tears. "Jake, I know you're crying," I breathe. "It's okay."

Then with that, more and more tears flow out, and suddenly, my very flimsy and emotional heart decides to give in, and I start crying. If a most flimsy and emotional heart contest ever existed, I would win the grand prize yearly.

Eventually, Jake and I begin to resemble crying monkeys hugging at around sunset, in the middle of a pristine white bench perpendicular to a place near my house while our cars are parked nearby.

"We look like idiots." I laugh through my tears.

"Idiots in love." He grins.

"You idiot."

"An idiot but proud."

Our bodies are barely an inch apart when our noses align, however, we're still talking to each other incoherently and laughing at our very reckless journey leading up to today. My body is sort of haphazardly hugging him in a contorted form, while my arms are wrapped around his neck loosely.

When the blazing sun had set, it usually shined the brightest this time aiming right at my eyes and I instantly squinted, however, once my eyes had adjusted to the shade, and I could see once more, I quickly propped myself up on one elbow and noticed that Jake had gone quiet and was staring at me. I began to self-consciously wonder if there was something wrong with my appearance, but as soon as our eyes locked, we both were unable to look away.

"I can't believe that all this started when you decided to sit on my porch." I laugh, finally breaking away from our gaze.

"Callie." He inches closer to me.

At that moment, I had fully acknowledged each and every one of his features. Although I saw Jake every day, now that I was right next to him, hugging under the sunset, I began to notice his toned figure. He had a chiseled jaw and the cutest smile in the whole world.

I trace my finger on his back humming to the beat of an unnamed tune when Jake grabs my hand. I stare at him strangely, his eyes told me a story, however, before either of us could say a word, I press my lips against his, and the whole world fades behind us. Our kiss isn't hungry, it's passionate. I could feel the warmth and the softness of his lips, something I hadn't noticed previously.

But as all good things come to an end, this too does.

"Not running away anymore?" I laugh as we pull apart.

"Apparently not." He nudges me.

We share a small series of laughter before Darren honks his car, knocking us both out of a trance.

"Darren!" We both exclaim in surprise, eyeing him strangely.

"Sorry!" He fidgets with the corner of the hoodie he was wearing just moments ago. "Just needed to see how Jake was doing, didn't mean to walk into both of you kissing."

I feel my cheeks flush a deep, plush red as I stare at Darren, mouth agape, as he laughs at his obnoxiousness. I turn to my left, and Jake's cheeks are the same color as mine, and he's wearing the same expression.

"You want to tell us about that girl?" I asked.

"What?"

"You said you'd let your best friend keep love because all you ever wanted was it."

"Shit." He mumbles. "I made a mistake, one I can't take back."

Noticing that this had gone far beyond a joke in a matter of seconds, both Jake and I rushed to Darren, asking him what was happening.

"Callie, Jake. It's nothing." Except that the tears were evident in his eyes, so much that he was beginning to shudder, and shrink away from Jake's grasp.

"I was in love with a girl, she's still here, and all I ever wanted was for her to love me back." He grips Jake's arm for support while he faces me. His face doesn't look as scary and intimidating as I was told, under all those layers, just like Jake, he was a softie. "But to get rid of the feelings, I made a boy break her heart through the dare."

"Darren, it's okay." I pat his back uncomfortably. I was used to this reassuring role in his story.

"She's still broken, picking up the pieces that were shattered, and I know that she'll never forgive me b-b-because." He stutters very much unable to continue. If he started the story by visibly crying, then now, he was now visibly shaking. This boy must have been madly in love.

"Because she's still in love," I realize what he's trying to say. "With the person that played her."

I have to admit, I was very much wrong. I started the dare by narrating that there were a selected amount of boys that could be saved, curable from this 'plague' while the others were too far deep to be pulled out, but that wasn't true, all boys could be saved, it was just a matter of who can save them.

I was attempting at saving Jake.

The girl that Darren was in love with, could save him.