Let's Stop Pretending → #JCpenny ←

Chapter 7: thats all i need to be, happy, happy, happy

It's been a three days since I began dating jake. It's been a month and a week since the last time I talked to Jc. Over a month.

You would think I would be thinking about how exited I am to have a boyfriend and crap, right? Well I should be. But instead all I feel is sorrow.

I just really want to talk to him again. It's impossible, not talking to him. My heart wants to speak to him, and now so does my brain.

I can't stand not being his friend. I can't stand him not being mine. I shift uncomfortable in my warm bed, and pull my covers as close to my body as humanly possible.

I think about Jc, every night, before I sleep, and every morning, after I wake up. It's painful and heartbreaking to think about him sometimes.

A year ago we made that one video together. You might've seen it? They were about what girls/ boys hated about each other basically.

I think I might've had feelings for him then, I might now too. But I can't now, I have jake, he has lia.

Of course, we don't have each other though.

My throat begins to burn as I hold back waterworks. I can't cry over this. I can't. I have to be happy. Yeah, happy.

That's all I need to be, happy, happy, happy.

Still holding the tears in, I shove my hand under my comforter and grab my phone. The time shows up as three p.m. Dear lord, I need to get out of bed.

On my lock screen several message previews with the name "jake" with heart eyes shows up. I've been purposefully ignoring his messages since I woke up.

With my mind on Jc since the second I woke up I just couldn't deal with thinking about jake.

I go on for another twenty or so minutes contemplating about Jc, jake, and the meaning of life until Andrea walks into my room.

She sits down on the edge of my bed making my feet sink into the mattress. "How are you, Jenn?" Andrea asks me.

"A lot better." I lie.

"Kian invited me over to the o2l house and I was thinking.." Andrea begins. Fear swells up inside me. "Maybe you could come with me and bring jake.."

"What?" I ask her with wife eyes.

She ignores me and continues. ".. So that you could introduce him to the guys. I just realized you haven't introduced the boys to jake." I sigh. It might show Jc that I don't have feelings for him. Or maybe trick him in to thinking I don't have feelings for him.

"Sounds pretty good, let me call him and get dressed first." I tell her.

She nods and begins walking out of my room. Right before she fully exits my room she stops "but you only have a half hour." She adds, before she walks out of sight.

It takes me five minutes to call jake and explain to him that he'll be meeting some of my friends and when he needs to be at my apartment ready to go.

I take the other twenty five minutest I shower, get dressed and do my makeup.

I walk out of the bathroom from finishing my makeup to see jake sitting on the couch conversing with Andrea.

I put on my best fake smile, "hi jake!" I greet jake.

"Jenn," jake greets me back. He pushes himself off of the couch and walks over to me. He places both hands on my shoulders, and presses a kiss on my forehead. I blush. What if that was Jc who had kissed my forehead.

God, Jenn, stop thinking about Jc.

When he lowers his hands off of my shoulders, I intertwine my hand with his.

"Alright," andrea intertwines. "Shall we hit the road?"

****

Jake and I walk into the o2l house behind Andrea. Andrea's been dating kian for awhile so she probably even has a key to the house. They kind of just expect her to just walk in without a single knock.

I close the door behind me with the hand that isn't holding jakes.

I use the same hand to cover my mouth. Jake looks down and me and mouths "wow" when he hears what caused my reaction. Andrea looks back at us with raised eyebrows.

"If you're going to act like this then you should probably leave my house, right now!" I hear Jc yell angrily from his bedroom.

A feminine voice, that I recogniz as Lias shouts back at him "if you didn't become friends with her I wouldn't have to act like this!"

Her? Who is this "her" she is referring to?

"This has nothing to do with her!" Jc shouts back at her.

Again, who is this "her"?

Harsh words and shouting continue, as kian, Conner, and rikki, flood into the entrance room with us.

"What's going on with them?" Andrea asks kian.

Kian leans down and kisses her on the lips before replying "they've been fighting like this for a whole week, a different topic everyday."

"Wow." Andrea replies, basically stating the exact thing everyone else is in the room is thinking.

They continue to fight for a few more minutes until lia flies out of the room screaming "I can't believe you would act like this, Jc!"

Jc flies out after her "Me acting like this? You were the childish one that started all of this fighting!" He shouts back.

Jc looks down at all of us standing by the door and closes his mouth. Lia gives me the death glare as she runs down the stairs. She violently makes her mark with the slam of the door, as she exits the house.

Jc doesn't watch a single second of her stormy exit. Instead he looks at me, and jake. Jc shifts his eyes down to our hands and instinctively pull my hand out of jakes.

Jake leans down to me and whispers into my ear "are you okay?" But I can't reply to him, when I notice the pained look in Jc's eyes.