𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐀 𝐅𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝

chapter 38 - More than a friend

kenzie's p.o.v

"Hey kenz." Lauren said, barging into my room followed by Johnny, Darian and my sister Maddie.

"Hi." I got up from my bed, wrapping my arms around Lauren.
"Are you okay with John or are you giving him the cold front?" She hushed against my ear.
"Definitely the cold front." I whispered back.

She nodded pulling away.
"Hey Dare." I said, moving in to hug her and still not acknowledging Johnny's presence.

"Mom and Mer and Dale have got this ridiculous idea that we need to 'bond.' They took all our phones away." Maddie groaned.

"It's so pissing off. I was talking to Nadia." Johnny complained and I internally rolled my eyes.
"Literally no one cares john." Lauren pointed out and I flashed her a smile.

"Well I still have mine." I teased, sticking my tongue out at them, earning a smack from Maddie.

"Anyways the objective is for us to bond over Monopoly." Darian said stiffly, dropping the board game on my bed.

"I don't see the point of that when we could easily be binging gossip girl but sure let's go ahead." Maddie sighed, and one by one we all plonked ourselves onto  the bed and began to entertain our selves with the game.

I wasn't surprised to notice that I wasn't the only one planning to maintain a distance and be cold, as it seems Johnny was doing that too. And not just being cold, the idiot was totally overdoing his pettiness over our fight the other day.

He deliberately kept buying the places he knew were my favorites and just found ways to spite me and I was growing irritated with him. He was being so childish.

"That's it! I'm not playing anymore." I stood up, throwing my monopoly money at him.
"What's wrong?" Darian asked her eyebrows raised and I pointed at John.
"He's being a jerk!"

Johnny rolled his eyes,"stop being such a baby Kenz."
I folded my arms against my chest. I couldn't take it any longer.

"No! I know this is just your way of being petty for what happened that day. Well guess what john? You. Kissed.Me. If you're lashing out at me because you feel guilty about Nadia, get over it cause like you said, it was just a stupid kiss!"

"I'm not being petty about the kiss!" Johnny snapped, clenching his fists angrily.

"Wait a second. You told her about the kiss? I thought you didn't want to?" Darian butted in confusedly.

I paused.
"Wait...what do you mean?" I looked from Darian's raised eyebrows to Johnny's pale face.

I didn't know Johnny told Darian about our kiss at the theme park.
But judging from the way she put it, something didn't feel quite right.

-

johnny's p.o.v

"What is Darian talking about?" Kenzie demanded, looking back and forth from me and Darian.

My eyes fell briefly on Lauren and Maddie who had their mouths popping open like goldfish.

"Tell me Johnny?!" Kenzie repeated impatiently.

"I..um...."

Darian cleared her throat," Let's give them a minute."

"Uh right..lets go to my room." Maddie said opening the door and as the walked out Lauren shot Kenzie a comforting look and me a glare.
I squirmed.

After they left there was silence in the room for about two seconds before Kenzie spoke up.

"What's happening to our friendship Johnny?" She said shaking her head.
I opened my mouth and then shut it, not quite knowing what to say.

"Why can't we be open with each other anymore?" She asked and I gulped, looking down.

I let out a heavy sigh.

"What's happened to our friendship. It's just pathetic."
She muttered to herself, loud enough for me to hear.
"We fight every other week!"

I gulped,"Kenzie I swear I can explain."

She looked up at me and I could see the hurt in her eyes.

She gestured towards the bed and we both sat down.

I stared at my hands, too much of a coward to look at her.
"Kenzie I'm sorry I didn't tell you. The other day when you came over to hang out with the girls and well..you kind of got drunk."
I looked up to her assess her expression.
She squeezed her eyes shut but didn't stop me from continuing.

"Well then.." I bite my lip harshly," We kissed. I mean, you kissed me but I promise I didn't kiss back!"

Her eyes opened and she gave me an expression I didn't understand.

"So that day at the theme park wasn't the first time we kissed..?" She said, her voice sounding low and as if it was coming from far away.

I shook my head and she hid her face in hands.
I put my hand on her shoulder,"Kenzie don't worry about it. It didn't mean anything to me and it doesn't have to. We can totally forget about it. Why do you think I didn't tell you? I didn't want you to feel weird about it."

She immediately moved away from my touch and looked up at me in a disgusted manner.
It kind of hurt.

"You didn't tell me," she spat,"because you didn't want me running off to Nadia."

"That's not true." I frowned.

She laughed coldly," I'm not stupid. If you really cared about our friendship you would have told me what happened without hesitation. Unfortunately ever since Nadia's come into the picture it appears that's not the case."
I was surprised to hear kenzie's bitter words and her reference to Nadia.

"Nadia has never intervened in our friendship. Nothing's changed cause of her." I said through clenched teeth.

"Really? Don't act like she hasn't been insecure of our friendship. What happened to how close we used to be? In the past six months the only time I felt close to you was when she was off in Milan for four days!" She exclaimed.

I didn't know whether to be angry or confused at her accusation.

Kenzie never said anything about Nadia and my relationship and definitely did not make it clear that she had a problem with it.

I stood up,"Nadia isn't the reason this friendship hasn't been working out." I voiced out unsurely, but making sure my voice sounded dead confident.

Kenzie looked taken aback and I was satisfied to have left her at a loss for words.

Finally she got a grip and said shaking her head,"I don't want to be the kind of person who comes in between my best friend and someone that makes that happy." My eyes softened and I got this sudden urge to hug her.

"But Johnny I can't go on like this." She shook her head repeatedly.

We were both quiet.
I looked around her room and seeing all our childhood pictures together made my heart heavy.
This isn't how I wanted things to be between us.
I knew Kenzie and I couldn't be together but I didn't want things to be like this. I glanced over at her, my heart thumping painfully. She wasn't looking at me, her attention directed towards her palms. I stared at her quietly, wondering what she was thinking. her eyes were getting watery and my chest hurt seeing how I was the reason for those tears.

"Kenzie I'm sorry." I sighed sadly.
she didn't reply and I looked up at her,"I really am. Please say something." I begged.

She didn't reply and I was about to get up and move closer towards her when she took a deep breath and suddenly blurted,"Johnny, I need the tell you the truth because I don't see the point in lying to you anymore. I can't be friends with you anymore because I...
I like you. More than a friend."

THANK U FOR 1k votes and 30k reads I love u angels so muchhh💕💕

oh and things are going to go to down real fast in the next chapter :/

~annie