friends | jaden hossler

T W E N T Y - F I V E

    Recently, the time has been seeming to stop a lot. That's what happened when I saw Madison standing there, face red and tears beginning to fall.

    In that moment, my heart shattered into a million pieces. I realized what I had done and how absolutely fucked up it was. I kissed someone else's boyfriend. Not just once, but twice. I knew how much being cheated on could hurt someone, yet I still did it.

    Everyone around me began talking, but I didn't hear a word anyone said. I had completely muted out everyone yet I still knew what they were saying.

    They were probably trying to come up with excuses, all saying different things then changing their stories to better fit everyone else's. But Madison wasn't stupid, she knew what had happened and I knew she had heard the whole conversation.

    While everyone was talking, she did nothing but stare at me, her eyes not showing anger but that she was broken over this. She shook her head and mouthed the word 'why' at me which only made me feel even guiltier about this.

    Earlier, my excuse for believing that this situation was when Jaden told me that his relationship with her was fake. I forced myself to believe that she knew that also, but in the back of my mind, I knew Madison really did care for him.

    Standing here now, I realized how wrong it was of me to believe that I was the one in the right. In reality, I was the one in the wrong and I was probably going to hate myself for a while for what I did.

    "Beah?" Her voice interrupted my thoughts, taking me by surprise that she chose to talk to me instead of the other people standing in the room.

    I looked back up at her which was a bad idea as it made me feel even worse than I was before. "Yes?"

    Everyone was silent and all eyes were on me. Jaden came to stand beside me, reaching down and interlocking his fingers with mine. The look in Madison's eyes when she saw this could kill somebody.

    "I hope you're happy, really. You and Jaden, I knew it was going to happen, I was just really wishing I could actually make him fall for me as hard as he did for you." After making me feel even shittier, she turned to Jaden. "I'm sorry I wasn't enough. Bye, I guess."

    And with that, the seven of us watched as she walked towards the door, opening it and moving out of the way of Josh who was walking through with Nessa. The two of them gave us confused looks before turning and watching her walk down the driveway, get in her car, and drive away.

    "What in the fuck happened while we were gone?" Josh laughed lightly, but we could all tell he was seriously concerned.

    "I recorded everything, don't worry!" Micah held up her phone to show the new video she recorded indicating she had gotten that whole exchange on camera. She then scrolled and showed the video from before everything went wild.

    Not wanting to see Nessa or Josh's reaction, I walked up the flights of stairs and into my room, flopping onto my bed and holding back from just breaking down.

    There was a knock at my door before the bed next to me sunk down. I felt someone pull me into their lap and hug me. I knew it was Jaden, I would've pulled away if it wasn't for the fact that I didn't even care at this point.

    I had already fucked up his relationship with Madison. What more damage could I possibly do?

    The right thing, in my mind, would be to just end everything with him, even our friendship which would absolutely break me. But then all of this would be for nothing, all our arguments and fights and Madison drama would end with nothing. I wanted it to end with something.

    "Jaden?" I asked, my nerves causing me to shake which I knew that he noticed but decided not to say anything about.

    He looked down at me, a small smile on his face. "Yeah?"

    "I'm sorry."

    "For what?"

    "I don't know. I guess for just being a burden, you know? I've basically ruined your life. I got pregnant and then now I have caused you and Madison to break up. Everyone was right, I'm just ruining you. I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to leave or not be with me. I know we aren't together, I don't even know what we are, but I wouldn't be mad if you wanted things to end between us."

    "Do you want things to end between us?"

    "No."

    He turned me to where I was straddling his lap, our faces inches apart but I didn't make eye contact with him. I knew he was staring at me and wanting me to look at him, though.

    "Beah, you literally just told me you loved me. I finally got you and I'm not going to let you go that easily. I know we're doing everything backwards; you get pregnant, we kiss, and I still haven't even asked you out, but that's okay. All relationships are unique, ours is just probably one of the most unique ones out there. I'm not losing you just because there have been some problems, there's going to be so many more in the future. If you're willing to push through them all, then so am I."

    "Of course I am, I'm willing to do anything to make sure we work out."

    "B?"

    "Yeah?"

    "Does this mean you're ready to be more than friends?"

    I looked up at him this time knowing he already knew the answer to that.

    I've realized over the past few weeks that I have always known my true feelings for Jaden, I was just so obsessed with keeping our friendship perfect because of all the past issues I've had. I was hurting myself, and him, more by holding back and not allowing things to just happen. It was time they happened.

    "What do you mean?" I asked.

    "I mean, will you go out with me?"

    "Of course."

~\*!.["}^

an
i have mixed feelings about this chapter.
but hey, they're finally gonna go on a date and i'm really excited to write that chapter.
oh and there's only gonna be like 5-10 more chapters because i feel like it may be a drag to continue it any longer.
things are going to start speeding up, like larger time jumps instead of just a few days it's going to be like a few weeks. i'm still unsure of how i'm ending it, i have a slight idea but it's not 100% set yet but🤷🏼‍♀️
she also needs to tell her mom and i'm so excited to write that chapter because that will kinda tie in with the end of the book
one last thing, thank you all so so much for 20k reads🥺❤️