Tempted Hearts (bxb)

Chapter 14 - Hang Unders

As I stood with Lilly who tapped away at her laptop, I couldn't help but smile as she typed out her college application with glee strapped to her face. She was super excited to be going, studying Economics and finally moving on with her life from high school drama. One of her options was even the university that I was hoping to go to, but it was her last option. I didn't want her to make her choice based on me, it should be based on her and what would be the best option for her, anyway.

"What do you think of... this line?" She pointed to it.

I looked over it for a second. "Oh, I totally forgot that you set up the Earth Day charity event in our eighth year..." The quality of her application was beginning to make me question my own. I was always a little envious of Lilly's intelligence. Well, her ability to take mountains of information and keep it in her brain so well.

"Yep, and we raised over a hundred that day!" She grinned, thinking back to it. I was beginning to see why Emily wanted to ruin her life, she really did have it all going for her, and with her grades, she now had easy access to pretty much anywhere that she wanted to go.

We then heard the door to Lilly's room open as Jake walked in. "Hey, losers. What's going on?" he claimed, walking over to see what we were looking at.

"My official application," she said with pride, likely with the knowledge that he couldn't make fun of her bad grades anymore.

"So what I'm hearing is: Lilly's moving out!" She then proceeded to do a full-body eye roll as he spoke. "I'm gonna turn your room into a home gym," he proclaimed. I didn't doubt this for a second.

"How about you start writing your application- you've had since the day you got your grades to do it," she responded, eyes not moving off of the screen.

He then peered over her shoulder. "Determined, hard-working?" he scoffed. "Is this Max's application, or?"

"Did you come in here just to fuck with me?" Lilly uttered, pushing his face backwards with her hand.

He laughed slightly. "No. I came here to ask Max for a favour," he said, turning to look at me.

"Damn, Jake I thought you were straight?" I played along.

"I ain't gay but ya know... Max is top of the list," he replied, smirking.

"I ain't top of anything," I responded, sharing his expression.

Lilly then laughed. "Oh, God help us all," she saved her work in the top left to join in with the chatter. "Both of you need to get a room."

"I need to borrow your boyfriend for like five minutes," he said, walking towards the door and gesturing for me to follow him.

I then looked at Lilly, her eyes lit up. "I'll be fine, go," she said, ushering me away with her hands as I got up and followed Jake out into the landing.

"So, I've got a problem and I have no idea who to tell or what to do about it," he admitted, sounding quite worried which was entirely abnormal for him. "And you're good at this whole listening and talking thing so..."

I snickered. "Okay..." I pushed him on.

"Well... ah, this is awkward..." he scratched the back of his head.

"Let me guess. You got into another fight and need me to assassinate the enemy?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, it's more like... the opposite, actually," he admitted, worry present in his eyes which made me worry. What on Earth had he got himself into this time?

I thought for a second. "The opposite of killing is..." My soul then plummeted into the depths of my body. "Oh no, Jake. You didn't..." I looked on, wide-eyed as the realisation hit me like a ton of bricks. My heart felt like it had been scrunched up into a tiny paper ball, kicked around by a football team, laid out flat, then fed into a shredder. That could've well and truly be the end of any possible connection between us.