𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐨𝐲 || 𝐉𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫

Pt. 24

I woke up the next morning and looked at my phone. There were a bunch of messages from the guys and then I saw one from Troy. I put my phone on do not disturb and then went to go get ready for the day. It was Saturday so I decided to go distract myself for a while. I got dressed and got into my car. I pulled up to the arcade and walked inside. I looked around to see where the worker was from yesterday, but I didn't see him anywhere. I decided to play a couple games and then when I was about to beat the high score on Galaga, someone tapped on my shoulder. "Hold up one sec, imma bout to beat this game's ass."

"Woah, you're serious about this." I turned around and saw him standing there. His light-colored eyes were looking back at me and he was smiling. "So, you came back?"

"Yea I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out."

He smiled and then was about to say something when someone came into the arcade yelling his name, "Shit, I gotta go take care of that." He left me there and as I peeked to see who it was, I saw a random girl standing there. Her brown wavy hair flowed nicely, and she was getting mad at him. I went back to the game and waited for him to come back. Once he did, I just focused on the game.

"So, I can't really hang out later, it's just my girlfriend. She's going crazy that I'm not with her every day. Sorry, wait what was your name again?"

I was slightly disappointed with hearing he couldn't hang but also that he had a girlfriend, "(y/n) (l/n)"

"Okay cool, well I'm Anthony Reeves. Look let's hang some other day, I don't want to die today so I better hang with my girl."

"Alright, well I was heading out anyway." That was a total lie. "See you later." I grabbed my bag and headed to my car. I started the car and drove away fast. I wasn't angry at him, I was just angry with myself thinking I could try to move on to anyone else. 

_______________________________

It was Saturday and I was alone. I usually hang out with the boys or Alvaro, but I don't want to face any of them. I decided to take a nap for a while and when I woke up it was already 4pm, so I decided to try to go to the mall. I got my stuff and headed for my car when I saw someone walking towards me. 

I looked closer and noticed that it was Jake. "Hey can we talk?" 

I nodded my head and we both got into the car. "So, what is it?"

"I don't know what to do with myself. I don't want the group to end like this and I know you don't either. We all love each other and most importantly, I love you." I looked over to him and saw his eyes watering. "I messed up so bad (y/n), I shouldn't have done the things I did. I'm so sorry."

I stayed silent and looked down at my hands. "Maybe we can talk about this another time, I'm not really in the mood to talk about anything that could affect our future. I said I needed a break from you guys, sorry."

"So that's it? You're not even going to try to save the group."

"I've tried, but you know what happened. So, don't act dumb. I need to go Jake, so if you're done then please get out of my car." I kept staring at my hands and I just heard him sigh. 

"(Y/n), you know that you won't ever talk to me again. Please don't do this. We need to work something out, not just for the group but for us." He grabbed my face and made me look at him, "We are everything we have. Let's try to fix this." He leaned in fast and kissed me. I was shocked at first and then was about to push him off when something inside me didn't want me to pull away. I missed his soft lips and touch. Our lips were still connected, and he grabbed my face closer to him. He pulled away and leaned his head on mine. Still stroking my cheek, he backed away a little and looked at me, "Let's fix this. We are good for each other." He got out of the car and smiled at me before closing the car door, "I'll see you later, right?"

I didn't say anything. I mean was I supposed to? I was so confused, and I didn't have anyone to talk about it with. I turned the car back on and drove off to the one place where I needed to distract myself again.

_______________________________

"So that's what happened." 

Anthony nodded his head and was thinking a lot about the situation of the group and everything that happened that year. "Well that's crazy. I mean I don't know what to say really."

"It's alright, I just needed to get these things off my chest. Thanks."

"No problem, I'm always here if you need to talk."

"So, I thought you were supposed to be hanging with you girlfriend."

"Yea we had lunch together, but she had to go back to California, usually she stays the whole day and hangs with me, but today was my lucky day." 

I laughed and so did he. We were just sitting on the sidewalk when a idea popped into my head.

"Do you guys need new employees?"

"Wait you want to work here?"

"Yea why not?"

"No, I mean that's really cool and we could always use some more people. Just come by on Monday after school."

"alright, thanks."

We went back inside, and I played a few games. Anthony's shift was over, so I offered him a ride, we decided to get some food and then head to my house. 

After we ate, we just talked about different things. Until he brought up a different question, "So you have siblings?"

"Yea I have a brother, but he committed suicide last year."

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have brought that up."

"It's alright. So why are you in Florida?"

"Well my family moved down when my brother got into university and then he got kicked out, so we couldn't really go anywhere else. Then I moved to Los Angeles with some friends and recently moved back to Florida because my friend had passed away and I wanted to help his mom out. It's really hard for her, so I decided to just move back." He sat back on the sofa and looked up at the ceiling. "Man, now that I think about it my friend and I were crazy. We used to do the stupidest stuff, but it was just so funny. A part of me wishes I didn't move, but I was able to see my friends in California. I don't know. I just miss him; he was a great kid. Then about three months ago I heard his brother was in town and I didn't really want to visit anymore. His brother did ugly things in college, but I mean so did my brother."

I was processing everything he was telling me and then looked back up at him, "What was his name?"

"Bambi" 

I froze.

"Well his actual name was Elijah, but we were so dumb that we used to call him Bambi." He laughed. I didn't say anything and then he spoke again, "And then there was this girl that would come and hang with us sometimes. I'm telling you, she was amazing at skateboarding and I remember her nickname was something dumb. I can't remember, uh I think it was..." He was still thinking and then I interrupted his thoughts. 

"Chubs." As I said it, he looked up at me and smiled.

"Yea Chubs." He nodded his head, "Nice to see you again."

"Nice to see you too Ant."

"I guess he wanted to bring us back together."

"Yea I guess."

The person I thought would never come back actually did and now I realized I was never going to stop missing Elijah, because now Anthony was here, and we were going to be just like how we used to be.

Inseparable.