𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎; 𝚓𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚛

𝐱𝐢. 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮

Cora

It's been an uneventful week. We went to multiple meet and greets, but still had enough free time to hang out with each other. These people have slowly started to grow on me. Never in a million years did I think that some of my closest friends would be TikTokers. It's honestly refreshing to hang out with people my age for once.

We're currently standing near a playground. I watch as Bryant calls up various couples to take pictures together, starting with ChaCha.

Dixie and Griff are up next, and they do a simple smiling pose. Kio is staggering around with Olivia hanging onto his shoulders for dear life. Anthony and Avani are laying on top of a Jeep (A/N: dAncInG oN a CoP cAr).

Bryce and Josh are all puckered up, their eyes closed. A mental image of two constipated pigs pops up in my mind, making me snort. My mind needs to be fixed, ASAP.
I'm busy entertaining myself by watching the organized chaos swirl around me when Jaden and Chase slide into my box of vision.

They end up skidding past me and slamming into Bryant's jeep. Both of them groan and rub their heads before standing up. Jaden takes a minute to fix his hair in the window reflection before they both come trotting back to me, stupid smiles pasted on their faces.

"That slide was just about as smooth as the middle aged men in my DMs," I smirk.
Jaden flips me off, "Do us a favor and never mention that"
"Mention what?" I ask nonchalantly.
"How we both smashed into-" Chase starts.

"It was a joke dumbass," I playfully roll my eyes at him.
"Oh. Right. You know, Tony sometimes says I'm not the sharpest shed in the tool," he stands there, looking awfully proud of himself. Jaden and I struggle to maintain our poker faces, and Chase slowly starts to realize he messed up. "Oops"

"Chase you had one line, and you managed to screw it up," Jae smirks. Instantly, Chase is on the ground, laughing hysterically. We exchange concerned glances as he slaps the ground aggressively before holding his wrist and screaming.

"I... I GET IT! Screw... sharp tool," he wheezes while grimacing. Everyone's eyes are on us as he launches himself into yet another tornado of giggles. At this point, I'm honestly not sure if he's having a seizure or if he finds unintentional puns hilarious.

Eventually, he manages to get up and staggers towards Charli, who looks like she's been hit with a severe case of second hand embarrassment.

Jaden

Chase collapses into Charli's arms, leaving Cora and I behind. She's frowning at the ground, obviously deep in thought.
"You look like you just chugged an entire gallon of expired milk," I very kindly inform her.

"How would you know what that looks like?" I flick my hand in the general direction of Bryce. She laughs, "should've known"
"So, wanna take a picture together?" I ask, trying to hide the fact that I spent the last twenty minutes trying to figure out how to approach her.

"Jae, this is a couples photoshoot that we decided to 101th wheel in."
"Josh and Bryce aren't a couple," I reason.

"Damn, could've fooled me," she jokes. I study her face, trying to memorize every little detail. Honestly, I still feel like I'm living in a dream right now. Never in a million years would I have thought that I'd be talking to, laughing with, and even sometimes cuddling with the Cora Quinn.

Pouting, I pull her body closer to mind and press my forehead against hers. "Pleasssseeee?"
"Sorry Jae but I'd rather not have tiktokroom all up my ass for taking a pic with you at a photoshoot meant specifically for couples."
I nod understandingly.

No matter how close we get, there will always be that barrier between me and her. A barrier consisting of the difference in social circles, popularity, and the inevitable hate from fans.

I don't think she takes as much notice of it as I do. In fact from her perspective, it probably doesn't even exist.

But I see it whenever I talk to her.

Right now she's just a crush. But I can't help but think that there's still a chance that we may catch feelings for each other and hopeully, a chance that we can be together.

But who am I kidding? She's a celebrity! An insanely well loved and supported one, but still a celebrity.

Even if we somehow manage to fall for each other, the barrier between us will always keep us apart.

Cora wraps her arms around me, effectively bringing me back from the chaos in my head. I smile at her, but it's a sad smile. A smile that reflects the troubled thoughts inside my head.

She lifts her hands to my cheeks and pushes the corners of my lips up in the efforts to make me smile bigger. The side of her face rests lightly on my chest and I smile softly down at her. I don't know how long we stood like that, but I'm ninety nine percent sure she fell asleep at some point.

When we finally pull away, it's to head back to the hotel with the others.

Cora

instant regret, instant regret, instant regret

it wouldn't have been that hard to take a few pictures with him, but nooo I had to be all self conscious about the media.

Honestly we spent so long holding onto each other that I wouldn't be surprised if paparazzi got a good shot of us.

I sigh for probably the fifth time since we got on the bus. Nessa and Dixie glance at me, unsure of what's going on in my brain.

My incredibly idiotic brain.

"Hey Cora, you okay?" Bryant asks, pausing his slideshow of our photos. All eyes turn towards me so I nod quickly and shoot him a quick smile. Jaden sends me a questioning look, knowing something is bothering me. I just turn my attention back to the photos on the screen.

Bryce's and Josh's picture pops up on the screen and we all chuckle at the expressions captured by the camera.

The next pictures catch me completely by surprise.

There was a picture of me and Jaden looking into each others eyes. The next one was of him smiling softly down at me, who was busy burying my face in his chest. The final picture was him resting his chin on top of my head.

We both look content in the pictures. Like nothing could possibly take us out of our state of zen at the moment.

I turn to see Jaden's reaction to the unexpected photoshoot, and he had the biggest smile on his face. "I hope you two don't mind me snapping a few candids. It was just too perfect of a shot to miss," Bryant says.

"Thank you," I say. "I was kind of regretting not taking one anyways"
"Ugh, just date already," Alex groans. "They've literally already admitted to having feelings-"

"Crushes are NOT the same as feelings," Jaden says the sentence in a way that makes me think he's said it multiple times.

"It's been three weeks already! Give it one more, and you'll be catching feelings in no time!" Kouvr jumps in.

I snort disbelievingly, causing all eyes to turn towards me.
"I bet you $500 that by the end of this year, you'll be head over heels in love with Jaden Isaiah Hossler," Bryce says confidently, pointing towards me.

"Alright, bet!"
"Get ready to pay up bitch," he smirks.

They all laugh and we move on to other topics. I'm honestly fairly confident that I'll win this one, mainly because it takes a lot, and I mean a lot of time and effort for me to catch feelings.

Though if I'm being honest, it wouldn't be too devastating if I lost.

•~•~•~•~•