Fake It Till You Make It

Jaxon

We head down to the basement to talk to James. I hope he will understand. Leighton is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and James is the best, best friend I could ever ask for, so I hope he will be okay with it.

"That took forever bro." James says.

"Sorry." I say.

He looks over and sees Leighton.

"Why is she down here?" He asks.

"We need to talk to you about something." I say.

"Oh good, you're staging the breakup and you need my help?"

"No, not quite."

"Well then what is it."

"Please don't be mad."

"Why would I be mad? Just tell me already. You guys are acting weird."

"Your sister and I, kind of, ya know..."

"Spit it out."

"We love each other." Leighton blurts.

"What?!" James yells.

"During the fake relationship, we caught real feelings for each other. And now we don't really want it to be fake anymore. And we were wondering how you felt about that." I say.

"This better be a fucking prank!"

"It's not." I say.

"Have you guys had sex?" He asks.

"Uh, I don't see why that matters." I say.

"Did you guys have sex? Yes or no."

"Yes." I say.

James gets up in Leighton's face.

"What the fuck were you thinking, you little slut?! You're such a god damn hoe! Fucking dumb ass hoe!" He yells.

Leighton starts to cry. I grab her and hug her close to me with one arm, holding the other arm out to stop James.

"Please chill bro."

"Are you really fucking asking me to chill right now?!!! Get your fucking hands off my sister, you disrespectful fucking bastard!" He yells, pushing me hard.

"James, stop. I know it was wrong to mess around with your sister behind your back. But you were on board with the fake relationship and that's how I caught feelings for her. So you aren't totally innocent in this." I say, trying to make peace.

"Don't talk to me about innocent you little bitch! Fuck you! FUCK YOU!" He yells, pushing me against the wall and throwing a punch that I dodge.

Leighton runs between us and tries to stop James but he ends up hitting her instead. He punches her right in the eye. He steps back, shocked at himself. Leighton cries harder. I pick her up with her legs around me and sit her down on the armchair, crouching down to face her. I pull her hand away from her eye.

"It's okay. Let me see it."

I examine her eye. It's really red and swollen, and I know in a day or two it will be a black eye.

"I'm so sorry, Leigh." James says from the background.

"You're not sorry! I hate you!" Leighton wails.

I pick her back up and run her up to the kitchen, meeting her mom on the stairs who was coming down to see what all the commotion was about.

"What's wrong?" She asks.

"James punched her in the eye." I say.

"What?! Oh my god!" She exclaims, speed walking with me to the kitchen.

I sit her down on the counter.

"I've got it mrs Rogers. Go check on James." I say.

"You sure?" She asks.

"Positive."

"Okay. Let me know if you need anything."

"Ok, I will."

She runs back down to the basement where James is. I get Leighton an ice pack to put on her eye and wipe her tears with a hot wet rag. Holding tissues for her to blow her nose into. I remove her ice pack and kiss her eye lightly. She grabs onto me and hugs me tight, I hug her tighter. After a few minutes, I carry her up to her bed and lay with her, she falls asleep on my chest. As I am dozing off, there is a knock on her door.

"Come in." I say.

It's James.

"Dude, I'm so sorry I overreacted. I feel so bad about what I did to Leighton. Thank you for taking care of her." He says.

"Yeah, no problem. I forgive you bro, but it might not be that easy with Leighton. You'll have to talk to her and apologize to her when she wakes up."

"Yeah, I know. You're my best friend so I care a lot about you. But Leighton is my little sister, so I care a lot about her too. You also know how overprotective I can get with her, so it was hard for me to hear that you two had something going on behind my back." He says.

"I know bro, I completely understand. Are we good now?" I ask.

"Yeah, we're good." He says, dapping me up.

"So, do you think you can warm up to the idea of Leighton and I being together?" I ask.

"I guess." He says.