𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎; 𝚓𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚜𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚛

𝐱𝐥𝐯𝐢. 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐤

Cora

"h-how would you feel about going on a date with me?"

"no."

"n-no?"

"yes"

"y-yes?"

"god I don't know, Jaden. This is the third time. The third time you've asked me for 'another chance', the third time you've promised it'll be different."

his hands tighten around my waist, pulling me even closer to him. "no coco you can't... you can't just leave me," his voice cracks. "i love you. i love you so damn much, Cora. just give me one final chance, I'll never let anything come between us again"

"I think you're forgetting who did the leaving," I whisper back. Something wet smears against my skin as he buries his head in the crook of my neck. tears.

great, now we're both crying.

"i promise..."

sighing, I rub at my eyes furiously, racking my brain for answers on what to do. I never stopped loving Jaden, and I honestly don't think I ever will. Maybe I'll move on someday, and maybe I'll give someone else a chance, but nobody will ever understand me the same way Jaden does.

he messed up. and he'll probably continue to mess up. but the question is... is he worth the risk?

I find myself glancing at Kio helplessly. He seems to be the only one aware of our conversation, probably because he's been staring at us the entire movie. Gotta love having a stalker as a best friend.

He raises his eyebrows at me, and I shrug. After a few more seconds of communicating via our telepathic connection, I turn away.

"please..." his breath brushes against my ear as he whispers, sending shivers down my spine.

thinking back over all our memories and good times together, I finally figure out my thoughts. Jaden's worth the risk. He'd always been worth it, and he always will be worth it.

"you got yourself one more chance, Hossler. first person to fuck it up has to pack their bags, move to Antarctica, and become one with the polar bears."

"i love polar bears," he mumbles, before jerking backwards. "wait- what? another chance? you'll go on a date with me?"

I can't help but smile at the tone of his previously broken voice. It's like seeing a dead person come back to life- after showing nothing but sadness for so long, I can finally detect something else in his tone.

joy.

"no fucking way," he gapes at me before burying his face back into my neck, arms gripping me tighter than ever. "i love you coco... promise i won't fuck it up... never again"

but of course, we can never have a heartfelt moment with the sway boys around. turning our heads to where everyone else is, we find all the boys staring at us with huge smiles on their faces, simultaneously reaching into one giant bag of popcorn. Josh misses the popcorn bucket and ends up grabbing Noah's hair instead, causing a minor fight to break out between the two.