Frenemies? Or Something More?: a Blake Gray Fanfiction *completed*

24

"I guess joking is a coping mechanism. If you ever need to talk about it, you know that I'm here for you, right?" Jaden asked.
I nodded. "I think that this is something that I'm okay with dealing with on my own. It doesn't really hurt me so much anymore. Blake and I talked again, and we had a mutual agreement. We're gonna take things really slow and out of the public eye. When it comes down to it, I think that it'll be fine."
Jaden and I finished up our meals in silence. "Want to go back to Sway? All the girls are there right now."
I nodded, and we got into the car, listening to Jaden's newest single as he drove.

When we pulled in, Mads was getting out of her car. "How did your best friend day go?" she asked, pulling Jaden in for a hug.
"It went pretty well," I replied, holding my arm up for her to see my tattoo.
"Oh, that looks so good!" she said, letting go of Jaden and grabbing my arm to turn it for a better look.
"You're too sweet," I replied, hugging her.
"Okay, enough with all of the hugs. Let's go inside," Jaden said.

We walked into the house, and Jaden had been right. The girls were all sitting in the living room. "Tiffany!" Addison yelled. "I didn't know that you were going to be here today."
"In my defense," I laughed, "neither did I."
Nessa interjected. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever. You left the party before I could talk to you the other day."
I nodded. "That party was a little rough. I had to get out of there kind of quickly."
"We know. You weren't feeling well, and Griffin was already leaving," Avani said, referencing the interview that Fletcher had forced me into.
My face flushed red. "I don't want to talk about it." The room erupted with laughter, and I sat on the couch next to Addison. "Where are all the boys at?"

As if the mere mention of them caused them to appear, Anthony, Quinton, Josh, Bryce, Noah, Kio, Blake, and Griffin came inside. "Tiff!" Bryce exclaimed. "We missed you, girl!"
Everyone talked amongst themselves, and I just observed. We hadn't been this close since the day that I told Blake that a real relationship wasn't in the cards for us. I understood why. They were his friends before they were mine.
Blake came to sit next to me. "What are you thinking about?" he whispered.
I shrugged. "How different everything has been for the last six months."
"The things that happen to us make us who we are. We'll be better together because of the things that we went through, rather than despite them," Blake replied, wrapping his arm around my shoulder.

Bryce looked over at us. "So, wait, are you guys back together or what?"
Blake and I looked at each other. "We're taking it slowly. That's it. We'll see what happens."
A pained expression graced Griffin's face, but he quickly masked it with a smile.
"Only time will tell. If nothing else, Blake and I will be able to be good friends again. You know, there's a history there. We grew up in the same town. In this industry, you can't let connections like that just disappear," I said, desperately trying to cover our tracks. No one was listening, and they probably didn't care either way, but I found myself with an unextinguishable need to explain.

We all sat together in comfortable silence. In the last six months, I had gone from no close friends to fifteen people that I trusted more than anything in the entire world. I had never let on that I knew that the entire scheme was Blake's idea, but deep down, I knew that I owed all of this to him.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"For what?" he asked, whispering back.
I gestured around the room. "For all of this. I owe it all to you."
Blake wrapped me in his warm embrace. "You don't owe me a damn thing, babe. We helped each other."

As the other couples in the room retired to their rooms for the night, Blake and I found ourselves sitting in the living room with Griffin and Kio. "Um, I should probably go," I mentioned.
"I'll drive you," Blake said, standing up.
I crossed the room, hugging Griffin and Kio both goodbye. Griffin was tense as I hugged him. I understood why, but I wasn't sure how I was supposed to remedy the situation.

Blake and I drove to my house in silence. As he pulled into the driveway, he turned to look at me. "Do you really think that someday we'll be back together again?"
I looked at him and shrugged. "We'll see how it goes. Like I said, only time will tell. It's going to take a lot for me to be able to trust you again. Until then, we're going to have to play it all by ear, okay?"
Blake looked disappointed. "I'm never gonna stop, you know."
"You're never going to stop what?" I asked, confused.
"Trying to make this work. Trying to make us work. Trying to earn back your trust. You are exactly who I want, and I really messed up. I'm gonna try my best to get back what I lost. I love you, Tiffany."
"Is that-" I sighed. "Is that why you wanted to keep fake dating?"
"I thought that if we kept up the charade, maybe we would fall back in love, and you would trust me again."
I kissed Blake's cheek. "Thanks for the ride. I'll call you later." Without another word, I got out of the car and headed up to the house.

"Hey, Mom," I said softly, seeing her sitting on the couch in the living room.
"Hey, sweetie. How was your day?" I detailed the events of the day, showing her my new tattoo. She frowned. "You know that I don't like those."
I laughed. "I know, Mom."
We talked for a little while longer, and I found myself realizing just how lucky I was to have grown closer to her these last few months.