drew barrymore. | a short story

0.3 | 9 months prior

solana:

"jacques, tell me about your exes." i said.

me and him were laying on his bed, shirtless (i mean of course i had a bra on, i wasn't just laying there with my tits out). he had pulled on a pair of gym shorts and i was in my underwear. the sun streamed through his window onto us. the view from his room was nice, which is why i was always over his house.

jacques's mom had passed when he was younger, his dad was incarcerated, and his grandma was deemed unfit to take custody of him because she put him and his mom out over a soda before she died (i'm not sure, either. he still has yet to explain it to me in detail), so he was emancipated two years back, when he was 14. i had asked him how it felt having that much authority over himself. he said it felt wonderful.

"my exes?" he said.

"yeah," i said, tracing the tattoos on his chest. we were in a T position. he was laying on the bed as one usually would, and i was laying across him with my head on his chest. jacques was laying out of the way of the sun, though the sunlight hit everything from his neck to his knees.

"why?" he said, chuckling.

"i just want to know what your past was like. you seem like the type of person to have a thing for narcissists." i said, turning over to lay on my stomach.

"you think i got a thing for narcissists and i just had sex with you ten minutes ago?" jacques said, accidentally slapping me on my forehead. "my bad," he added.

"it's fine, but narcissists seem like your type, and are you saying you have a thing for me?" i said.

"sunny, you are... the furthest thing from a narcissist. and that question should answer itself," he said, resting a palm on the bare skin of my ass.

"well, you never answered my question," i said.

"hmm... there's sabrina. i dated her around the time we fell out freshman year. shit was toxic. she was accusing me of shit every other week. i regret..." he stopped.

"what?" i said.

"my bad, i," he paused to clear his throat. "lost my train of thought," he was lying. he only ever cleared his throat when he was lying.

"i'm listening," i coaxed.

"i, um, regret letting her convince me to act the way i did towards you when we fell out."

"huh?" i said, looking at him.

"she was always suspicious about me and you. tryna investigate every interaction we had. i had to keep telling her you was my best friend, and even then, she still never believed me. told me that if i didn't cut you off or start some shit between us she would tell everybody about that situation with my gramma. i hated that shit. she ended up cheating on me after that." jacques said.

"why didn't you tell me when we talked it out? i would've understood." i said. i was still tracing his tattoos, going over the same one 2 or 3 times.

"i didn't know how you was gon handle it. the fact that i let her come between a genuine friendship." he said.

"well i'm glad you're being honest now," i said, grabbing his hand.

"that's crazy. a few years ago i woulda never thought we'd be laid up like this. now look at us," he said.

"it's fun." i said, resting my face on his bare chest.

since the beginning of the summer, me and jacques had been in a complicated 'friends-with-benefits' relationship. it was only complicated because somehow, we'd been exclusive the entire summer, but neither of us wanted an actual relationship. we were still the same best friends we had been before the summer started.

"sunny, promise me one thing," jacques said, after a moment of silence.

"no," i said jokingly.

"promise me even if this 'friendlationship,' or whatever the hell you called it last week, doesn't work out, you won't go nowhere," he said, waving me off. he held up his pinky.

"promise," i said, hooking my fingers with mine.

i sat up and climbed over jacques to sit in front of the window and catch some of the sun before it went to the other side of his building. jacques pushed me over and i pushed him back and we started play fighting.

"wanna go again?" jacques asked, after we laid back down, tired from slap boxing for five minutes straight.

"if i slap you again, you gon be hurting," i said.

"that's not what i meant, nigga." he said, grabbing me by my waist and pulling me on top of him.

"you weren't clear in your instructions, i definitely had a good mind to slap the shit out of you," i said, straddling him.

"yeah yeah, shut up." he said, wrapping his arms around my waist and kissing me.