Page 56 of Just Friends
I shook my head. “No, it’s not.”
“You were just trying to make me feel better,” she said, though I’m not sure if she was trying convince me or herself. “And, um, one thing led to another. That’s all.” She paused. “Listen, I own my share of the blame, too. I didn’t help things. But I’m really confused right now. I’m a mess. I thought doingthat,” she said with a gulp, “would make me feel better. But that’s a bad idea, Jax. A really, really bad idea.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, though my insides were in revolt.
“It’s kind of funny, though, isn’t it?” she asked with an ironic laugh.
“What’s funny?”
She shook her head with a defeated sigh. “Oh … nevermind.”
The silence between us was growing more awkward with each passing second. Was this our new normal?Fuck,I felt like a schmuck.
She scooted closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder. “Jax, I don’t want things to be weird between us.”
“Me neither.”
“You’re my best friend. We get alongsowell. I’d hate to mess that up.”
“Yeah, me too,” I said.
So why did I feel such a crushing emptiness in my gut?
We stewed in miserable silence for a while longer, until the small weight of her head on my shoulder felt strange and alien instead of welcome and pleasant. She must’ve felt the same thing, because she soon lifted it and scooted away from me.
I didn’t know what to say. Neither did she. We wallowed in more silence.
“Well, um,” she stammered at last. “I think I’m going to go my bedroom and, ah, work on some things.”
“Okay,” I said.
She rose to her feet. For a second she stood still, directionless, confused.
“Okay, yeah, that’s what I’m doing,” she murmured, her legs carrying her in a bee line to her bedroom. “Bye.”
“See ya,” I said.
Her bedroom door shut with a slam, a draft of air reaching me all the way on the couch. The flame within me blew out with a dying puff of smoke—that trick candle was snuffed out forrealthis time.
Welp. Fuck me.
14
Piper
The pain in my broken heart instantly went up in flames, gone and forgotten, when Jax’s fiery lips touched mine.
That best friend of mine was afantastickisser; his mouth melted into mine like molten metal. One kiss from Jax, and Soulmate’s disastrous launch was purged from my mind. This was the perfect cure. This was all I wanted.
All Ieverwanted.
He writhed on top of me, kissing me deeper, his hand sweetly interlocking with mine. My insides twisted and stirred, an electric pulse thrumming through my nerves, opening me, readying me—
So why the heck did you make him stop?!I silently screamed at myself as I frantically paced my bedroom.
Because.
Because Ihadto, or else our friendship would never be the same.
