“Now I’m feeling sorry for Kristoff.” Paige says. “I know he came second, but I like him more than Hans.”
“Yeah…” Jake lets out, pensive.
Anna is lying on the couch, and Hans walks in. The iconic line is dropped, and whispers are heard. I bite my lip, can’t help but glance at them.
“He didn’t…” Jake breathes, making me giggle.
“Son of a bitch!” Paige screams at the TV. My head shoots up, and I’m so shocked, I’m close to laughing.
“Paige! I am going to kill those two.”
“My mom says it sometimes, and Jake told me I could say that when parents weren’t here!” She defends.
“West!” My manic eyes shoot lasers at him, and he’slaughing. “Don’t you dare laugh!”
“You’re no saint yourself, Brown.” He smirks. That’s it.
I grab a pillow and throw it at his face. I instantly let out a laugh and cover my mouth with my hand quickly.
“Oh, what a mistake.” He warns.
I get up and start to run around the living room, but he’s faster than me. He grabs my waist and lifts me up, bringing me to the couch, where he lays me and hits me with a pillow right away.
“Now we’re even.” Jake notes, satisfied.
I can’t stop laughing.
He then leaves with Paige to go upstairs, leaving me here alone.
I turn off the television and just lie on the couch. Two minutes later, Jake runs to me with a worried expression.
“Where is Paige? What is it?” I ask, and then hear a lot of people coming downstairs.
“Trust me.” He says, and then sits down next to me and buries his face in my neck, getting in front of me and enveloping me with his arms. Our faces are super close, but he doesn’texactly kiss me. He just rests our cheeks against each other and makes itseem like we’re kissing?Either way, my cheek is tingling. My heart is bumping ten times harder than it was two seconds ago, and I fear the shower did nothing to wash away his scent because now it’s like one of those marked scents from your childhood that you could recognize anywhere and feel at home right when you do. I sit very still and inhale slowly. It’s addictive. The lack of distance between us, his smell, and his touch. I feel like his cheek is going to leave a hole the minute that it leaves, and I wouldn’t mind spending the rest of the afternoon just sitting like this. Cheek to cheek. Heart to heart. I close my eyes, and he lays me down on the couch the minute I hear voices. Putting his thumbs on top of my lips, his head comes closer and he “kisses” me.
“Forget what I said!” Blake shouts, disgusted at his brother, Alana, and my sister.
I get off Jake quickly and start to heat up, grasping for air and dizzy from all closeness.
“Damn Maddie!” My sister says with a surprised tone.
I really hope Jake has an explanation, or else, what the hell just happened? I can’t say anything. Literally. Nothing comes out of my mouth. I look like a fish, mouth wide open.
“You can close your mouth now that you’re done.” Brandon explains, making Blake laugh. Our sisters are just running their hands down their faces, cringing. Is that what they saw? Jake grabs my hand and drags me upstairs to the attic, far away from the kids’ stares and comments.
“You may think that was stupid, and I agree. But kids are dangerous. They gossip with other kids whose siblings are our age, and if we’re not convincing to them, we’re just making fools of ourselves in front of the entire town.” He rambles for what I remember to be the first time since I’ve known him.
I scoff, because honestly, it was either that or I’m really inclined to glue our cheeks together again…
“Oh, please, do explain why we were deliberately having a fake makeout session in front of my cousins and our sisters.”
He looks at me with patience and explains.
“When I went upstairs, I thought they were being quiet for too long, so I spied on them.Not my finest moment.”He gets lost in thought, and I motion for him to go on.“They were talking about us. Alana said that Amanda asked her the other day if this wasreallyreal or fake. Since then, my sister has been more alert. Then, Blake said that he didn’t believe it one bit and started to persuade the others. My sister caved in and said that the next time Amanda asked her, she was going to say that personally she didn’t believe it.” He stops and looks at me with a dawning look.
“Oh.” Pause. “But you do know that Amanda is pretty jealous by now.” I ease the conversation, regretting not having trusted him.
“Not jealous enough to come back.” He breathes, looking down.
