I Love My Brother's Best Friend — Chapter 15

Jake's POV

It was stupid not to tell her. I thought. Now she was going to fall in love with Chase like she fell in love with me.

I wasn't not blind or stupid. I knew Chase was winning this war and all I could think about was how I didn't tell her.

I never lied. I loved her and I still do. It just seemed more complicated. I had to leave and I couldn't say goodbye. Goodbye would've sucked. And if I said goodbye, oh God if I said goodbye and she had cried, I would've never been able to leave.

How hard would've it been to tell her my mom had Cancer and I needed to leave and take care of her. She knew I lived with my dad and Kelly. She knew my dad and mom had gotten a divorce long before she had cancer. She would've understood that I had to go. And at the time I thought she wouldn't recover, I thought I'd being staying with her for some time.

It was stupid and I wasn't thinking straight, but how the hell was I supposed to pick been the girl I loved and my mom?

I just wasn't supposed to choose.

I didn't think I'd break Skye's heart. I sent her roses, with a tiny card trying to explain the situation. I truly thought she'd read them. But she didn't.

Now I'm going to have her being kissed and touched by other guys and I hated that. Adam go only do so much. Especially when it came to Chase, because he seemed to be blind to the idea of Chase and Skye hooking up. Which they were clearly going to do ifI didn't find away to stop it.

I missed her, I seriously, one hundred percent missed

A football came flying at my head and I didn't even try to catch it or block it. It hit me and stopped my train of thought completely.

"Wastin!" Adam yelled from across the field as he jogged towards me. When he reached me he finished his thought, "What the hell was that?"

I shook my head and forced a laughed hoping it sounded more realistic than I thought it did, "Nothing, I was day dreaming."

"About what, dude?" he questioned, "You looked so intense."

"Nothing," I reassured him, but then my curiousity suddenly spiked and I couldn't help asking, "Where's Chase?"

He shrugged. "I was wondering the same thing," he mused and then a sly grin crept onto his face, "I bet he's sneaking around with some girl. You know how he is? He likes his girls kind of like little kids like their toys. He wants something when some one else wants it and once he gets to play with it for a week or two he'll dump 'em."

My heart stopped when I heard that. He was going to break Skye's heart, probably worse than I did. I at least had a good reasonor at least I thought it was a good reasonto leave. And at least I'd tried to explain why I did what I what.

But how was I supposed to tell Skye if she hooks up with her brother's best friend he would make her his little play thing before dumping her. How was I going to tell her without appearing jealous or like I was just messing up Chase's chance with her? Otherwise she definitly wasn't going to listen to him.

I had to go tell her.

Now.

Chanse's POV

I was actually going to take Skye out. Like on a date. I've kind of waited a while for this. Well, more than a while. Like I promised I was going to make dating me awesome for her, hopefully with the intenttion to make her forget all the bad stuff I'd done to her in the past.

And I've done a lot of bad stuff to her.

A lot.

I was just about to get out of my car, across the street from her house, when I saw a car pull up. If I hadn't known what Adam drovea black pick up truck then I would've panicked, but that was not a black pick up truck in the Barker's driveway.

I wondered who it was before remembering I'd seen that car before. I was the day I dragged Skye out of Jake's car. Jake, I cussed.

I whould've known this was going to happen. I assumed she'd probably kick him out quickly and then I could go get her for our date. She didn't kick him out. I sat there for forty five minutes before I slammed my car door Open and stomped up to Skye's house.

I was going to kill this kid.

Skye's POV

“Skye,” Adam boomed into the empty hallways of our house jolting me awake.

I fell down onto my bed again and glanced at my alarmed clock. It was six forty. Crap, I was going to be late for my date with Chase, then he'd come inside and Adam would see him; meaning we'd never actually get to go on the date. We'd just me sitting with Adam for two hours talking about things, and I promise it wouldn't be romantic.

I groaned but was still unable to get up, “What?”

“Jake is here to see you,” he called.

I sprang forward again and began to change without even thinking about it. I was preparing myself to look nice while I completely forgot I had been secretly dating Chace. I'm the worst girlfriend ever, I thought as I brushed a hand through my hair until it looked decent and applied just a touch of lip gloss.

Exactly as I finished Jake burst through my door.

“Hey!” I exclaimed, “What if I was changing in here?”

He shut the door while he rolled his eyes at me with a weary smile, “I’ve already seen you naked.”

I put my finger to my mouth; the gesture was most likely way too over dramatic, “Shush!” I took it away and gave him a pointed look, “Do you want Adam to kill you?”

“I think I can handle Adam,” he laughed.

“Do you want him to kill me?” I whispered.

He softened his eyes and his smile faded, “Never.”

I crossed my arms and watched him walk to my bed. He plopped down in the sitting position. He was inspecting his feet, that were firm on the floor, very intensely and his arms laid limply at his side. In that moment I regretted not being able to tell Jake that Chase and I were dating. It would’ve made it much easier to avoid staring at lake simpathetically and wanting to just pull him into a comorfting hug.

But if I told anyone besides Aaron they’d probably tell. And then Adam would kill me, or worse Chase. Wait how is that worse? It’s not like I really loved Chase. I liked him and he was attractive. We were no Romeo and Juliet though. I mean one day we might fall in love. I almost wished we were in love and I snapped myself out of the thought.

I eyed him carefully. This was weird for me. Adam letting him upstairs with me, alone. That never happened.

I wondered what lie he told to get up here. It must’ve been pretty big because Adam didn’t even care that my door was closed. I don’t think anyone ever got away with that besides Aaron. Maybe Chase. Maybe. It was great he trusted me the most with the guy I’d done the worst with. Note the sarcasm.

“What do you want?” I asked before sitting on my computer chair. I swirved lightly back and forth because somehow spinning seemed inappropriate.

He put a hand over his hand jokingly, almost returning back to his old self. I smiled, “Skye, does everything have to have motives?”

I stopped rocking and crossed my arms, "Can you hurry this up? I kind of have somewhere to he."

"Really?" he arched an eyebrow, "Where?"

"None of your business," I snapped.

He sighed and let it drop, “Kelly has been begging to see you for a while now.”

“Kelly?” I asked sadly.

He nodded and my heart melted. I loved Kelly so much. She was eleven years old and going through all those preteen girl problems. It was adorable, but since their mom was never home she had usaully talked to me. I missed her too.

"Look, Skye," he said pointedly, "I want to talk to you about, you know," he gulped and I let shock color my face at the act, "Our relationship."

"Our relationship? Are we really doing this right now?"

He nodded, "I wasn't exactly honest with you before-"

"You think?" I interrupted.

He narrowed his eyes, "Will you let me finish?"

I nodded at his seriousness.

"What was I saying?" he mused and then rememberance slightly lite up his face, "Oh, yeah. I wasn't honest about the reason I left. My mom," he choked up, but then regained his composure, "She had Cancer and she really needed me to take care of her-"

"Had?" I whispered sadly.

He nodded, "Had. She died at the end of this summer."

I gasped and had to stop myself from crying, "Jake, I'm so sorry."

He gave me another weary smile, "It's okay Skye. You didn't know. That's why I had to leave. And I was afraid if I came to say goodbye seeing you would make me stay. Because I really did love you. Even though I never told you. I sent you a letter with-"

"The one I threw out with the flowers," I dropped her eyes to the floor.

"But," he said suddenly cause me to look up. His face said everything he was feeling; I was crying. He hated to see me crying, "Skye, don't cry."

"No, I can't believe I threw the flowers out and I've been such a jerk to you this whole time you've been back-"

"Skye, this is not what I came here to talk with you about.“

"It's not?" I sniffed.

He shook yhishead, "I want to ask you if you really knew Chase's reputation with girls."

"So he's dated a lot of girls," I shrugged. Maybe Jake did know about us. I felt oddly relieved.

"Adam told me that Chase, and I quote, 'likes his girls kind of like little kids like their toys. He wants something when some one else wants it and once he gets to play with it for a week or two he'll dump them.”

“I- I," I stammered unsure of what to say.

"You don't have to say anything," he assusred me, "I just had to tell you."

A fresh wave of tears washed over me.

I couldn‘t believe this. If he hadn‘t been so honest about his mom then I wouldn't have believe that. I knew if Chase or Aaron were here they'd be asking me why I'd even believe him. But they weren't here and I probably would've believe Jake anyway.

He stood up and walked over to me. He pulled me up and gently craddle me in a hug against his toned chest.

I sobbed. I was probably ruining his T-shirt. I'd have to buy him a new one.

I clung tight to him like he was my life support. And in the second he was. He'd been the one to tell me about Chase and he told me about his mom. I wasn't just crying for me, I was crying for him too.

"What's going on in here?" I heard Chase's hard, cold voice from the door.

I turned my head to view him. He looked great and as I took him in I realized I'd been late for our date.

"Is Adam still here," I hiccuped from all the crying. If he wasn't so angry looking I would've bet he'd had been surprise at me crying to say the least.

He shook his head 'no'.

"Oh," I whispered and Jake and I let go of each other.

"Chase," I spoke softly, "It's not what it looks like..."

"What does it look like?" he arched an eyebrow and leaned against the door like he had all the time in the world.

"Jake just told me about," I glanced up at him and his jaw was clenched. I was not going to tell Chase something so personal about Jake's mom so I choice the latter on what he'd told me a few moments ago.

"He told me What Adam had said about you and girls."

Chase stood up genuinely curious, "What did he say?"

By 'he' I wasn't sure if he'd been speaking about Adam or Jake. But I decided to answer with Adam, "He said you play around with girls for a week or two then you'll dump them."

"You told her that?" he glared at Jake instead of denying it.

Jake nodded.

"I'm going to kill you," Chase charged at lake.

I gasped as they hit the floor and began to beat each other. Both of them got in a few good punches before I screamed, "Stop it!"

They ignored me.

"Hey!" I yelled and they pulled apart slightly,

"Get off each other!"

They stood up slowly, brushing themselves off and stepping away from each other.

I scanned them over once. Chase's lips was bleeding and a bruise was beginning to from on this check bone. Jake's eye was blackening with a bleeding nose right under it.

"Chase, what's wrong with you? You can't just attack people!"

"Wake up, Skye," he shouted, "Can't you see he's just telling you that so I'll go away and he can sleep with you?"

That struck home a little bit after what happened this summer.

"Hey," Jake exclaimed on both his and my behalf.

"Are you that stupid?"

I winced Chase had never yelled at me before. At least not like this; Like he didn't give a crap about me because I was so far below him.

"Seriously," he continued, "What's wrong with you? Is it your mission to become a slut?"

"Get out!" I shrieked, "Get the hell out and don't come back."

When he didn't moved I walked up to him, put both hands on his chest and pushed him. I was too weak though.

"Get out now," I hissed.

"Why should-" he began but was soon cut off.

"Chase, I think you should leave," Adam said calmly at my doorway.

Chase's head whipped around. The second he saw Adam he stepped away and brushed passed him to leave the room. Once he was gone Adam turned to Jake.

"I think you should go too."

Jake nodded, more willing to go than Chase. He walked passed Adam and left the two of us staring at each other.

"You okay, Skye?"