Luke's P.O.V
"I'll leave you two alone," Chloe said, her facing burning the color of scarlet. She quickly went back inside of the room before I had the chance to pull away.
I jerked myself away from Jess and looked at her in horror. "Why the hell do you keep doing that?"
"Do you think she saw?" she asked curiously, turning to look at the door.
"Of course, she saw you dumbass! You can go off and ruin your own life but don't go on ruining my own!" I was beyond angry. I was infuriated. I didn't even care that I was acting as rude as hell, because Jess deserved it. Jess obviously didn't understand what it was like to be truly in love–did I think that? No, I wasn't in love, that much I was sure of. Being in love meant that I was unselfish for the other person and wanted what was best for her. But I was being selfish. I wanted her to be with me.
"Don't you dare start cussing at me like a sailor, Luke Armstrong!" she said angrily, jabbing at me with her finger.
"You're not my mother, Jess," I rolled my eyes and blocked her finger with my hand. "Now can you start acting like a motherfucking adult and not a stupid child?" I was trying my best to remain calm, but I still couldn't believe what just happened. Jess kissed me, and Chloe saw it. This was the first time she saw it happen so now she'll definitely think something was going on between us. Just great.
Jess pulled on her hair and let out a loud, exasperated sigh. "Ugh!"
I took in a deep breath to compose myself before heading back into the classroom. I would not let Jess keep doing this to me. I would just simply explain what happened in the hallway but what would I even say? How much did Chloe even hear? Was it enough to figure out that I liked her or enough to know that Jess liked Kason? Or did she manage not to hear anything, but just made it in time to see that Jess kissed me? I walked back inside the classroom feeling extremely embarrassed.
Chloe wasn't even looking in my direction.
"I don't know what you saw or heard outside of the classroom but trust me, when Jess kissed me out there it was an accident I swear," I overly explained myself.
Chloe looked at me sideways as if she was analyzing me. "It's okay, Luke. I get it. You're dating Jessica."
What? "I am not dating, Jess," I said a little more disgustedly than I should have.
"You aren't?" This time she turned to look at me straight in my eyes.
"No–"
"Okay class, I have an important announcement to make," Dr. Cambridge said as she got on the stage, looking around at everyone in the classroom.
Everyone quieted in the room and I noticed that Jess didn't come back inside. I wondered what she was doing.
"You guys know that you have to work at least a couple hours of service this semester and this will be the second to last time that you will receive the opportunity to do so. There is a play that will be opening at the end of next week and I am giving you all a chance to sign up for what you want to do. There are limited spots so not all of you will be able to work your hours for this play so now is the time to sign up," she said while adjusting her glasses. She paused and then smiled at the class. "That means you can all get up and sign up now. I am literally giving you the opportunity right now."
A bunch of people stood up and made their way to the stage where there was a music stand with a sign-up sheet on it.
Before I could even ask Chloe if she wanted to work this play she was already down there signing her name.
Damn she's fast, I smiled. I stood in line patiently waiting for my turn to sign up. I figured I would just sign up for the same exact thing as Chloe–if there were any available spots left.
"Sorry folks, looks like there is no more spots available," Dr. Cambridge sighed and shrugged her narrow shoulders.
Dammit.
"Hey Luke," I heard Chloe call after me.
I turned and walked back to my seat, not without a stupid grin on my face since Chloe was the one addressing me.
"I went ahead and put you down for the same thing I'm doing," she smiled back, putting her pink mechanical pencil on her notebook. "I figured you would want to–unless you don't want to then of course I would completely understand."
I could feel myself grinning from ear to ear. "That's perfect," I said and sat down in my seat. "What did you sign us up for?"
"Concession stands," she replied. "I figured it would be the most fun out of all of them. Who wouldn't want to be near the buttery popcorn and savory smell of pretzels?"
I nodded. "You're totally right. Thanks for putting my name down with yours by the way. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to work the same thing."
"Really? Why?"
My heart stopped beating for a second. I laughed uneasily. "I really didn't want to work with someone I didn't know. I thought it would be more fun with you." See, I wasn't being completely dishonest.
It had been a while since I had seen one of Chloe's rare beautiful smiles, but as soon as the words escaped my lips her downturned lips curled into a radiant smile, warming my heart and causing me to blush. Luckily, the lights were dim in the theatre so hopefully she didn't get to see it.
"Where's Jessica?" Chloe asked, looking around me at the empty seat next to me.
"I don't know," I sighed, and at the moment I really didn't care. Jess really started to screw up things for me as soon as she kissed me, and I didn't want it to happen again. At the same time, I wondered if something was wrong with her. I looked down in the floor to see that her stuff was still here so why wasn't she? Was something wrong? I rolled my eyes. Great. I'm about to go check on her, aren't I? I thought to myself. "Excuse me," I said, got out of my seat and walked out of my row. Yep, I was going to go check on her. Why? Because it was the right thing to do. I walked outside of the classroom and my phone vibrated in my pocket. I looked down to see:
Chloe: Don't worry about what's happening the rest of class. I'll give you my notes :)
I smiled. Leave it to Chloe to be nice and understanding.
Me: Thanks :)
I put my phone back in my pocket and looked around the hallway. Where did Jess even go? I thought about it for a minute and wondered if I was Jess where would I go, but that didn't help me either. The problem was that I had no clue where Jess could have gone. This was the University of Alabama, it was a huge campus so there was no telling where she went or why, but I did get the feeling she stayed in this building.
I walked around aimlessly for five minutes, looking around corners and calling out her name. Several other students stopped and stared at me like I was stupid while I was doing this, but I didn't care. It's not like they knew the reason I was out here looking for someone named Jess in the first place.
"Jess!" I called out once I was near the bathrooms.
"Go away!" I heard her sniffle.
Was she crying? I looked ahead of me to see the girls' bathroom. I must've been stupid to not think of her hiding out in the girls' bathroom before, but either way I was glad to have found out where she was hiding.
"Jess?" I asked again, taking a couple steps closer to the bathroom.
"Luke, I said to go away!"
"Come on, Jess," I lowered my tone of voice. "What's wrong?"
"You know e-exactly what's wrong," she hiccupped. Her voice sounded more hoarse than usual.
I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. "Look Jess, I don't know exactly what you're upset about, and you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. Why don't you just come back to class with me?"
"Luke you just don't understand," Jess cried. "I literally ruined e-everything, and I didn't even k-know it at the time."
"What did you ruin? Your relationship with Kason?" I was growing a little tired of standing awkwardly outside of the girls' bathroom. I looked around quickly to see that no one was near and walked inside of the bathroom. As soon as I went inside I saw Jess sitting on the bathroom floor near the sinks.
I couldn't help but think of how unsanitary that was, but that wasn't my primary concern at the moment.
"Luke what the hell?!" Jess said, her eyes wide with alarm as she wiped her nose with a roll of toilet paper.
"What?" I asked as I squatted down on the bathroom floor and looked around. How come the girls' restroom is nicer than the boys' restroom? I thought but shook my head. Focus Luke, you're here to comfort your friend–or should I even say friend?
Jess sniffed and sighed. "Luke I've ruined more than you know…"
"Jess if this is what about happened earlier I–"
"It's not j-just about what happened earlier," Jess hiccupped, and she slowly looked up at me, her brown eyes meeting my own. "I'm so sorry Luke. If I had known at the time I wouldn't have–"
"You're so sorry about what, Jess?" I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion.
"Luke I just want you to listen to me for a minute without interrupting me. This is already hard to say enough, and it hurts more when I know you're already thinking the worst of me," she said while looking down at the floor.
I wasn't exactly thinking the worst of her, but I definitely wasn't thinking the best of her either.
"You know the night of the Halloween frat party?" Jess asked, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
I nodded. I remembered the ending of that night a little too well.
"Well…when I kissed you that night to make Kason jealous… I'm afraid he wasn't the only one who saw it."
Yeah because literally everyone else in the room got to see it too.
"When you pushed me away, I turned around and saw Chloe walking out of the living room with Kason following her shortly after."
Huh?
"Luke…Chloe saw us that night," she said carefully with her eyebrows scrunched together.
I wanted to make sense of it all, but my brain instantly turned to mush.
"I didn't really think much about it at the time, but now that I look back on it knowing that you liked her…Not only did I ruin what I could've had with Kason, but I ruined whatever you had with Chloe, too. I kissed you earlier to spark a reaction from her to see if she liked you or not but I realized I was just being stupid like I was at the frat party."
Oh shit. And she just realized that kissing me was a stupid idea? My eyes widened as everything started to make sense. That was why Chloe told me I could eat dinner with Jess that night. That was why everyone was pairing us up together, including Kason. Chloe saw Jess kiss me. But even so… did that even matter? What would have happened if Chloe didn't see that? Would I still have confessed blindly and still have the same result of my heart being broken? What if Chloe still liked Kason all along?
"You can talk now," she said quietly, rubbing her arms as if she felt a little cold.
I stayed silent. I didn't know how to process this information. I wanted to be angrier with Jess than I already was, but at that point it didn't matter anymore. The damage was done.
"Luke I'm sorry," Jess said softly. "She might have liked you all along, but when she saw us kiss she thought you didn't like her, so she went for Kason instead."
I stood back up, brushed my pants off and sighed. "I guess we'll never find out, will we?" I asked, and even though I couldn't see myself I could feel how depressed I was. It wasn't normal.
"You could tell her that the kiss was a mistake and that you liked her all along–"
"But what if you're wrong, Jess?" I interrupted her. "What if she didn't like me all along. What if she genuinely liked Kason and she just felt awkward about hanging out with me after she saw me preoccupied with you?"
"You can tell her, Luke. I will even tell her myself," Jess said as she slowly got up from the bathroom floor.
"But what reason would I have telling her that you kissing me was a mistake without having to explain that I like her?"
Jess shrugged. "Luke, you've got to take a chance on this. Tell her."
"I can't."
"And why not?"
"Because it isn't right, Jess! What right do I have to tell her all of that when she and Kason are together? That wouldn't be fair to him, it isn't fair to her, and I would just end up humiliating myself. I'm not like you, Jess. I don't take chances every second I get."
"All you're doing is torturing yourself. If you never try you'll never know."
"And what do you know about that, huh? From all of your 'experience?' I don't think so. You've never been able to tell Kason that you like him face to face so I don't want to hear it."
"Fuck, Luke. So, what you're telling me is that you're just going to watch the girl you like be with another guy?" Jess asked me disappointedly. "That's just fucking torture. I would rather just get it over with and have her reject me before I let it continue on like that."
"If it's that easy then why don't you do it?" I asked smartly. "Besides, if she truly liked me she wouldn't be with someone else."
"How many girls would want to stick around after a guy's taken?" Jess argued while folding her arms.
"Apparently you," I said, and Jess smiled.
"I'm an exception," she nodded and then stood in front of the bathroom mirrors. "But if you really don't want to tell Chloe your feelings, I won't tell her for you either," she said and checked herself out in the mirror. She messed with her hair, dabbed toilet paper under her eyes and turned around to face me. "Do I look okay enough to go back into our classroom?" she asked.
"Your eyes are a tad red, but other than that you look pretty normal," I said as I looked over her.
"Okay good. Now let's get the hell out of this bathroom," she said, and I followed her out of the bathroom.