The Way You Make Me Feel [ J.J ]

23.

Midterm week had me stressed as all hell, and it was starting to show. I only left my dorm to take my tests, simply going back as soon as I finished. I was determined to get a good grade on my tests, no matter what it took. The words on the page were starting to blur together as I stared at it, knowing that if I read anymore I would probably actually lose my marbles this time. I plugged in my iPad and decided I needed a break, grabbing my earbuds and turning on my music. There was only so much cramming I could do before my test today, and I knew if I wanted to be somewhat of a functional human I needed to take a break. Hozier came on and I smiled, automatically thinking of JJ. She had gotten me into his music, and I had to say, he was pretty nifty. I hugged the shirt of hers I was wearing closer to my chest, breathing in her scent.

The past couple of days with her had been amazing, and the kids were happy to know that she wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. They had even asked me to FaceTime with her, which was hard given my busy midterm schedule but we were able to find a way to get her to join a group FaceTime call with me and the kids so she could say hi. They really did like her, and it was quite obvious that they didn't want to let her go. Hell, I didn't want to let her go. I hated being away from her for any given amount of time, and it was driving me absolutely crazy that I couldn't be in her arms this week since she was busy grading. We had promised each other we wouldn't distract the other, but I was itching to at least text her and check in. I knew I shouldn't, but part of me had this feeling of impending doom looming over me and I didn't know how to feel about it. I wasn't sure what it was about, either, which made my anxiety about it worse. I pushed the thoughts out of my head and turned so I was facing the candle, the scent of evergreen trees filling my nose. I was able to steal one of her candles without her noticing, lighting it whenever I studied to help me get through it. She had a couple extra of these candles lying around her apartment, so it was easy for me to snag one and throw it into my backpack last time I was over. This one in particular had only been lit once, meaning the whole candle was basically still intact. I closed my eyes for a second as I imagined her in bed with me, holding me tight while she hummed in my ear to calm me down. The door clicked open and I sighed, hearing the footsteps of Elle and Derek coming into my room.

"You need to get out and get fresh air, babygirl."

"I'm nobody's babygirl, Derek. You know this." Elle smirked at me, and I may have accidentally kicked her when I hopped out of bed. "I'm living that single life."

"You look very happy for a single lady, Y/N." Derek joked. "Anyway we're going downtown with Aviva, Spencer and Aaron. You're coming with us."

I chuckled as I pulled on my sweatpants, grabbing my purse as I blew out my candle  and slipping on my shoes, waiting for the two of them by the door.

"So are you coming or are you just going to sit in my room while I leave?"

They let out a laugh as the three of us filtered into the hallway, meeting Spencer and Aviva down in the lobby. Aaron walked out from behind the desk, clearly just having gotten off shift. We all walked out to the parking garage, Derek pulling out before any of us could buckle our seatbelts. It took us not even ten minutes to get downtown, finding the nearest parking garage and pulling in. I was glad they dragged me out- I was going absolutely crazy. We walked around downtown, taking cute pictures and stopping for coffee at a cute little shop close to the state capitol. We walked around for a bit more, just chatting about life in general and getting to know Aaron more. According to him, he and his girlfriend Haley were coming up on three years together, and they were going to be celebrating over break. They planned on starting a family together soon as they had enough funds, and a solid house. I smiled at the thought of him being a father. Sometimes Aaron came off stoic and stuck up, but deep down he was just a cute little teddy bear who was madly in love with his girlfriend. We pestered Elle about what she and Emily were going to be doing for their anniversary, which was coming up soon and happened to fall on the day we were going to have our belated celebration. She told us she didn't know what Emily had planned, which was good. I had secretly talked to Emily about it, since she came to me for advice on what to get her. Emily was planning to propose, and had me go ring shopping over FaceTime with her to ensure that she got the right ring for Elle. I was excited for her,  and I couldn't wait to see the look on Elle's face when she saw the ring.

The afternoon was well deserved, and I felt fully recharged when I got back to the dorm later that night. I changed into my pajamas, smiling at the pictures we took. I decided it was time to update my wallpaper and airdropped a cute picture of all of us in front of the state capital to my iPad, setting that picture as my wallpaper. I smiled at how cute we were, wishing that JJ could have been there with us. I couldn't wait til the day that I could introduce her to everyone, since we were planning on having a belated Thanksgiving/Christmas get together over break at Emily's apartment. We were planning on going together, but it all depended on how her schedule merged with ours- she was supposed to go home for Christmas and visit her mom and sister, which I wished I could be there for. I didn't want her to be alone, but she insisted she wanted to break the news first.

I noticed my phone flash with a text as I laid down, and I picked it up, seeing a text from JJ. That was weird, she never usually texted this late in the night.

[10:04pm- JJ] Call me right now.

I scrunched my face in confusion, hitting her contact and clicking the little phone icon. She picked up on the second ring, and I could tell she was nervous.

"Y/N-"

"Baby what's going on?" I sat up, ready to run over at a moment's notice. "Jennifer. Breathe. What's going on?"

"Dean Strauss- she... she emailed me. I... the board found out, Y/N. They know we're together."

"What?" the pit of my stomach dropped. "You're fucking with me."

"I'm not. They want to meet with us after midterms."

"Oh no. Oh fuck. Jayje I- I'm gonna beat Elle's ass-"

"It wasn't Elle." she paused. "It was Rosaline."

"WHAT?"

"Rosaline complained about us to one of her friends and I'm guessing they contacted Dean Strauss believing that you were my student. Baby I- I don't know what to do. I can't lose you again."

"You won't. Okay? We have friends who will fight for us, and I'll do my damndest to make sure you don't lose your job. We're going to tell them the truth, well... maybe minus the club part. We'll figure something out. But you will not lose me again."

"Okay." she took a deep breath. "We're going to get through this. And I'm going to kill Rosaline with my bare hands. I'm actually going to kill her. Did she think this was funny? I'm over here losing my shit and she's probably at home with my mom with a bottle of her stupid fruity moscoto in front of the fireplace-"

"Baby please-" I cut myself off. "We're going to be okay, yeah?"

"Will we, though?" JJ got quiet, and I could hear her trying to hold back a whimper. "Will we get through this?"

"Yes." I let out a shaky breath, not even believing my own words. "We will."

After a few more minutes of calming JJ down we hung up, deciding that we would talk in the morning about our story. I rubbed my face, finally letting the tears out.

We were fucked.