Half of My Heart ✔️

20 | little white lie

hey you! yes, you. before reading this chapter, make sure you've read the chapter before this that was posted yesterday! sometimes when we post updates close together, some of y'all only end up reading the second update for some reason.

♔

Halfway through the movie, Archer falls asleep. Mom falls asleep too with her head on Dad's shoulder, so both of them are immobilized for the time being. Dani's engrossed in the movie. And that's good enough for me.

I stare at Jack to get his attention. Once I make sure he's looking, I nod slightly then start to get up to go to the kitchen.

"You're gonna miss it," Levi says quietly from beside me. I turn to him discreetly.

"Miss what?"

Levi smiles slightly. "The best part."

I've never seen this movie before. "What's the best part?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. You'd have to stay to find out."

I pull the blanket off me, crumple it, and throw it in his face. He laughs and I stand up, heading toward the kitchen.

I slide up and sit on the kitchen island. A few minutes later, Jack comes in and leans against the counter on the other side of the kitchen, and I tell myself that's just to avoid suspicion in case someone walks in. But really, I know it's because he's not exactly happy with me. For good reason.

He doesn't speak, so I go first. "I should have told you he was coming," I say, and I sound exactly like I did when I was apologizing to Levi about Halloween. I'm starting to find a common thread in my problems here: communication.

Jack isn't looking at me. He stands there silently, his jaw tense.

"He taught you to skateboard, didn't he?" Jack finally asks, catching me by surprise. I grip the edge of the countertop.

"He did," I admit, somewhat glad that we're jumping right into the problem. "But it was completely platonic, I swear. We were just hanging out as friends."

Jack shakes his head, looking down at the floor. "I'm not angry about a friend teaching you to skateboard or that you hung out with him alone in your dorm. I'm not even mad that I'm going to be spending a week in the same house with him." He looks up at me, and I know exactly what he's going to say.

"But, Scar, I'm frustrated that you kept these things from me. When I asked you how you learned to skateboard, you went out of your way to not mention him. And then the first time I'm even made aware of his existence is when I walk in on something that I obviously wasn't supposed to," he says. "And the look on your face when I showed up at your dorm. . ."

He rubs his jaw with one hand. ". . . it was the first time you looked genuinely unhappy to see me. Like you wanted me to leave before I even said anything thing."

I clench my fists, trying to keep from falling apart while hearing the frustration and dejection in his voice.

"I'm fine with you spending time with a friend, but it's when you hide these things from me that I have to wonder why they're worth hiding."

I look at things from his perspective, imagining walking in on him alone with a girl that I know he's already been lying to me about. Just thinking of it makes my blood boil, and I think I would've reacted in the same way that Jack had, even if he'd tried to explain what was going on. Honestly, I probably would've been a lot meaner than Jack had been, blinded by my emotions.