Under Your Skin | Jude Bellingham

012

I glanced at the time on my phone for what felt like the millionth time that evening, only half listening to my sister as she scoped out all the cute guys in the bar, doing her best to try to encourage me to somehow find the courage to go up to one of them and ask for their number. Chloe was shooting me sympathetic glances, knowing full well that I wouldn't be interested in any of them. As I shook my head 'no' again, Hayley sighed defeatedly and finally gave up on trying to find me a date, settling back into her chair with a disappointed look on her face.

No matter how many times I insisted that I was happy to just be single (something that was actually a lie), my sister would just disregard this and continue to believe that she knew better than I did. Whilst she was right to think that I did want to be in a relationship, what Hayley didn't know was that I actually wanted a relationship with someone I couldn't have.

All of a sudden, someone came up behind me and covered my eyes with their hands. "Guess who?" They said.

"Get off me, Bellingham," I said. He laughed and sank into the chair beside me. I was relieved to see that he'd finally made an appearance, here to rescue me from the awkward situation Hayley was putting me in. Moments later, Gio and Trent also joined us at our table, Trent hobbling along on his crutches but still managing to remain positive despite the unideal situation.

My heart twinged with sadness at the sight of Trent with his crutches, unable to play the sport he loved so dearly. I knew that his injury just had to be eating away at him inside, despite how many times he insisted that he was okay.

Seeing Trent and Hayley again hadn't been as bad as I'd assumed it would be. If anything, I was just happy that we weren't apart anymore. It'd been so long since I'd last seen them and any worries I'd had about things being awkward between us had melted away the minute Hayley rushed to embrace me. Now it was Friday night, and we were in the last week of October. Hayley and Trent were due to fly back home Monday, and we'd all decided to head out for drinks at a local bar.

"So, what did we miss?" Gio asked.

"Just Hayley trying to find Hannah a date," Chloe said with a laugh.

"Why?" Jude asked.

Hayley raised an eyebrow at him. "Because I don't want to see my sister die alone," she answered. "We all know how bad Hannah is when it comes to flirting."

"Thanks Hayley," I said sarcastically. She jokingly blew a kiss in my direction.

"So which guy did you give your number to?" Jude asked, looking around the room.

"None of them," I replied. "I'm not interested."

A smile appeared on Jude's face, so brief I wasn't sure if I'd imagined it or not. "Ah well, never mind," he said.

"Speaking of dating," Trent said, "I think that girl over there likes you Jude."

Jude followed his gaze. "Eh, not my type."

"Are you kidding me?" Hannah exclaimed. "She's gorgeous!"

"If I was attracted to women, I'd definitely go over and try my luck," Chloe added.

"Yeah thanks babe," Gio said.

"She is pretty but I think I'll pass," Jude said.

My mind wondered back to this girl he'd told me about, the one he claimed to like. I still didn't know who she was or what she looked like. Perhaps it was someone over here in Germany, and maybe I hadn't met her yet. I wondered what on earth made their situation so complicated that he couldn't just ask her out. It still baffled me that this girl that he liked wasn't my sister when I'd been so sure Jude had liked her for years.

Whilst the others fell into their own conversations, Jude looked at me and caught me staring at him. "What?" He said.

"Nothing," I responded, forcing myself to smile at him. Jude gave me a puzzled look but didn't question me further.

As the night went on, and as I got progressively tipsier, I found myself wandering over to the dance floor with Chloe and Hayley. I usually wasn't one for dancing, but tonight I just wanted to let go and not worry about the little things. Chloe slid up next to me, leaning in closer so that I could hear her over the mix of voices and loud music. "Jude is watching you," she grinned.

I frowned, then turned my head to see Jude looking my way. He quickly looked back to Trent and Gio, acting as though he'd been totally engrossed in their conversation the whole time.

Next, I strolled over to the bar with Chloe and Hayley to order ourselves another round of drinks. "Is it just me or has Jude been acting strange recently?" Hayley asked, jumping up onto a free barstool.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"I don't know, he just acts differently around you. He seems drawn to you whenever you're in the room, stealing glances at you when you're not watching, and even when he's laughing at someone else's joke he always looks at you to check if you're laughing too. It's just odd, I've never seen him like this with you before, Han."

"I reckon he likes you, Hannah," Chloe smirked.

I looked at her and Hayley in disbelief before bursting into laughter. I couldn't stop myself, even though what she'd said wasn't at all that funny.

"What's so funny?" Chloe asked.

"There's no way that Jude likes me, that's just impossible," I replied

"Why is it impossible?" Hayley questioned.

"It just is. It's taken us this long to be friends, so let's not pretend that there's a chance of anything more. And anyway, I'm pretty sure he's into some other girl."

Hayley blinked at me. "You are so clueless," she said.

"No I am not. Jude doesn't like me in that way."

"So you keep saying."

"Oh well, don't say we didn't try to tell you," Chloe said.

We headed back over to the table just as Jude got up to follow after some girl who'd been whispering in his ear moments before. I watched them leave, frowning after them. "Who was that?" I asked Trent and Gio.

"That was Grace," Gio replied.

"As in Jude's psycho ex?"

Gio snorted. "Yep. She wanted to talk to him about something."

"Oh." I sat back in my chair, crossing my arms over my chest as my brain was swarmed with a million questions and assumptions. What on earth did she want now? Could that girl just not take a hint? And why was I suddenly so bothered at the possibility of Jude giving her a second chance? For the next few minutes, I completely zoned out, too busy thinking about Jude and Grace, and what Hayley and Chloe had said. It wasn't until Jude rejoined the table that I started paying attention to the group again.

"What did Grace want?" I immediately pounced on him.

"She just wanted to apologise," Jude answered nonchalantly. "Said she was being completely out of order. I heard her out, and we both agreed to just be friends."

"Why would you want to be friends with her?"

Jude smirked. "Somebody sounds jealous. Don't worry, Hannie, you're still my favourite."

"I'm not jealous...just concerned."

"Yeah really sounds like it," Hayley mumbled under her breath. I glared at her.

"I appreciate that, Hannah, but I can look after myself," Jude said. "She's not going to ask for a second chance because she knows I'm not going to give it to her."

"How do you know that this isn't just a ploy to get you back?" Gio asked.

Jude directed his gaze towards him. "We're not getting back together," he insisted with a finality none of us could argue with.

I sighed heavily, hoping that Jude knew what he was doing.