Never Felt Right Calling This Just Friends (Jack Barakat)

Chapter 25

It's been a week since since the party and since the thing happened between Jack and me. I tried my best to avoid him and it went quite well. I think he got the hint and let me alone. But we live together in a bus so we see each other a lot and we have to talk every now and then and whenever we do, it's awkward. I think the others noticed it too but they didn't say anything.

I was sitting in the backlounge, watching Alex and Zack playing the Xbox. Jack walked in and sat down next to me. I looked sternly at the TV screen, trying to ignore him but I felt him stare at me which made me nervous.

"Liz?". Oh no. "Hmm?", i asked, not looking at him.
"Can we talk?", he asked. Fuck I knew I would try to talk about it sooner or later but I was hoping for later.
"Sure, what's up?", I asked him, pretending I wouldn't know what he wanted to talk about.
"I mean alone", he said and I finally looked at him. He looked kinda tired but still really good, I shrugged it off.

I sighed and got up. He also got up and went outside the bus. I saw Alex and Zack raising their eyebrows at us but I ignored it and followed Jack.
We started walking. "So", he started.
I didn't say anything and waited for him to go on.

"About last week.. Don't you think we should talk about it?", he said awkwardly. My heart started to beat faster.
"There's nothing to talk about. We were both beyond wasted and that's it. Let's just.. Let's just forget about it and act normal again, alright? Because this whole situation is like really awkward and yeah. You know what I mean?", I rumbled over my own words and felt nervous.

He stopped walking and so did I.
"I, do you-", he closed his mouth again and bit down on his lower lip, damn that was hot. "Alright", he finally said.

I felt disappointment and I didn't really know why. Maybe because I was kind of hoping to hear him saying that he also felt butterflies in his stomach when we kissed but I guess that will never happen.

"But Liz?". I looked up at him and he stepped closer to me. "You really scared me back then. I understand if you don't wanna tell me what was wrong with you, but just know that I'm always here for you. I want you to be alright, okay?", he smiled down at me and I couldn't help but smile too. The butterflies are back.

I nodded. "Thank you, Jack". He hugged me and I buried my face in his chest. I wish I could always be this close to him but my mind is telling me to take distance. We pulled away and looked at each other. I could tell he wasn't really satisfied with the result of our conversation and so was I.

Only a few inches were between our bodies and I couldn't help myself but look at his lips. It took me a lot of willpower not to lean in and press my lips to his. I looked back up to his eyes just to see that his gaze fell to my lips. I was wondering if he was feeling the same urge.

"Let's go back", I said and let out an awkward laugh. He slowly looked back up and nodded. "Right".

We went silently back to the bus and stepped inside. Zack was standing in the front lounge and raised his eyebrow at us as if he wanted us to say something. "What?", Jack asked him. Zack sighed and shook his head and went to the back lounge.

"Well", I spoke up. "Let's watch some TV", I said cheerily and nudged him with my arm to get rid of the weird tension. He smiled and we went over to the others.