All's Fair in Love and Law

';Part One - The First Time

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(Picture of Jake on the side!-- YUM!)

Jake's P.O.V.

Chapter One

"Jake!" She squealed, pounding her little fists against my back, "Jake, put me down!"

Cherri was slung over my shoulder, so I was carrying her down the street, as she kicked and screamed in protest.

It didn't have to be this way, but stubborn and headstrong as she was, there was just no reasoning with her.

I'd been following her around school practically the entire day, much to the chagrin of my friends, who insisted I was whipped.

To be honest, they weren't very far from the truth.

Cherri had been "busy" all day, with little time to speak to me. First she had all of those AP classes in the morning; the smart, little cookie. Then, she spoke pretty much exclusively to Casey, her best friend, during morning break. After that, she had Spanish, where she was in her absolute element, so there was no cornering her there. Then, she would disappear into the library and only resurface once she'd read all the law books she was interested in, and browsed through the limited supply of political journals. A true bookworm...

Seeing her after school was perhaps the only chance in her packed school day that I'd get to speak to her. And that was only because it had run like clockwork pretty much ever since we'd started high school.

At 3pm on the dot, we'd meet outside the front of the school building and walk home together. As I mentioned, we'd been doing this same routine since we were practically kids. We lived about a 10 minute walk away from each other, Cherri in a huge mansion, me in a sizeable detached house, and I'd drop Cherri off, before walking the short distance home.

All of those afternoon walks, plus the fact that we had been best friends since birth, had given me time to really fall for Cherri.

Of course, I'd always loved her - we were inseparable during childhood, our moms practically raising us together. But when we hit our early teenage years, I started to see Cherri as so much more than a friend.

Looking over my shoulder at her now, I realized again why that was the case.

I mean, she was beautiful. There was no other way to describe her. She had this face that lit up an entire room, with pretty eyes, a gorgeous mouth and an incredible, pearly white smile. Then there was her absolute radiance - she was a person that would help anyone, and someone who loved to be kind. She was easily the smartest person I'd ever met, and single-minded in her goals and aspirations. And then she was hilarious, always finding a way to make me laugh or smile, especially if I'd had a challenging day.

It was simple. She was perfect.

She wasn’t like other girls, she was special, beautiful, breathtaking.

Today, she was dressed down, in a Ramones t-shirt, high-waisted shorts and some black Vans. I couldn’t help staring at her.

“Jacob Elijah Wood-Banks, put me down this instant!” she giggled, her chest rising and falling underneath her t-shirt.

Her blond-brown curls were cascading over her face now, and down, towards the ground. A strand of hair presently stuck itself to her lipstick.

I dropped my hands and carefully placed her on the sidewalk. She looked at me with a smirk on her face, those jade green eyes sparkling.

Looking at her, my heart dropped down into my stomach and seized tight. Was this what butterflies felt like?

I tucked a loose strand of her hair behind her ear and brushed my fingers across her cheek.

There were plenty of times I could easily recall where I'd wanted to kiss Cherri. There was her 15th birthday, where she looked so pretty I could've cried. There was that time in the lunch hall when something had upset me that morning, and she'd held my hand, rubbing her fingers over my knuckles for the entire hour. And so many more snatched moments, heated glances and knowing smiles where I'd wanted to launch myself at her.

But now, just walking home from school as we usually did, I felt more besotted with her than perhaps I'd ever felt. And I was determined to prove it.

Leaning over, I kissed her lips ever so softly, but enough to show her.

To my surprise, she didn’t resist.

She was nibbling my lip now, her eyelids softly shut.

After what seemed like forever, she pulled away from me, looking at me with wide, innocent eyes.

“Jake,” she whispered, clearly uncertain, “Jake I—“

“Shhh...” I placed my finger over her lips and she kissed it, soft and sweet.

"You...kissed me." She whispered

"I know." I nodded

She sighed, "I kissed you back."

A small smile tugged my lips, "I know."

Her eyes widened, "If my dad finds out.... Jake, he’ll murder you....”

I frowned, “We’ve been best friends since.... well, since forever! This was bound to happen in one way or another, one day."

“That’s the point Jake! One day! I didn’t think it would happen so quickly. You’re 18, Jake. I’m still 17! I’m still my dad’s little princess....”

“But don’t you—“

“Jake. I’m so confused about how I feel right now. I’ll talk to you later... over the phone maybe?”

She kissed my cheek and ran off in the short-cut direction to her house, which I always avoided to spend more time with her.

“Cherri!” I called

She turned around from 50 yards in front of me.

“Yeah?!”

“Just...” I bit my lip

Not yet Jake.

“Tell Mrs Alonso, thanks for the chocolate cake...”

She smiled, "Oh, enough with the Mrs Alonso, Jake! It's Aunt Kimberley!"

Sticking her tongue out at me, she slung her back over her shoulder, waving, and walking off into the distance, taking all of my emotions right along with her.

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Author's Note:

Okay you guys, so in case you haven't noticed already, this is the story of Cherri, Rick and Kimberley's daughter, that was born in the epilogue of No Strings Attached.

Jake. Well, Jake is September and her husband Alex's son, remember September was pregnant too? Yeah, that's Jake.

Anyway, I know this one is a bit short but I'm going to try and do longer chapters in the future, just giving you a glimpse.

Hope you enjoyed, I have a lot more up my sleeve!

B. X