Love Blooms (Jane/Carlos)

Chapter 10

First of all, thank you all so much! 1.1k reads?! That is unbelievable! I love each and every one of you! Thank you so much and I hope you enjoy!!

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Samuel smiled as he watched Jane at her locker. It had been almost a month since he arrived in Auradon and each day, he fell more in love with her. The only problem being that she was still blindly convinced she was in love with Carlos. His grip on his backpack strap tightened at the thought of those two. Carlos didn't deserve to breathe the same air as her.

Samuel discreetly snapped a picture of Jane. His collection of photos of her had grown in the weeks he'd been here. A lot of times he had to cut Carlos out of them since they spent a lot of time together but it was worth it to have pictures of Jane in her natural self. Samuel closed his locker and walked over to the brunette beauty.

Jane closed her locker and jumped at the sight of Samuel. She didn't want to admit it to Carlos, but something about Samuel made her skin crawl. But she didn't want to be rude to him and figured it would fade eventually. She plastered on a polite smile. "Hi, Sam. You VKs seem to all have talents for sneaking up on people."

Samuel chuckled. "Yeah. We get taught that at a young age." She nodded.

Suddenly a growl was heard from the ground. They looked down to see Dude at Jane's feet, baring his teeth at the boy. Jane let out a tiny gasp. "I'm so sorry." She apologized. "I don't know what has him so riled." She looked down at the dog. "Down, boy. He's a friend." Samuel almost growled himself at the word.

"Maybe Dude has the right idea." A voice said behind Jane. Carlos came up behind her, arms crossed over his chest. "Jane, can you head to class? I need to talk to Sam alone."

Jane bit her lip. Samuel scoffed. "Why don't you let her make her own decisions, De Vil? She's not a dog you can order around."

Carlos opened his mouth to respond but Jane cut him off, "And he doesn't treat me like one. If he wants to talk to you alone, I'll respect that." She turned to Carlos, "I'll save your seat for you." She kissed him on the cheek before walking down the hall to their class.

The minute Carlos thought she was out of earshot, he turned a glare towards Samuel. "I thought I told you to stop with the chasing Jane shit." Carlos hissed through forced teeth.

"And I thought Jane was too smart to be with someone like you." Samuel shot back. "She needs to be with someone who will treat her like a queen, not one who treats her like a dog."

"I never treat her like that!" Carlos defended, "And at least I respect her enough to stay away if she has someone else!"

"Yeah but if that someone else doesn't deserve to be within five miles of her..."

Carlos cut him off, "Don't you think I know that! Don't you think I know that I'm dating the closest thing to perfection that this world created! That no one, especially me, deserves the amazing, intelligent, and kind-hearted girl that is Jane Godmother! For Christ's sake, I was raised to hate everything good and pure and now I'm in love with the definition of good and pure! So don't you think I know that I will never be good enough for her!"

"Okay. That's enough!" A voice came from behind them. They turned to see Mal, Evie, Doug, and Ben standing there. A shudder ran through Samuel at Mal's emerald eyes glowing. She stepped forward. "Sam, I don't know what the hell you said to make Carlos say all that crap, but I don't want to hear it."

Ben interjected, "And Sam, anyone can see you have a crush on Jane. That's fine. But she's with Carlos. They've been through a lot. If you really like Jane, you'd back off."

"But Carlos," Evie continued, "As Mal said, all that you just said is absolute crap. You are so incredible and you and Jane deserve each other in every way."

Samuel bit back a growl. So Carlos has his own friends tricked by the act. They had all trapped Jane in Carlos' web. Well, he was gonna free his lioness from that dog. "Now, both of you go to class." Mal ordered, breaking his thoughts, "Carlos, I'm sure Jane is waiting for you."

Carlos nodded and pushed through Samuel, deliberately hitting his shoulder. As he turned the corner, a hand reached out and grabbed his arm, whipping him towards the figure. He smiled when he saw Jane looking at him with unshed tears sparkling in her ocean blue eyes. "Jane..."

She cut him off, grabbing his collar and pulling him into a passionate kiss. He recovered from his shock quickly and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her as close as possible. Neither pulled away from the other until their lungs were burning from lack of air. Reluctantly, they parted to breathe. He moved to pull away from her but Jane tugged him close by his collar. She spoke lowly, her voice threatening to crack, "Don't you ever think you're not good enough for me, Carlos. You are one of the best people I know. You say I deserve a prince but you put every prince in the world to shame! I love you, Carlos. Don't doubt yourself."

He smiled at her before pulling her into a soft kiss. "I love you too, Jane." He sighed and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "Realize that I will always have the doubts and the insecurities. I can't stop them. All I can do is beg you to promise you'll be there to stop them when they get too much.

Jane returned his smile. "You don't have to beg, Carlos. I will always be here for you." They kissed one last time before the warning bell rang. "We should get to class." They started to walk down the hall, hand in hand when an idea came to her head. They sat down and she leaned in to whisper, "Meet me during free period. I want to show you something that could help. Wear something comfortable."

He looked at her curiously but nodded, wondering what she could show him.

To be continued...