"You want me to what?" I asked in disbelief, my skin turning a deeper shade of red with each passing second.
"You heard me" Craig smirked cockily, I saw Raven in the back of the room smiling like a goddamn idiot.
'You' I glared at her, she noticed my stare and understood the message, immediately putting up her hands in defense.
"So? You can't decline a dare." Cam said, I turned to face Jaren, his face equally as red as my own.
"And you have to do it on the lips. No cheek bullshit here." Swagger added. I sighed and complied.
"I accept." I heard Jaren say from behind me, I looked at him in a bit of shock. "What? It's just a kiss. Nothing else." he muttered, his face still a light shade of red.
What he said kind of hurt, but I didn't want it to. Yes, it was a kiss. But I wanted it to be something else. "You sure?" I questioned. He gave a brisk nod in response.
With that, we brought ourselves a bit closer to one another. Jaren leaned down a bit due to being shorter than him by quite a bit. There was a small moment in between when our eyes met before our lips connected. When they met I felt something spark within me. It didn't feel like nothing. It felt right.
Unfortunately it was short lived as we pulled away much sooner than I had wanted. We were left in a gaze into each others eyes once again as the others stared at us. I snapped myself out of my trance-like state and excused myself from the room. I quickly entered the kitchen and stepped outside for a moment to get a bit of air and process what just happened.
This wasn't supposed to happen. I wasn't supposed to fall for this boy. I wasn't supposed to love him as much as I did right now. It took everything within me to not storm back into that house and tell him how I really felt. About him, about the kiss, about everything.
But like he said. It was a kiss. Nothing else.
---
j a r e n
I watched (Y/N) quickly leave the room after we kissed. I bit my lip and there was an awkward silence in the room. Octavia whimpered from the corner of the room, cocking her head lightly at all of us. I smiled at her for a bit.
"So?" Cameron said, breaking the silence.
"So, what?" I questioned.
"You gonna tell her, now?" Mason inquired, I hesitated for a moment.
I was lying when I said the kiss was 'nothing else'. I only said that to get her to feel more comfortable about it. Which seems kinda stupid now that I think about it. But that's not what it was, despite everything I tried to tell myself. It was everything I never had.
I wanted to follow her outside, but I decided it was best to leave her alone. Octavia walked over to me and looked at me, I decided to let her out for a bit. I walked over to the door and opened it up. There I saw (Y/N) pacing around the yard. She caught a quick glimpse of me and quickly looked away.
I didn't want to ruin our relationship between each other, if we weren't able to be a thing, I at least wanted to keep our friendship. At least let us have that.
I sigh quietly as I leaned against the wall gently, waiting for Octavia to come inside. I could hear Raven and the others talking from the other room and I didn't think now was the best time to go in as I didn't really wanna talk about the subject.
A few more minutes passed and I questioned why Octavia hadn't come back inside yet. I peeked out the door and I saw (Y/N) petting her and talking to her. Which I won't blame her for. I do it all the time. I was going to leave them be before I heard (Y/N) say something that caught my attention.
"Why do feelings have to be so hard, Octavia?" she muttered, Octavia looked at her and panted a bit from running around the yard. I stopped by the door and continued to listen.
"I really, really like Jaren. But I don't know if I'm making the right choice by giving into my feelings. After Dakota...well, maybe I'm not ready to make that decision again. You know? Don't get me wrong, Jaren is really cute and his personality means everything to me. Plus he helped me get out of that whole situation at the bar. I owe him for that."
"But I'm still scared. What if I end up just getting hurt again? Hell, I don't even know if he likes me back. Might as well spare myself the rejection and just move on already." She said, a light frown on her face.
After a while she eventually put up a light smile, petting Octavia gently. "Thanks for listening, girl. Nice to know that at least someone here is gonna listen to me without pestering me about my life choices." she chuckled softly.
I hesitated before speaking up, "She is a great listener." I said.
(Y/N) jumped out of fear before realizing I was there. "Sorry." I apologized, she looked at me for a moment.
"How much of that did you hear?" she asked quietly.
"All of it." I replied, she looked down at the ground. "You think I don't like you?"
"I mean, what's there to like?" she said, I frowned a bit and held her hand gently.
"Everything." I said. She looked at me again. "There is so much about you that I love. The person you are, your humor. I love it."
"I understand if you're scared about the whole relationship thing. And if you wanna take it easy, then that's fine with me. I don't wanna pressure you into doing something you're uncomfortable with." I continued, she nodded and smiled.
"Okay then. I like that." She smiled. We remained outside for a little longer, watching Octavia run around the grass and play. There was a silence between us, but it wasn't long before (Y/N) broke. "Jaren?" she asked.
"Yes?" I said, looking at her.
"Will you kiss me again?" she said. I didn't expect her to say it, but I was glad to hear it.
I smiled at her, "Of course." I replied. I leaned down to where she was and our lips met once again. This one filled with more relaxation and passion, neither of us hesitating to make a move on one another. It was nice. We pulled away after a bit, both of us blushing a deep shade of red.
I looked at her as she played with Octavia. I felt something special when I was with her. It was a good feeling. One that I hadn't really felt in quite a while. I think I'm in love with her.
