Wicked Temptation / l.h ✔️

26

~Delilah's POV~

"Hey, Dell." Tate and Juliana greeted me simultaneously as I sat down at our table for lunch, causing me to smile at them. "Hi."

I took my lunch out of my backpack and then looped my bag around the back of my chair so it wasn't in the way. "Where are Kailee and Luke?" I asked them, having noticed rather quickly that neither one of them were here. Juliana just shrugged her shoulders, popping a french fry into her mouth, but Tate snorted beside me. "They're both horn dogs, so they're probably off having a quickie somewhere." He said, his words making me flinch. I knew it was certainly likely, wasn't it? They were evidently both attracted to each other and there was simply no reason why they wouldn't.

Tate must've assumed that I had flinched out of disgust or discomfort—which I partly had, but it was mainly because the thought wounded me. Thinking about Luke being with anyone hurt, but it was even worse that it was Kailee, one of my only friends.

"Aw, does it embarrass you to hear people talking about sex, Dell?" Tate teased me, giving me a playful nudge with his elbow. I tried to lighten up, not wanting them to notice my behavior, but it was hard. Before now I had never really had a reason to hide my feelings from them because we were friends, and I was very emotionally close with all of them so being open didn't usually bother me around them. However, now I felt like this was simply something to keep to myself.

So I sent him a small frown, trying to act as natural as possible. "No!" I huffed, opening up my lunchbox. I hadn't gotten to eat breakfast this morning, simply because I had forgotten, and now I was really hungry because of that. I took out my turkey sandwich and looked up at Tate, who was intently eyeing my second can of Dr. Pepper in my lunchbox. "Is that for me?" He asked, his eyes big and hopeful when he looked at me. I giggled softly and nodded my head, retrieving it from my lunchbox before I handed it to him. "I feel like you should already know by now that the second one is yours." I said, smiling.

Because Tate didn't get to even drink soda due to his parents forbidding it from being in their house, I usually would bring him one everyday for lunch. It was our thing.

He cracked open the can and chugged probably half of it in one go, letting out a dramatic Ah when he set it down. Juliana looked at him, scrunching up her nose. "Could you be any more obnoxious?" She frowned, shaking her head as she dipped a chicken nugget in the ketchup on her tray. He looked over at her and scowled, flicking her the finger. "Could you be any more bitchy?" He retorted, crossing his arms over his chest.

Juli glared at him, looking about ready to reach over and smack him. Not wanting things to get any more out of hand between the two of them, I decided to cut in once again. "Here." I said to Juliana, handing her a piece of my chocolate bar before I broke off another piece and handed it to Tate, sharing it with them. They both perked up almost immediately and Tate scarfed it down, chugging some more of the Dr. Pepper afterwards to wash it down, I guessed. "So," Tate began, licking his pink lips as he set the can down again. "What's up with you? You're acting weirder than normal." He said, causing me to blink in surprise. I was embarrassed that he had so easily noticed.

"What?" I asked feebly, not wanting to share just what had me upset. It would probably make me feel even worse to admit to my other best friends that I was feeling jealous of Kailee, who was their friend as well. You weren't supposed to be jealous of your friends, as far as I knew, and I wondered if it made me a bad friend for the fact that I was jealous. She got to touch Luke, to kiss him and feel his hands on her whilst he and I couldn't because I had feelings for him—because I wasn't willing to be anything less than his, and I wasn't willing to let him be anything other than mine if we were intimate together. For me, there was no casualty in touching another person like that, because it was intimate for me. However, it was clear he felt differently, so I had to manage, I suppose.

"Don't play stupid." Tate said, rolling his eyes as he slouched forward against the table and gave me a flat look, one that let me know he wasn't at all buying my bluff. "I know you, Dell. You seem hurt, or at least upset about something." He noted when I didn't answer, a furrow in his brows and a frown on his lips.

All of the sudden Luke and Kailee themselves came walking up, the two of them taking their seats directly across from me. It was like they were forcing me into witnessing them together, constantly reminding me of what I wanted yet could never have. I looked down at my sandwich, biting my bottom lip as I tried not to focus or pay attention to the two of them. Tate suddenly nudged my arm with his elbow, making me look over at him as I took a bite of my sandwich. He raised a brow at me, and I knew he was still wondering what it was that was wrong with me. However I just gently shook my head, letting him know I didn't want to talk about it. Thankfully he let it go, leaving me to continue to eat my food.

"Hey, Dell, do you have the notes from world history? With Mr. Banks?" Kailee suddenly asked, right as I took a big bite out of my sandwich. Alarmed, I looked up at her and the turkey on my sandwich tore off from the movement, some of it dangling out of the bread in my mouth as I looked at her.

Kailee raised her brows and Luke, who was also looking at me, snorted to himself with an amused smile on his pink lips. I felt my face flush at the thought of how ugly I must've looked right then, and I quickly shoved the food into my mouth, though I highly doubted I looked very attractive doing that either.

I set my sandwich down afterwards and cleared my throat. "The world history notes? Yeah, I think I have them." I said, pretending like nothing had happened. She nodded her head and watched me as I reached around to grab my backpack before pulling it onto my lap, where I then began to look through my folders for the notes. "You'll have to give them back by the end of the day." I said as I pulled them out of my folder, looking up when I went to hand them to her. However when I looked up, I found that she was no longer paying attention to me. She was too busy kissing Luke, her dainty hand gripping the front of his shirt as they locked lips. I blinked and furrowed my brows, trying to push aside the rapidly growing jealousy I was feeling.

My eyes flitted over to Luke, and I just about flinched when I saw, to my surprise, that his eyes were open, and he was looking directly at me.

A strong pang of hurt hit me in the chest as we stared at each other, my fingertips shaking as I held the notes for Kailee in my hand. I wanted to cry, because I didn't really understand what he was doing. Luke knew I had feelings for him, and I had already made it obvious that I got jealous when I even so much as saw them together. It hurt that he would do something like this in front of me, and looking at me all the while too, like he just wanted to see my face. Like he wanted to see if it actually got under my skin. I couldn't understand why, because I thought we had agreed to be friends, and although it'd be hard for me emotionally, I preferred having him as a friend than nothing at all. It wasn't fair of him to do this when he knew how I'd feel.

Not wanting to look at them any longer, or maybe I just couldn't really bring myself to, I broke my gaze with Luke and set the notes down in front of Kailee a little more aggressively than I meant, my hand smacking roughly against the surface of the table. She jolted and looked over, surprised and confused as she looked from the notes under my palm up to my face. "You okay?" She asked, furrowing her brows. The image of them kissing, with his eyes on mine like he knew what it did to me, wouldn't leave my head.

I nodded weakly and pulled my hand away. "Yeah." I said, doing my best to hide the way my voice shook. I wasn't sure if she bought it, but I knew when I briefly glanced at Luke, he knew very damn well how I was feeling.

And maybe even worse to me was the way that he didn't even look that apologetic. He just stared at me.