It was a mixture between love, lust, pleasure, and guilt to tie it all in. On a weighing scale guilt still weighed down the other three emotions. Regardless of Kayla's showing up at the party without Jojo's knowledge and then proceeding to make out with about every male who there, he still felt like he owed it to Kayla to either come clean, stay loyal, forget anything had happened, or break up with her. With his once suppressed feelings for Claire running rampant through his mind and body, forgetting anything had happened between Clarissa and himself was not an option, and breaking up with someone you could no longer harbor feelings for seemed like the smart, responsible thing to do. Running over the options in his head, he came to a halt in his thought process when he stared into the face of the other problem. Did Clarissa have feelings for him too? With the kiss she gave him it could be she had harbored these feelings for him, but it could have just been the heat of the moment. He had to tell her. He couldn't let this go. What about that old phrase? "Love the one your with." Well, when he thought about it, Clarissa was with him through it all. He loved the one he was with.
Clarissa was elated, no, beyond elated. She was in heaven. Was it healthy to feel so good that not even drugs could give you such a high? She was sure she was in love. Her mom might have called it infatuation and her brothers may have called it lust but she just knew it had to be love. She felt like she was living in a movie and played the part of the heroine, doing the cliché thing and falling for her best friend after realizing her mistake going for the same guy the popular girl also just happened to have an interest in.
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Clarissa had never felt nervous around Jojo before, nor had she ever blushed by close, casual contact such as a brush of the arm when plopping down next to him on the bus. Now she was doing this and more. Her heart would race at the very thought of his name, she'd fumble over the simplest of sentences, be them one word sentences such as yes or no, her eyes would look everywhere but his eyes. Lord, if she looked at his eyes, her knees might just give out.
"Do you want to go to the park with me?" Jojo asked her about a week after the party.
"Uh-huh," Clarissa managed. Upon getting the hint from his eldest little sister, he'd found out that more than likely Clarissa harbored the same feelings for him as he did for her. Now all that was left was for him to the take a chance and do what she had said to do the day she'd convinced to ask Kayla who was, by the way, long gone, much to her surprise. When Clarissa had asked what had happened, he said that he had his eye on someone else. Secretly, Clarissa was doing a little happy dance in her head and wishing that "someone" was her.
They sat underneath a large oak tree overlooking the rest of the park. It wasn't overlooking a lake with a giant sunset or romantically looming moon in which they could gaze at its reflection and then stare lovingly into each other's lives like Clarissa would've imagined in a "movie-life," but then and there in that moment in time, with the chilled breeze gently blowing symbolizing a cool approaching autumn, it was perfect. Clarissa unconsciously rested her head on Jojo's shoulder and he wrapped an arm around her. Yes, it was perfect. Jojo lifted her chin to look him in the eye which, as mentioned before, she hadn't done all day. He wanted this too, and she wasn't sure if that was her crazy imaginings making her think he was staring at her with want in his eyes. As he leaned in and kissed her she was sure he wanted this too. The original plan had to just be to ask her out, and Jojo wasn't sure what fueled this but it felt right and the moment was right. They weren't at a party being forced to do this by a game. No, this was natural. Clarissa kissed him back, more than just a little contented with the situation she was in. When they broke apart they stayed like they were. Looking at the park activities below, talking and laughing until it was time to go.
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EPILOGUE
That summer Jojo, now at a new height of 5'10'', was going with his girlfriend Clarissa to a neighboring city to visit her estranged father. He hadn't known he had a daughter, and when he found out he was overjoyed. Clarissa and her mom made up, and the relationship was still rocky, but now her mother was trying to be more like a mother. Jojo's father, Mayor Mcdodd, was disappointed to learn Jojo didn't want to be mayor but one his daughters aspired to be. Who knew Heddie, at such a young age, would be interested in politics?
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Ten years later the most popular pair of singers were taking a break from their careers for a while to focus on more important matters. They sat in the house together watching T.V. snuggled up under a blanket on a couch. Clarissa was reclined against Jojo who rested a hand on her rounded stomach, and they smiled when they felt the little who kick. The soon to be grandparents, aunts, and uncles were there too. It was a get together, for none of them had seen each other in a while, having been busy working toward their happily ever afters. Now, in this moment is where I draw to a close and where I say, "They all lived happily ever after." The end.
