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Chapter 21: Why Don't We Date?

Will POV:

I sat down facing the coffee shops front door, with a cup of tea in hand, waiting for Nico to arrive. I have no idea what he needs to tell me, but it seemed kind of serious. Well at least he's going to talk to me, I tell myself, even if it's not important. I chowed my lower lip, wondering when Nico would show up.

"Will?" Someone said off to my left. I turned to see a buff, dark skinned guy facing me, with short black hair. "Jake?"

"Hey. How are you?" He asks as he sits across from me. He hasn't changed much since I last saw him at my old school. I can't tell if that's a good thing or not thought. "I'm good. What about your?"

"Not bad. What are you doing here? You just up and left all of a sudden. No one knew where you went off too."

"I moved here to live with my dad. What about you?"

"I'm visiting a step-brother for the weekend." I nod. I knew Jake had some step siblings, and would visit them once in a while.

"How's everyone back home?"

"Eh. You know, same old, same old. Stoll's keep pranking everyone. Drew's still a bitch. Silena and Beckendorf finally got together. We miss seeing you around though."

"Yeah. Sorry about that." I bite my lip and looked down at my tea. "I miss you guys too."

"Hey, I got to go. Here's my number. Maybe we can meet up again before I head back, if not at least try to keep in touch, yeah?" Jake hands me a napkin with a seven digit number on it. "Yeah." I reply. He gets up from his seat, and before he walks away, leans over the table and kisses me. It was a peck, but it shocks me none the less.

He leans away, with a smirk on his face and winks. "See ya." I watch him walk out the door, Jake not once looking back. "Who was that?" A new voice demands, and they slid into the once occupied seat. I look over to see Nico glaring at me, with a steaming, hot cup of coffee in his hands. "Oh, Jake? A friend from my old school."

"Did you kiss all your friends before coming here?"

"Um … no. We've dated."

"Mhm." I couldn't tell from he's tone of voice, but it seemed like a mixture of disappointment and pleasure. I didn't really want to go down this road, so I asked what he wanted to talk about. Nico turned his face to look out the window. He was quiet for a while, before finally opening his mouth, tongue darting out to lick his lips, before biting them. I was about to ask what was wrong, before he turned towards me. Not meeting my gaze he quietly muttered, "I just wanted to say thank you about finding Hazel and I, even though we didn't need it. I didn't get to tell you before."

"You couldn't do it over text?" He glares at me. "Next time I will. I thought it would sound nicer and more sincere in person but I guess it doesn't matter." Nico got up from his chair. "Nico wait. I didn't mean it like that." I said trying to grab his wrist. He moved away from me and out the door before I had time to fully get out of my own chair. I sighed and plopped back down.

I finish off my tea, before heading out of the store. It was a nice day out, so I decided to take a walk. As I walked, I replied the conversations between both Jake and Nico. I pull out the number Jake gave me, and type it into my phone.

'Hey Jake. It's Will.'

'Hey.'

'Are you busy?'

'Not at the moment. Why?'

'Do you think we can meet up?'

'Sure. Where did you have in mind?'

'My place at 3?'

'Sure.'

'Great. Here's my address. _'

'See you then.'

I start heading home, but stop to pick up a few items from the local grocery store that we need at home. Dad's not every good at buying food we need, so I mostly do the shopping.

I walk to the front door and pull out my key to unlock it, only to find the door is already unlocked. Dad must be home early. I thought, as I walk in. Yep. There's his guitar. "Dad?" I call out, just to see him poke his head out of the kitchen. "Hey kiddo. Where have you been off too?"

"Meeting up with a few people. Jake's coming over in a few hours."

"Alright. I have to meet up with Zeus later anyway."

I look over to my dad. Shock written all over my face. "Oh? What about?" Zeus is a self-made millionaire, by buying out huge cooperation's to become a powerful businessman. Why he wants to talk to my dad is a huge mystery to me. I didn't even think the man knew my dad in the slightest. Dad just waves my question off. "Nothing major," is all I get as a response. I shrug, and head to the kitchen to start putting the food away.

Dad leaves an hour or so before Jake was going to arrive. I have the house to myself again. As I turn to the TV to turn it on, I remember to ask if dad was going to come home tonight, or if he was going to get a hotel room. It's not a common thing for him to do, but if his meetings runs really late at night, he normally just gets a room, so he doesn't wake me up when he gets back. Also, he doesn't need to drive far and accidently fall asleep at the wheel. I quickly send him a text, and go back to what I was about to do.

Jake arrives promptly on time. I open the door for him, and let him in. "Hey. Did you find the place easily?"

"Yeah. It's not too far from my half-brothers place."

"That's good." We walk into the living room, and plop down onto the couch. "So what did you want to do?"

"What to play some video games?" I ask as I get up to pull all the games I own out. He nods and picks out a zombie shooting game out. We get so involved that I forgot we haven't played like this in forever. I tell this to Jake who supplies, "Yeah. It has been a long time."

"You said nothing much has changed right?" I see him nod in the corner of my eye. "What pranks have the Strolls gotten into?"

From there Jake tells me all types of stories. From different pranks the Strolls have played to how Silena and Beckendorf finally got together. It makes me feel homesick for the first time since moving. I really miss all my friends I left, but am so grateful for my father to get my out of that house. "So you never really told me why you wanted to break up." Jake says after a while. This was a topic I did not want to talk about. Jake deserved to know though. "I was moving, and long-distance relationships hardly work out for kids our age. I didn't want to drag out something that would happen in the end."

"But you never stopped liking me?"

"God no. I was so devastated when I broke up with you, but I know it was for the best."

"Mhm." He mums. He pauses the game, and we look over at each other. I open my mouth to say something just as Jake leans over. The next thing I know, Jake is kissing me for the second time that day. I'm not shocked too much this time around, and kiss back. It felt so natural, kissing Jake. It was like time never moved. We were back to how it was before I moved.

Parting and panting a little, Jake looks into my eyes. There's love in them. "Hey." He says quietly. "My brother is having a party with his friends tomorrow. Come with me."

"Are … are you sure?"

"Yeah. He won't care."

"Alright." I say as Jake steals the deal with another kiss.

The next day, I go to the address Jake gave me. It's on the small side, but has a huge garage that's open. The inside holds a few cars and a bunch of various electronic parts along with several other odds and ends. I shrug as I made my way to the front door. I ring the doorbell and Jake answers, and leads me inside. "Hey," He says, "Just in time." We head into the back yard where I find familiar faces.

I turn to Jake. "What's your brother's name?" I ask him.

"Mhm? Oh, his name's Leo." He's about to point out Leo to me. "Your brother is Leo."

"Yeah? Why?"

"I'm friends with everyone here." I see a blush start to form on his face. "Oh." Before either of us can say anything, Piper finally notices us. "Hey you two!" She waves us over. We walk over and I look over to Leo with a curiosity. "So was there a reason I wasn't invited by you Leo?" He looks at me like I'm crazy, then wipes out his phone and gives me a sheepish look. "I typed the message out, but I forgot to actually send it." He says as he shows me his phone. I chuckle at him and shack my head.

"So if Leo didn't invite you then Jake must have, right?" Jason asks. I nod. "How do you know him?"

"Oh" I said, "We wen –"

"We went to the same school before he moved here. I ran into him at a coffee shop yesterday." Jake cuts in.

"I didn't know you guys were friends." Leo said.

"Actually he's my boyfriend." Jake says, wrapping his arm around my waist.

"So you are dating." A quest voice says behind me. I turn around to see Hazel and Nico just walking out of the house. Hazel looks a little flustered, probably from being late, while Nico isn't even looking at me, hand's stuffed deep into his pocket. "Nico –" I start before he turns around and walks back into the house. I step forward to follow, but Jason stops me. "Leave him alone."

"But."

"If you run after him, you will only make it worse. Give him his space." I look back over to the house and see Hazel gazing into the space Nico had ran off to. She looked like she wanted to go after Nico as well but kept herself at the party. I take Jason's advice, and stay at the party. During the entire time thought, I can't stop thinking about the devastated look Nico had.