Wow, updating all 3 of my stories in 2 days... I'm on a roll :)
Thanks for the reviews and here's chapter 29!
SECOND CHANCES
Sometimes, it doesn't matter how sunny it is outside, or whether the beach is crowded with hot girls or not, guys just want to stay in their living room and play on the Xbox. That was definitely the case for Jack and Mike, both of whom were only leaving their spots on the couch to answer the door to the guy delivering the takeout or to take the occasional bathroom break. It was male bonding at its finest.
"Pause for a second." Putting down the Xbox controller and taking his cell phone out from his pocket, Jack smiled as he saw he had received a text from his girlfriend. "I need to reply to this."
"I wonder who on earth could be texting you." Mike rolled his eyes, continuing the game anyway and shooting Jack down. On screen, of course. "What does Tiff want this time?"
"We're going to see a movie tonight and she's choosing. Some shit Sandra Bullock chick flick by the sounds of things. Whatever."
"You don't sound too concerned."
"I'm not," the blonde boy shrugged. "She got to choose the film, she wants to go see it, whatever she wants to do is fine by me."
Mike didn't look at Jack but he still shook his head in disbelief. "I dunno, man, since you got together with Tiffany, I think you're turning soft. You're rolling over for her, letting her pick the movies, all lovesick and puppy dog eyed. What happened to playboy Swagger? She's changed you."
"Maybe I have changed." Jack shrugged again, this time smiling slightly. "It's not necessarily a bad thing, you know? So what, I'm not chasing chicks anymore, not playing the field or getting with a different girl every night? Being with Tiffany has shown me that I don't want to be that guy. I know you haven't been in a serious relationship before but haven't you ever seen a girl and thought maybe, just maybe, you'd give it all up for her?"
Maryse, Mike thought to himself sadly. He'd give it all up for her.
"You're thinking of someone, aren't you? Who is it?"
He refused to respond, keeping firmly concentrated on the Xbox.
"You're right. You're pretty cold-hearted and you're not capable of having real feelings for a girl." Jack decided to try a different tactic. "I mean, how many girls have you been with? And then think about how many you've actually genuinely cared about...doesn't really match up, does it? But hey, that's fine. To each their own."
"But what if there was someone? Someone you've liked for a long time. What if you're willing to change for them and you want them to know that?"
"You mean Maryse?"
Finally, he turned away from the Xbox, dropping the controller and looking over at his best friend. "You know?"
"I didn't know you'd like her for a long time. It's just, the other day when me, you, Tiff and Maryse were in the kitchen, having breakfast and Maryse was drinking coffee and talking about how overrated Twilight was and it was the way you were looking at her..." In his head, he decided he was sounding a bit gay and cut it short. "We've been friends for a long time and it sounds corny as hell but I've never seen you look that way at another girl. It's the way Ted looks at Eve, or the way Montel looks at Brie. It's the way I look at Tiff."
"You don't care? But you guys used to be like, the perfect couple."
"Exactly – we used to be. In freshman and sophomore year. Neither of us knew what it was to really love someone back then."
"So you honestly don't care? You don't even find it weird that I like Maryse?"
He shook his head. "No, actually I think you guys are sort of perfect for each other."
"Okay, so let me get this straight? One of the main reasons you wanted to come to Miami is because you found out your dad lived here. You went along to his writing classes in the hope of getting to know him but everything got messed up when Mickie told him that you were hiding something from him. You told him you were his daughter, he freaked out and left. Then, you ran into each other in Starbucks, he leaves in a rush, leaving his wallet behind and now you have the wallet?"
"In a nutshell." Eve nodded at her boyfriend's recount of her relationship with her father, sipping at her glass of orange juice and smiling at the waitress that refilled it. "I need to return this, don't I?"
"I know he's your dad and you don't want to see him, but if it were anyone else's wallet, you'd return it, wouldn't you? If he's smart, he'd have deactivated his cards. Have you looked inside?"
"Actually, I haven't. I don't know why...maybe I was scared about what I'd find."
She didn't look as Ted took the wallet that sat in the middle of the table and opened it up. There was about thirty dollars in cash as well as a bunch of different credit cards but other than that, nothing too incriminating. "It all looks pretty innocent." He commented, continuing to rifle through. "Does Frederick have any kids?"
"Other than me? None. Why?"
Tucked away behind an out-of-date library card, Ted had found a pocket-sized picture, like a driver's license photo, except for it was a black and white photo of a man, who he assumed to be Frederick, holding a baby. The man looked to be in his mid-thirties, with light coloured hair, in a shirt and jeans. The baby was looking up at him with wide eyes. Ted thought he recognised the photo but he wasn't sure why, so he pulled out the photo and showed it to Eve.
"Oh my God," she ran her thumb over the picture, "I've never seen this photo before. That's me and my dad."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded. "Definitely. There's a photo just like this above our fireplace, except it's my mom holding me instead of my dad. They arranged this photo shoot thing and I guess this was one of the photos – obviously my mom never wanted me to see it."
There was a moment of silence whilst she looked at the photo before Ted spoke up. "He keeps a photo of you, Eve. That means something." He reminded her. "We're leaving Miami soon and you have to talk to him properly before we go."
"I know." She sighed, putting the picture back into the wallet. "You'll be there when I talk to him, won't you?"
"Of course."
"Good." Grabbing enough money from her father's wallet to pay their breakfast bill, Eve laid down the money and handed it to the waitress, earning her a disapproving look from Ted. "What? He's missed out on seventeen years of my life; the least he can do is pay for breakfast."
Ted rolled his eyes, taking her hand as they left the cafe together.
"I don't get why you constantly feel the need to get involved with her business!"
"We're living in the same house, Leesh, I'm not going to ignore her!"
"That's not the point. The point is, she's everywhere I look!"
"We live in the same house! God, why am I repeating myself? This is so stupid!"
On the other side of the kitchen door, Zack, Dolph and Montel listened from the living room as Alicia and Kofi argued, their voices rising to the point where the trio had given up watching TV and were simply listening to the drama unfold. None of them said anything, partly due to surprise and partly because they didn't want to miss any details.
"Damn." Montel muttered, sinking down into one of the armchairs. "How long have they been at it now?"
"About twenty minutes." Dolph signalled at the clock on the wall. "And it doesn't sound like it's going to end any time soon."
"Tell me about it – she's mad but he's not backing down."
"Good for Kofi. He shouldn't back down every time Alicia decides to throw a bitch fit."
"But she always seems mad at him." Zack chipped in. "My bedroom's next to theirs and all she ever seems to do is moan about Kelly. I don't even know why Kofi and Alicia are together; they clearly make each other unhappy."
Montel interjected. "We don't know that's true."
"Yeah, we do, but none of us are admitting it because we think it's best to leave it up to them. If we were real friends to him – hell, even to her – we'd tell them the truth."
"That Kofi and Alicia are wrong for each other?"
"And that Kofi and Kelly should be together." Zack paused. "Don't look at me like that guys, you know it's true. Kelly screwed up but we all know that every day, she regrets what she did and still loves Kofi. She never stopped loving him and he's never stopped loving her."
The noise in the kitchen died down and seconds later, Alicia stormed out into the living room and then out the front door, not even taking a look at the three guys whose eyes were following her. As soon as he heard the slam of the front door, Kofi emerged. "I guess you guys heard all of that."
"Not all of it." Montel replied, as if it were going to be some reassurance.
Kofi sat down on the couch next to Dolph with a heavy sigh. "I don't know why she acts like this. All she ever seems to want to do is fight about Kelly. I comforted her because Randy left without telling her. That just means I'm trying to make an effort and be her friend. Sue me. I didn't know that was a crime."
"So what's going to happen between the two of you?"
"I don't know, Zack. When we went to Baltimore, it was like she was this whole new person that I fell for. She was so chilled out, different to how she used to be. So how come we've come back to Miami and she's not the girl I want but is just that same girl I never wanted in the first place?"
"Maybe she was never going to be the girl you wanted her to be." Dolph suggested.
"Are you going to break up with her?"
The other two guys winced at the harshness of Zack's words but Kofi didn't flinch at all. "I think I have to."
"Well, that was a pile of crap." As he unlocked the door, arriving home from the movie theatre, Jack groaned at Tiffany's choice of film that night. "I don't get why that chick didn't whoop her sister's ass. After all, she got together with her ex. Isn't it like, girl code that you don't do that or whatever? I don't know why they tried to make it some epic romance."
"You're meant to focus the love that Eric and Samantha shared and the forgiveness that Sandra Bullock's character showed." She explained.
"That's the last time you get to pick the movie."
"So stop losing at Scissors, Paper, Stone. You should stop picking the same choice everytime – I've got your strategy nailed."
"You're so smart, I love that." Once they were inside, he wrapped Tiffany up in his arms and kissed her on the lips. Had he felt this way about another girl before? No way. When he was with her, he felt utterly stripped back, like all he was and all he could be was this good guy that wanted to do what was best for her. Strangely enough, he didn't mind that.
"Looks like they didn't enjoy their film much either." She pulled away with a giggle and pointed over to the couch where Eve, Ted, Kelly and Dolph were all fast asleep with the credits playing from the movie they'd been watching. She yawned. "Wow, I'm pretty tired too."
"You ready for bed?"
With a nod, she followed Jack up the stairs and into his room. As soon as she was in there with him, the door closed behind them, she became very aware of where she was and what might happen.
Something she wasn't ready to happen.
Ever since Tiffany and Jack had gotten together, she'd slept in her bedroom at night and he'd stayed in his. Neither commented on it, even though they knew that eventually it would come up. She had a feeling it was about to occur and she could already feel the colour rising in her cheeks.
"Are you okay?" Jack asked, closing the curtains.
"Yeah, fine."
"No, you're not. What's up?"
She sunk down onto the edge of his bed and said "You know I'm a virgin…don't you?" He nodded. "Um, I'm still not ready to do anything and I don't know how long it'll be before I am ready. If that's a problem for you, I understand, but I just don't want you to be disappointed if something doesn't happen right away."
Jack came and sat down next to her, taking her hand and smiling. "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about," he confessed. "But sex ruined my last relationship so I'm not going to let that happen again. If you're not ready, that's cool. I can wait."
"So…you're not mad?"
"Tiff, I spent so long chasing you, it's going to take a lot more than this to get rid of me." He kissed her cheek. "Crash in here tonight? I promise I won't…do anything."
Agreeing, partly because she was too sleepy to argue, she kicked off her shoes and sweater before getting under the covers. Jack lay down next to her, making no effort to get under the sheets with her. His arm fell around her waist and he whispered "G'night Tiff" before she fell asleep.
A little Jack-heavy, maybe, but I enjoyed writing this :)
Please review! xx
