Chapter 16

Serena POV

I let James lead me from the room. My heart is pounding, and all I can think of is how he said we need to talk. We need to talk. We need to talk. I bite my lip nervously as he pushes open the door to the room we've been sharing. We need to talk.

He lets go of my hand and climbs onto the bed. I shut the door behind me and sit on the bed across from him. I lean back against the pillows and wait for him to start talking. We need to talk.

"What did you wanna talk about?" I ask, feeling a little impatient.

He raises an eyebrow. "I think you know what I'm talking about."

I sit there quietly and stare at my hands. I can feel my cheeks getting hot.

"Serena," he laughs slightly. "Why do you always shut down when I say 'we need to talk'?" He runs a hand through his hair.

I look up at him. "I don't do that."

He smiles. "Yes you do." He pauses. "Look, I just want to talk about what just happened. Are you going to make it?"

I glare at him. "Yes I'm going to make it."

He stares at me for a moment. "I love you."

I stare back. "I know… I love you too. We just did this downstairs."

Now he's glaring. "Serena be serious."

"I am being serious!" I reply, throwing my hands up.

"Alright, sorry." He runs a hand through his hair again. "What do you want because I want you to be my girlfriend again."

"I want that too, but… there are things," I say.

"Things?"

"Things," I say again. "James, I was all in last time and you weren't and I'm not going in at all if you don't go all in this time. You broke my heart, I'm not up for that again."

He sighs. "Yeah I know. I'm all in Rena, I swear. I was all in before I was just having a hard time. We were young…" He reaches forward and grabs my hands. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Well, I'm not sure what you expected to happen, but okay."

"Serena, don't be like that. I love you. Just give me another chance… please?" He makes his puppy eyes at me and we both know I'm going to give in.

"One more chance James, I don't think I can give any more after that."

"So… you'll be my girlfriend?" he asks softly.

"Yes, I will," I answer.

He leans forward and kisses me softly before pulling me into a hug. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him down so we're lying next to each other. "Can we stay up here for awhile?" I ask.

"Of course."

James POV

Rena and I talk for hours and eventually we fall asleep. I wake up with her sprawled across my chest. "Rena?" I ask softly, shaking her slightly.

"Hmm?" she mumbles, turning her face towards mine.

"I'm hungry, do you want to go downstairs?" I ask.

"Sure okay." She gets up and stretches.

I follow suit and we both head downstairs. It's around eight and everyone is hanging out in the ballroom. We don't all fit well in any other room.

"I'm kind of wishing we had stayed upstairs," she mutters, peeking into the ballroom.

"Yeah me too," I whisper. "C'mon lets go into the kitchen."

She nods and we head towards the kitchen. I start searching through the cupboards looking for something I won't have to cook.

"I found ice cream," says Rena, peeking around the fridge door.

"That'll work." We both grab our own container. I have mint chocolate chip and Rena has vanilla. "You're boring." I state, pointing my spoon at her.

"Why am I boring?" she asks, astonished.

"You're eating plain vanilla."

"Excuse me? Vanilla is not boring," she responds, now brandishing her spoon at me. "Vanilla is a fantastic flavor."

"It's pretty boring," I reply, eating another bite of ice cream. "It's so bland."

"Don't make me throw my spoon at you," she says, glaring at me.

I grin. "You're just upset because I'm right!" I go to take another bite of my ice cream and then I'm hit in the head with a spoon. "Ow, bloody hell Rena, why did you do that?"

"Oh I thought you were asking me to," she says slyly. "Besides, I was done with my ice cream." She shrugs and walks out of the room.

I groan and quickly clean up the ice cream and follow her to the ballroom. "I can't believe you actually threw a spoon at me!"

"I can't believe you didn't think that I would!" She calls back.

I follow her over to Louis, Fred and Mandi.

"What happened?" asks Fred.

"Serena threw a spoon at me," I pout.

"You asked me to," she replies.

I sit down next to the four of them on the cushions they had set up on the floor. "I did not ask you to," I state as I wrap my arm around her waist.

"Yeah you did." She leans her head against my shoulder.

"So are you two…?" Mandi asks, trailing off.

I give her a smile and nod.

"Finally," says Louis.

"Yeah, finally," I reply, kissing the top of Rena's head.

"Shut up," she mumbles.

We spend the rest of the night talking about the party the night before. A lot of that time was spent making fun of Rena for being drunk and jumping me in a back room. She wasn't very fond of that part of the conversation. Rena and I end up talking to most of my family that night because they all had opinions on Rena and I getting together a few hours before. Neither Rena nor I was very fond of those conversations. By the time we get up to bed we're both pretty tired even though we did take a nap.

When we get back upstairs Rena flops onto the bed. "I'm so sleepy, I know I took two naps today, but your family just tires me out."

I laugh. "Yeah I get it." I lay down on the bed next to her. "I'm pretty tired too."

"We should change," she says softly, climbing out of bed.

"Okay."

We change quickly with me stealing glances at her while we do so. She notices, but she just hides a smile and ignores me. We get into bed after and she crawls over to me and curls up on my chest. I wrap my arms tightly around her waist.

"I saw you staring," she says as she pulls the blanket up to her chin.

"I know you did." I run my fingers through her hair and pull her closer.

"I was surprised that's all you did," she says softly.

"I wasn't sure if it was okay to do anything more than that," I mumble.

"It would've been, if I wasn't so tired…"

"Next time then," I reply, closing my eyes.

"Okay. Next time."