♥Chapter 17: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ꜱʜᴇ ᴍᴇᴇᴛꜱ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏᴏᴛʙᴀʟʟ ᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀꜱ♥

❆Jake❆

Thirty minutes pass and I have nothing more to do.

I even finish revising for the class test tomorrow.

I look over at Corey to see him tapping on his phone with the TV still playing. A smile rests on his face as he texts someone.

"Who're you texting?" I ask, merely out of boredom.

"Just this girl from class." He answers, not lifting his head to even look at me. "Don't be jealousss." He sing-songs quietly.

I give him a flat look and look away, checking the time on the clock. Eight.

Fuck, I'm not even sleepy. What should I do?

If Kennedy was here, she would do something or the other that'll at least keep me half busy.

A glare comes onto my face at the memory of what she did today when I tried resting my head on her lap. 

She screamed 'BLOODY MURDERER!' before grabbing my neck and rattling it as if I were a fucking toy.

That brat. 

"The invitation to the field is still open," Corey speaks, finally looking up while slipping his phone into his pocket.

"If you got nothing else to do, might as well go there and pass time," He continues, "The girls went out to shop, what are we guys doing here sitting at home?" He prods me.

I frown. "Why did Toothy want to suddenly go to the mall? And she willingly wanted to drive?" I ask. "She does know she's a horrible driver, right?"

He gives me a serious look. "I know, right? I asked her a billion times if she was okay."

I raise an eyebrow. "And she said...?"

"Said she'll cut off my tongue if I bother her one more time." Corey gives a small unhappy look. 

My frown remains. "She's still anxious and uncomfortable. Around Kennedy too." 

"But she likes her," Corey says. "Kennedy's easy to talk to." 

"If you understand half the things she says first," I mutter.

Corey shrugs. "Maybe Toothy wanted alone time with Kennedy. Who knows?" He says. "Girls are confusing anyway."

I nod in agreement.

"So wanna go to the field?" He asks.

I think about it and shrug, seeing no problem in going there now as Kennedy is not at home. I wanted to spend time with her though even if she tried killing me.

"Cmon," Corey says, "Kai texted and I already said 'yes'."

I stand up from the couch and follow Corey out of the house. Locking the door, I follow him down the porch stairs.

"We're taking your car just so you know," Corey reminds, "Toothy took mine."

✯✯✯

✿Kennedy✿

After ten silent prayers to God almost yelling out loud for my life, we finally reach my school.

Toothy...cannot drive.

"So why do you wanna go to the field instead of actually going to the mall?" I ask Toothy as she parks the car and cuts off the engine.

Her cheeks tint a light pink before she shrugs, "If Jake doesn't want us to go meaning there's something really interesting there." She says, "and you know how Jake is? Always keeping us away from having fun."

I nod in agreement.

We both get out of the car and I shudder a bit as the wind blows past us, making the hem of my dress flutter around my legs.

We're parked in front of my huge high school building. Toothy leads me around it until we reach the football field.

My eyes widen once I take in the scene in front of me. A huge group of maybe 10-15 guys loiter in the middle of the field. They have drinks and food out, chatting and talking among themselves. Some are playing a small game of football and the rest are lounging around with their phones or doing nothing.

These guys look huge.

I'm not even kidding.

Jake did tell me they were all football players.

I wanna play football but running for only five seconds gives me heart failure.

Toothy fiddles with her fingers and before I can say something like 'wanna murder those guys?' she grabs my wrist and yanks me towards the guys.

Oh mama, she's bold.

I would have fainted thirty-six times before just walking into a group of guys.

A few guys notice us and burst into a chorus of excited greetings.

"Toothy!"

"Hey Toothy!"

"Sup Toothy!"

Toothy sucks in a breath at the sudden attention.

She simmers down her tense shoulders in a few seconds. "Hey." She greets.

"Where's Corey and Jake?" One of them asks and I recognize him as Kai.

She shakes her head, "They're not coming."

"Who needs them when you got two pretty girls?" A dark-skinned guy with dreadlocks and purple highlights to his black hair walks up to us, "And you are?" He asks stopping in front of me, smiling.

I hide how nervous I am to be in front of these guys. They could attack and kill me, and I won't even be able to do anything except scream, cry and faint and continue the cycle.

"Kennedy Kinsey." I grin. "How ya doin'?" 

"I'm Trevor." The black guy greets back, "She your new friend?" He asks Toothy.

"Yeah," Toothy responds "She's also Jake's new housemate."

Trevor's smile widens in amusement, and he looks at me, "I can't imagine what you're going through at this moment." He fakes a sad look. "You must be so disturbed."

I return him the sad look. "No one can truly understand the deep sorrows of my heart."

We both place our hands on our hearts, giving each other pitiful looks.

"Yo, fuck off." Another guy pushes Trevor away before taking my hand in his and placing a kiss on the back of it. "To what do I own this pleasure of meeting you?"

"Probably of being so cute," I blurt.

I did not want to say that.

His smile widens.

I wasn't lying. He is cute! Look at his dimples!

"You're pretty." He says. "We'd be pretty cute then."

A football smacks his head.

"That's the oldest cheesiest fuck I've ever heard." The guy who threw the football shakes his head at the cute guy.

"I'm tryna make an impression here." Cute guy snaps, glaring at the football guy.

I realize I haven't heard Toothy's voice and look around to see her gone.

My eyes finally spot her talking to some other guy, standing a little far away from us. Her cheeks are sort of flushed and she looks a little nervous. I blink at her. Did...she actually come here to meet him?

Cute guy pulls me into the crowd of other guys before I can continue staring at Toothy.

I tell my name to so many guys that it makes me bored of my own name.

"Heyy, what's your name?" Another one of them asks.

"Emily," I answer.

"Yeah?" He smiles.

"No."

His smile drops. 

Fine. I'll do it one more time. 

"Kennedy Kinsey." I grin. "How ya' doin'?" 

My eyes keep flickering to Toothy who seems to be having a calm conversation with the same guy.

The guy has blonde hair with grey eyes. He stands taller and wider than Toothy, holding a small smile on his face as he listens to her.

I sense something...

The guys usher me to sit down and I sit between Trevor and Cute guy on the chairs lining in a circle.

I take out my inhaler, taking a few pumps from it, getting a little breathless from talking to too many people.

"What's that?" A guy asks and I give him a weird look.

Who doesn't know what an inhaler is?

Even Jake didn't know what an inhaler was and threw mine in the trash. He studies medical for crying out loud!

Do boys live under a rock or something?

"That's an inhaler, idiot." Football guy slaps the back of the guy's head.

His face goes 'oh'.

I play with the hem of my dress, looking around at all the boys. My dad would be horrified.

He barely lets me have a full conversation with a boy before swinging me onto his shoulder and carrying me away. I was eight when he did that.

"So where you from?" Someone asks me.

"I'm from Los Angeles, California," I reply.

"Ooh a Californian girl," Trevor grins.

"Yup." I smile.

"Whatchu' doing here?" He asks.

"I had no one back there so Alex offered me to stay at his home," I reply.

The guys get into a different conversation about remembering old times. I laugh along with them while munching on a bowl of nachos.

I wish I had friends to remember old times with.

I even tried playing football with the guys and lemme tell you, positioning your foot while kicking is of utmost necessity. Because you do not want the ball to soar towards the drinks and have the whole table collapse altogether.

The table wasn't set properly in my defence.

So now a big colourful stain stains a part of the field and I cringe at the damage I had done.

The guys assure me to forget about it since no one really uses this field anymore.

Why are they lying?

I literally go to this high school and people do use the field.

But I shrug, if they say to forget about it then who am I keep ahold on that memory?

I glance at Toothy who now sits on the bleachers with the same blonde guy. They huddle together, their heads bowing toward each other as they speak.

Mmm-hmm.

We start playing a game of charades and it's my turn to act. I pick a card and grin internally when I got the name 'John Cena'.

I hide my card and turn towards the guys. I'm standing in the middle of them with their eyes interestingly fixed on me.

I roll up the imaginary sleeves of my dress before putting my arms together and flexing the imaginary hundred pounds of bicep muscles.

"Okay, it's a wrestler." One of the guys guesses.

I mimic a silent victory growl how wrestlers do when they win a match. The guys start chuckling at me.

I bring my hand up and wave it in front of my face doing the famous John Cena 'You can't see me'.

Right when I'm about to mimic a body slam, someone from the guy's yells, looking behind me.

"Jake, my man!"

Jake?

I think I heard that name before.

It sounds so familiar.

Was it the name of someone's cat?

Jake with a J and an A and a K and an—oh crap.

I whirl around and widen my eyes, watching Jake's, that's not someone's cat, long legs march in my direction.

His eyes, glaring hard, fixes on me.

"Oh right," Kai speaks. "I got a text from Corey saying he's coming."

"You're saying that now?!" I cry, shooting him a look.

I look back and shriek. Jake's within an arm's reach and he's moving forward to grab me.

I raise my arms into a cross in front of me, giving him a warning look, "Just so you know, I know karate."

❆Jake❆

I glare at her before lifting my eyes and glaring at the assholes watching her with pervert eyes.

I don't even want to know why Kennedy was flexing her arms and acting like a cartoon character while I got here but it made the fucking assholes turn red in their faces with their eyes gluing to her fucking legs.

Actually, I do want to know.

What the fuck was she doing?

Her dress had rose up above her thighs and fuck if that gave me a hard-on then I don't even wanna imagine what she did to all these assholes here.

Why the fuck is she even here?

I look around and narrow my eyes when I find the culprit.

Toothy notices my look and widens her eyes, clutching her hands together.

I look back at Kennedy who still has her arms in front of her, looking ready to chop off my neck.

I still grab her elbow and pull her away from the assholes.

I pull her far away until we were a good distance away from the crowd.

Corey takes up all the attention immediately with his annoying fucking self.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I question, glaring at Kennedy while she looks like a deer caught in a headlight.

Mmm that's right, she is fucking caught.

She plays with the hem of her dress and I strain my eyes to glue to her face instead of letting them travel down her legs.

She shrugs, "Nothing much. How about you? How's it all going? Smooth as butter, eh?" She grins.

"What happened to going to the mall?"

She frowns then looks around herself as if looking around for the first time.

She gasps, "I knew there was something wrong with this mall." She shakes her head, "I told Toothy but no! She doesn't listen." She continues shaking her head.

"Lemme just go and tell Toothy that she got us in the wrong place, yeah?" She tries escaping but I catch her arm.

She yells trying to run away, "I swear we were trying to find the mall. It's just that I'm a really bad navigator and accidentally got us here."

"You navigated yourself and Toothy in the exact same place where I told you not to go to?" I raise my eyebrows.

She raises her eyes to mine, "Life works in an unknown mysterious way."

I roll my eyes.

"Now tell me honestly, why the fuck are you really here?" I ask.

She sighs, pulling her arm out of my grip and playing with her hair, "Toothy said you never let us have any fun, so we came here by ourselves."

I raise an eyebrow, "You guys want to have fun with a group of frats?"

She shrugs again, "I think Toothy likes this gu-" She immediately shuts up, widening her eyes as if she almost spilled a secret.

I furrow my eyebrows, "Toothy likes a what?"

She shakes her head, refusing to talk.

"What?" I press.

She shakes her head again, rolling her lips into her mouth.

"Kennedy..." I warn.

She shakes her head again, "Sorry, Jake. It's against girl code."

"Girl code my fucking ass," I grumble. "Toothy's my fucking sister." 

She shrugs again.

I sigh.

I won't force Kennedy to speak.

I'll speak to Toothy myself.

Kennedy opens her mouth to say something but gets interrupted by a voice behind us.

"Jake."

We turn around to look at Toothy.

The devil cat.

She stands nervously fidgeting with her fingers. The wind gently blows her brown hair behind her thin shoulder blades.

I refrain myself from glaring at her and instead give her a blank look.

"Can I talk to you?" She asks, biting her lip.

I nod. Obviously, we're going to talk. I need to know what's going on.

She looks at Kennedy and a form of conversation goes on with their eyes before Kennedy turns around and walks away.

I look at Kennedy walking away then remember something.

I take out my phone, sending Corey a text.

Jake: keep those fuckin assholes away from ken.

Corey: meaning I get to keep her 4 myself???

Jake: 1...

Jake: 2...

Corey: lol chill bruh

Corey: I'll just give her a hug

Jake: motherfucker

Corey: oopsies ken's here. Gotta keep her company now

Corey: byeeeeee love u bestieee

Corey: go chill on toothy btw. be glad she's making progress

I ignore the last text and slide my phone back into my pocket.

I look at Toothy, who still stands nervously playing with her hair.

"Look before you start," She starts and I cross my arms against my chest ready to listen to her, "I know I shouldn't have lied to you and yes I know you care for me and all stuff but seriously, I'm fine."

I raise my eyebrows. "What if you got another attack?"

"Like I said." She raises her chin at me. "I'm fine."

I glare. "What if, Toothy?"

Her stance falters and she looks down.

"I can handle myself, Jake." She murmers.

I want to scold her so fucking much. What the hell was she thinking coming here without Corey or me?

"Can handle myself my ass." I grumble. "You barely talk to Kennedy without getting nervous or jittery."

And Kennedy is the easiest person to talk to.

Toothy winces at my words but there's something else to her expression. "I'm getting better." Her fist curls. "I'm getting good at this, okay?"

It feels like she's talking to herself rather to me.

I sigh.

"I didn't panic, I wasn't tensed. I was fine." She raises her eyes to me. A soft smile lifts her face, making my heart beat faster for a second. "I'm getting better, Jake."

I look at her smile and something in my chest turns.

She's smiling proudly.

And it's been so fucking long since she smiled like that.

She's been through the worst.

"Promise you won't lie to me, again?" My hands tighten to fists. "Even if it's for the smallest thing?"

She gives me a smile, but it wavers and I tense knowing what's happening.

I immediately step forward and wrap my arms around her small frame. Like I've done a thousand times before. Making her feel the familiarity of my scent, my body, the feel of me. Her body leans into me for comfort and for the assurance that she's safe and secured.

"Don't think about it." I say knowing too damn well that she is thinking about it.

"He's gone." I assure her. "You know that."

"Yeah." She takes in a shaky breath. "I do."

"If you cry, I'm gonna punch Corey." I warn and she lets out a breathy laugh.

"Leave him alone." She pulls away from me.

I make sure she's not going to cry anymore.

"What are you doing here though?" She furrows her eyebrows, "I thought you weren't going to come."

I narrow my eyes, "I had nothing else to do."

She nods before smirking, "You didn't tell me you got a thing for Ken. It's been like what? More than a week since you met her?"

I raise an eyebrow. "And?"

She chuckles, shaking her head, "It's just...unexpected."

I give her a blank look.

"Oh well, just don't drive her away with your Grinchy-ness." She says and I give her a small glare.

"What are you doing here?" I ask. "Seriously, Toothy? Tristan?" I raise my eyebrows. "What happened to 'boys are way too useless and shitty to give a minute of my time to'?"

Her face turns red and it makes me want to gut Tristan in the face for even looking at my sister. 

"He's different." She says. "He's nice."

He is fucking nice. Can't argue with that. Probably the only guy I know who's been completely sincere and honest. 

"Just...tell me if he does anything, okay?" I say. 

She nods. "Also, be a good cousin and buy me a good soda or something. Kennedy knocked off all the drinks with the football." She says, glancing at the wrecked table.

"Also I'm kind of hungry," she continues, "take me somewhere to eat?"

"Want me to give you a pedicure too?" I raise an eyebrow.

"That would be nice, but I think you'd chop off my nails."

"Want me to wash your hair too?" I drawl out.

"Don't get so excited now," She says, moving to walk back towards the guys.

I follow her with a roll of my eyes. 

✄ ✄ ✄ ✄

What's the stupidest thing you people have ever done?

Words: 3,250

Date of posting: 26th March 2022