♥Chapter 27: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ꜱʜᴇ ᴛᴇɴᴅꜱ ᴛᴏ ʜɪꜱ ᴡᴏᴜɴᴅ♥

✿Kennedy✿

I exit English class and meet up with Eve with a huge grin on my face.

She notices my grin and grins back.

"I guess it went well?" She asks.

She knows how difficult it had been to study for the English test and how nervous I was for it.

Jake sat with me for three hours yesterday and boy how much we yelled at each other.

"It was great!" I exclaim, "I got a B!"

We walk out of the school together with me ranting to her about how difficult this was and how much I needed to focus.

My ranting stops when I spot Jake standing outside his car.

Without another thought, my legs take off in his direction with a squeal.

"Jake!"

His eyes snap to me, and he opens his arms, letting me jump onto him. I give him one big squeeze before leaning back with him still holding me.

"I got a B!" I exclaim, grinning, "I passed the test!'

A proud little smile comes on his face, "I knew you'd do it."

I jump off him and adjust my bag, taking a few pumps from my inhaler.

"I have a chemistry test tomorrow," I tell Jake and he smirks, knowing what's about to come tonight.

Three hours of an intense study session. Intense goes both ways for us. Then the rest of the night, it's being glued together, either cuddling or kissing.

A small shiver goes down my body remembering Jake's mouth on my neck last night.

Remembering that I forgot Eve, I spin around to look at her.

She stands where I left her, looking over at Jake and me with a strange sort of tight look.

I wave her over and she starts walking in my direction.

At the same time, a different voice calls out to me Jake and I turn around.

Corey puts his arm around my shoulder, shouting a loud greeting before crushing me into a bear hug.

"I passed English!" I tell him with a grin.

"That's amazing!" He exclaims. "Although I already knew living with Jake would make you a nerd too."

Jake glares and pulls me out of Corey's embrace until my body presses against his side with one big arm around my waist.

"I mean look at Toothy here." Corey puts an arm around Toothy and pulls her into a tight side-hug despite Toothy protesting and trying to swat him away. "She spent one month with Jake in his house and she started teaching me about esophagus."

"Get away from me!" Toothy finally manages to shove Corey away from her.

"Meaning there's only one dumbass here and it's you," Jake says.

"Okay first," Corey holds up a finger. "Mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell."

"Facts!" I throw in. 

"What does peristaltic movement mean?" Jake raises his eyebrows at Corey.

A blank look comes on Corey's face. "What now?"

"Peristaltic movement," Jake repeats.

"Dude, don't ask hard questions." Corey runs a hand through his hair. "Ask me some biology question or something."

"It is biology, dumbass." Jake retorts.

"Okay ask me a maths question then," Corey says. "Easy ones though." He quickly adds.

"Fine. Name any five prime numbers." Jake challenges.

Corey thinks for a while before his face lights up with realization. "Oh okay. First, there's 2, then 3, then 5, then 7, then...oh right! 11." As soon as Corey finishes an extremely proud look comes on his face. "See! I knew the answer!"

"Don't look so proud, dumbass. That was a fourth-grade question."

"Would you stop calling me that?"

"Stop being dumb, then I'll stop."

Corey scowls.   

Eve stops in front of us and eyes Jake and me, "You two seem..." she adjusts the straps of her bag on her shoulder with a shrug, "comfortable."

"I'm his girlfriend now," I smile proudly, and Jake squeezes me to his side a bit.

For a moment a look of pure shock comes on Eve's face. But that quickly changes into a smile.

"Girlfriend? Really?"

I nod, grinning, while Toothy narrows her eyes at Eve.

"You people are worst at spreading news." Corey throws his hands up. "Keeping the poor thirsty people waiting for some juice is not good, you know? Jake getting a girlfriend would literally be breaking news." Corey pulls out his phone and taps on it.

"What are you doing?" I ask him.

"Giving people some news." He replies, still typing on his phone.

He looks up when he's done.

"Done." He grins.

I was going to ask him what did he do but before I can, a series of pings emanates from someone's phone.

Oh wait.

A series of pings from my phone.

My butt vibrates as if on an earthquake because of the phone in my back pocket, and I pull it out to see notifications from a number of people on my social media accounts.

My eyes widen.

Kennedy Kinsey never gets these many notifications even in ten years.

"Jake," I say, horrified, "Jake, there's something wrong with my phone."

I show him the screen, growing overly concerned.

"There's nothing wrong with your phone," Toothy says, holding her own phone in her hand, looking at her screen "Corey just posted a picture of you and Jake and tagged you." She shrugs.

My eyebrows raise in surprise, "And people already saw it?"

It's been like what? Seconds since Corey posted the pic?

Corey shrugs, trying to look nonchalant, "I have quite a few followers."

"He has 2 fucking million followers," Jake murmurs and my eyes widen at Corey.

Corey shrugs, "Like I said," He hooks his thumbs into his jean pockets, "I have quite a few followers."

Toothy shakes her head, "He's being decent right now but behind closed doors, he's always bragging about it." She says to me.

"Brat." Jake mumbles.

"Well I did get two million followers," Corey says, an excited and proud grin slowly spreading on his face.

"Right," Toothy rolls her eyes.

"I think I'll go now," Eve says and for the second time this day, I forget that she's standing here.

An apologetic look comes on my face and I instantly feel bad. "I'm so sorry."

She shakes her head. "For what? It's fine. I'll text you tonight."

I look at her and smile apologetically, "Okay, bye. I'll see you tomorrow."

She nods, for some reason not looking particularly happy, "Yeah, same here. Have fun with..." she cuts herself off, smiling and nodding before turning around and walking away.

"New friend?" Corey asks, jerking his head in Eve's direction.

I nod, "Yeah."

"She's hot."

"She's sus." Toothy narrows her eyes.

"And hot," Corey adds.

"You sure she's good?" Toothy asks me.

I furrow my eyebrows, thinking, "She's a bit weird but yeah...she's good."

Toothy stares at me for a while before looking away.

✯✯✯

❆Jake❆

I'm stirring sauce into the pasta when Kennedy attempts to moonwalk into the kitchen.

My eyes immediately latch onto her small frame and something inside me turns soft at the sight of her.

"Jake, look at me. I'm getting better at this!" A grin comes on her face.

She's not...

"I know, right?" I say.

She's still moonwalking not seeing that she's almost going to hit the fridge behind her.

"Kennedy, watch out—"

"Ah!"

She jumps when her back collides with the fridge. She quickly turns around and faces the fridge. "I'm so sorry—oh wait, I'm apologizing to a fridge." She has a look of disbelief on her face. "Jake, did you just see that? I was apologizing to a fridge."

She cackles down laughing, barely holding herself up as if she just did the funniest thing ever. My lips tug up from the corners, watching her. This girl.

She sobers and peers at me. "Whatcha making?"

I move aside a little to let her look.

"So let me get this straight." She says as she plops on a stool, holding her fingers up. "You can study, you can cook, you can clean, you can tutor, you can work out, you can run for two hours without taking a break every morning...ARE YOU HUMAN?" She exclaims, giving me a wide-eyed look.

An unexpected chuckle escapes my mouth and her eyes soften at that.

"I guess I was alone." I shrug. "So I had time for myself."

"Boy, even I was alone pretty much half my life. You don't see me becoming Mr. Perfect." She points out.

A slight hard look comes on my face. "I'm not perfect, Kennedy."

"Says who now?"

I shrug.

"Jake if you don't call yourself perfect then I don't even know what the rest of humanity thinks about themselves." She gapes at me. 

I shrug again.

"You literally motivate me to get my butt off the bed at seven in the morning!" She throws her hands up.

"But you never got up at 7," I state.

"I said you only motivate me." She says. "Doesn't mean I really have to get off the bed at 7."

I shake my head at her.

"Why don't you call yourself perfect?" She questions, tilting her head at me.

My movements pause on the pasta.

Why don't I call myself perfect?

"Because I'm not," I answer.

"Why do you say that?" She questions again.

I furrow my eyebrows. "Because I'm not, Kennedy."

"Motherlover!" She exclaims. "Haven't you heard the song 'who says' by Selena?" She asks. "Here let me sing it for me." She stands up from the stool, clearing her throat. "Who says? Who says you're not perfect? Who says you're not worth it? Who says you're the only one that's hurting?"

I almost give out laughing.

God, she's cute.

She cannot sing though...

"Why are you smiling?" She stops singing and questions me. "Do I have something on my face? Oh, wait are you smiling because I'm singing nice? Want me to continue?"

"The food will get cold," I say.

"It's still on the stove though." She blinks.

"The food will get cold," I repeat.

"Okay fine. Here let me help you." She skips away to get plates and forks.

After eating with her constant chattering and talking, I wash the dishes and move into the living room.

My eyes scan the living room but I don't find Kennedy anywhere.

"Kennedy!" I call out to her.

"Over here!" Her voice comes from the backyard through the open door.

I walk to the backyard and find her plucking grass from random places after scrutinizing them carefully.

What...is she doing?

I watch her silently pluck out the grass, gathering them in her hands. When she seems to be done, she looks at me with a big smile on her face.

She walks over to me and holds out the bundle of grass to me.

"I don't have flowers for now but I got grass. I picked the cleanest ones which didn't have any bird poop on them. Also, they're long so they kinda look like flower stems. I promise I'll buy you real flowers next time. But for now, here's some perfect grass for a perfect man."

She stops talking and looks up at me.

I look at the grass she's giving me and can't help but look back at her and stare.

Her green eyes glimmer and the smile on her face is even brighter.

Don't get emotional, bitch. She's just giving you some grass.

Clean grass with no birdshit.

From my own backyard.

I take the grass from her small hands and her smile widens. Without another thought, I pull her into a hug and she happily hugs me back.

"No one ever gave me grass before," I say to her.

"Glad to be your first time." She pats my back.

She pulls away from me. "Okay now, let's have a race. The first one to complete a round of the backyard wins, kay?"

"You sure?" I ask.

She nods. "Try not to cry if you lose, okay?" She pats my arms.

I snort.

"Okay, three...two...one!" And she takes off running.

I remain standing in my position, watching her.

She stops when she realizes I'm not running. "Jake!" She calls out. "You dumbo! You have to actually run to win a race! Get those legs moving!"

I sigh and take after in a slow run. She resumes her running and suddenly stops and falls to the ground.

What the hell—?

"I'm gonna die!" She cries out, dramatically.

I roll my eyes.

She didn't even run for one whole minute.

I stop running and walk over to her, watching her as she lays on the ground and breathes heavily.

"We had good times, Jake. It was good meeting you." She gives me a weak smile.

I roll my eyes again and bend down to swoop her dramatic ass into my arms.

Carrying her into the house, I place her on the sofa and go into the kitchen to get her water. After filling the water, my mind barely registers the fact that I'm not gripping the glass properly. It slips from my hands and collides with the ground, breaking into a million pieces, making me flinch.

Shit.

"Jake! What was that? Are you alright?"

My eyes widen when I hear Kennedy's rushing footsteps.

"Don't come into the kitchen!" I yell out immediately.

Her frame does a screeching stop at the doorway and she almost topples and falls into the kitchen. Luckily, she regains her balance at the last moment.

Her eyes widen when she notices the glass pieces. "Woah. What happened here?"

"It slipped from my hand." I sigh. "Don't move. I'll just clean this up."

"Don't move. Okay, I can do that." She nods.

In fear that Kennedy will move anytime has me quickly getting the broom and the dustpan and cleaning up this mess. I sweep the glass pieces into the dustpan. A piece of glass gets knocked under the table and with a sigh, I crouch down to get it.

Reaching my hand under the table, I barely register the fact that my fingers slice against the piece of glass. I flinch and pull out my hand with a curse. Blood drips down my fingers, dropping onto the floor with a stinging pain radiating from the bleeding cut.

"Jake!" Kennedy gasps, moving to reach towards me.

"No!" I quickly stop her before she steps on the pieces of glass. "It's fine. It's just a cut. Stay where you are."

"Just a cut! Jake, you're bleeding bad!" An expression of intense worry comes on Kennedy's face. "You can die!"

I shake my head, trying not to wince through the bitching pain. "Just...stay where you are. Please."

She looks conflicted for a moment, pretty sure debating whether to listen to me or not. I love the fact that she's concerned for me but I don't want her stepping on any of the glass.

She suddenly spins around and darts away from the kitchen.

I blink after her. I didn't mean for her to leave...

I look down at my hand and curse again. Shit, it's bleeding really bad.

I get off the floor and grab a towel and wipe the floor where my blood's there.

"Kennedy Kinsey to the rescue!—what the heck?" She exclaims when she enters the kitchen. "You're bleeding and the first thing you do is wipe the floor?"

"It's dirty," I respond.

"Buddy, I don't know how your brain works but when you're hurt you first try aiding yourself. Not worry about the floor." She shakes her head.

She pats her chest with her fist. "Don't worry. I gotcha."

She enters the kitchen and I'm about to yell at her but stop when I notice that she's wearing Alex's big black boots that are way too big for her. It looks as if she's wearing big watermelons on her feet. She's carrying a first aid kit in her hands. The glass crunches beneath her feet but doesn't hurt her. 

"Get up." She tells me and I do. 

First, we wash the cut with water. She makes me sit on the barstool and places the first aid box on my thigh. She takes my bleeding hand in her small ones and an unsteady breath leaves her mouth. "What did you do to yourself?" She mumbles.

I look up, startled to see her concerned green eyes almost to my level even after me being seated. Rolling her bottom lip into her mouth, she opens the first aid boxing, taking out bandages and cotton and then goes on in a rant. 

"You keep telling me to be careful." She grumbles. "Look who got hurt now. What if the glass cut your veins? Like what do I tell Alex? That you committed suicide accidentally?" She shakes her head, as she tries to wipe around the cut with a wipe. 

She suddenly lets out a small scream making me jolt in surprise. 

"What? What happened?" My eyes widen with concern. Did I hurt her accidentally? 

"Does it hurt?" She asks as she wipes around the wound once more and lets out another small scream. "Oh my god, Jake! I feel like I'm hurting you with each dab!"

I sigh realizing that she's not hurt from anywhere. "It's not hurting, I promise."

"You sure?" She takes her bottom lip between her teeth and I can't help but eye it. 

I nod. 

The cut's already hurting like it's supposed to but other than that, it's alright. 

Unless Kennedy suddenly decides to do something weird to it. 

"Okay. Here I go again." She takes in a deep breath. "Just slap me or kick me if I accidentally hurt you, okay?"

"Like hell I would hurt you," I grumble, irritated that she would think I'd hurt her. 

She wipes around the wound once more looking like she's going to faint any second. Not gonna lie, the cut does look pretty bad. Even if Kennedy talks about murder and knives all the time, the faintest sight of my blood seems to make her queasy and uneasy.

Despite that, she's still cleaning my wound.

A concentrated frown etches her face and her lips purse together. She smells like heaven this near and I refrain from resting my head on her shoulder, afraid that I'll scare her and she might accidentally do something to the cut.

Is it weird that I love the way she's tending to my wound?

She's standing between my legs, her body too close to mine. I can't help but eye her face. My heart's melting into a puddle near my feet, just watching her. Why am I feeling like this?

Her eyes glance up at me and she pauses suddenly.

An even more concerning frown comes on her face. "Jake are you okay? You're smiling."

I didn't even realize I was.

I can't help it. 

For some reason, being around her makes me happy.

"Jake you're acting weird." She says in worry. "Should I slap you?"

"Kennedy I—"

She slaps me.

The sound echoes through the kitchen walls, ringing in my ears. My face is facing the other direction and my cheek stings. 

I look back at Kennedy with a hard glare. 

She lets out a sigh of relief.  "Phew, now you look normal."

This time, I don't bother saying anything and just shake my head, resisting the urge to yell or even cry.

I don't think even God can help me with her.

Just as she's about to say something else, the front door opens and Alex steps inside the house.

His eyes widen in part terror when they land on Kennedy's Yoda but when he raises his eyes and catches the scene in front of him, his face is completely unreadable.  

He sees the broken glass and my blood on the floor before dragging his eyes to me.

A hesitant worried frown comes to his face as he slowly closes the door behind him. "D-did Kennedy try to murder you?"

✄ ✄ ✄ ✄

Which app do you people use the most?

Words: 3,100

Date of posting: 10th April 2022