Chapter 42

Everyone has their own bubble. They get wrapped up in their own lives, tangling certain people up with them in their maybe perfect life. Or maybe their not-so-perfect life. And it is my greatest pleasure to be tangled up in Spencer Gold's not-so-perfect perfect life.

"Say it again." His breath tickles my face due to the close proximity.

"I'm in love with you Spencer Gold, I'm so in love with you that I didn't have the courage to admit it to both you and myself, until now." I trace his jaw line as I stare deeply into his hypnotizing green eyes. "I'm in love with you so fudging much. You have lifted me up out of that depressing slump I was living in for months. That slump where I pretend I was the happiest person in the world. But now I truly am the happiest person in the world."

"That is not possible," Spencer pauses as he stares back into my blue eyes. "Because I am the happiest person in the world."

I giggle and look down. "How about we make a deal, you're the happiest guy on the world and I'm the happiest girl."

"I can live with that." Spencer smiles at me.

"I'm continuing my sappy love confession right now okay, so be prepared to feel like crying?" I crack a joke as we hold each other's hands in front of us.

"Okay, but just to let you know I won't." Spencer makes the tough guy look.

"I was a boring person. Focusing only on soccer, school, and my fantastic fangirl shrine at home. But then you shook me out of that boring bubble the second you drag me over to your table at lunch on the first day of school. The day you gave me pizza, the day I met basically all of our friends, and the day we showed each other just how different our personalities are." I look down at our hands interlocked together, the hands that fit perfectly. "And you showed me that I could still be a somewhat boring person, but in an incredible bubble. An adventurous bubble where that guy shows you how to do graffiti, where I skated on an ice pond, bowled for the first time in years, and where I learned how to fall in love."

"No need to interrupt or anything," He grins at me. "Though I feel the need to tell you you're whole love confession is way better than mine was, already."

I laugh and roll my eyes. "You're just saying that. But seriously, you're the absolutely perfect guy to fall in love with. And it was probably the hardest yet easiest thing I've ever had to do in my entire life."

Spencer leans down and slowly tilts my chin up with his finger. "And loving you is the absolute easiest thing in the world for me."

I close my eyes as I feel his soft lips on mine.

I know I've said this many times, like when Spencer brought me on our first date, when we ditched school to visit the abandoned building, and many other times. But really right now, standing in between a forest and a crummy pit stop with a beautiful sunset, I feel like I'm in paradise. I can feel both the rush of adrenaline, and the content flutters of the butterflies in my stomach. And it's all simply because of one thing. I'm with him.

"I love you kitten." Spencer stares down at me.

"I love you too Spence." And I stare back at him.

"Yes! Finally!" Spencer hollers happily, looking up into the sky and pumping his fists up in victory.

I giggle as I watch him do a hilarious dance.

"Why are you being such a spaz?" I hear Mrs. Golds voice come.

I turn to my side where the gas station is.

"She loves me!" Spencer runs around his mother, just like the five year old I do indeed love. "Kitten is in love with me."

I grin as he comes back to put an arm around me, facing Mrs. Gold.

"Oh my!" She throws her own arms up in the air. "Well this is fantastic!"

My jaw drops as the mother of the guy I love pulls me away from Spencer and in for a hug.

"I don't even know what to say now....." I mumble, slightly embarrassed once I stand back beside Spencer.

"You could say I love you to him." Mrs. Gold claps her hands as if playing fairy godmother or something. "Just so that I can hear."

"Well since my pleading mom wants you to kitten..." Spencer looks me in the eyes suggesting I do what the crazy fangirl wants.

"I love you Spencer." I grumble looking down at the mucky cold snow below our feet.

  I may think this family is perfect, but it sure is crazy weird. I understand that Mrs. Gold has that amazing peppy cheerleader persona, yet this is even over the top strange. And I love it.

Spencer grins once again. "I love you too."

"I'm going to faint." Mrs. Gold dramatically places a hand on her forehead. "Just kidding, but I do feel extremely happy!"

"So do I." Spencer pushes my wild hair away from my face as he smiles back at me.

I roll my eyes. "So do I, I guess."

"Wait till Emma hears about this!" Mrs. Gold squeals. "I should go call her right now!"

My eyes basically bulge right out of my head. "What? Do you two have a secret Spence and Jess fangirl club, where you guys fill each other in on what we do every second?"

Spencer chuckles at my freaked out state.

The secret fangirl girl mom gasps at my accusation, but then she pauses in thought. "Maybe."

I groan as Spencer holds me in his arms. "This is just going to be great when we go to school tomorrow."

"Yes it will be!" Mrs. Gold agrees, not picking up on my sarcasm.

"We are going to get trampled by a tiny brunette." Spencer fills his mom in. "Also known as the other person in your crazy club."

"Oh, well that sucks." She replies as we all start walking to the car again.

"How about we tell them ourselves?" I suggest. "Or even better yet, we don't even tell them."

"Like a surprise until we just randomly say it with them nearby?" Spencer gets my thoughts. Ruby on the other hand.....

"No! That's a horrible idea! I know you two have an extreme fetish for surprises, but not everyone is like you!" She disagrees.

"It won't really be a surprise though." I begin as we start driving away from the old gas station.

"We've kinda been in love with each other for sometime now, at least they probably think that." Spencer looks at her through the little mirror in the front. "So to them it probably won't even be that big of a deal."

"Fine, fine. But take my word, at least one person will freak out." Mrs. Gold pretends to be some evil villain from classic movies.

"Oh well." I shrug as I lean into Spencer.

"They won't, they have too much stuff to worry about as it is, they shouldn't focus on us." Spencer kisses the top of my head. "So hopefully we can help them solve the main problem."

At first I'm confused, but then I remember, instantly bursting our bubble.

Jace and Nova.

That sure is a problem.
🌸🌸🌸🌸
"Today is such a happy happy day." I practically sing.

"Oh yes it is." Spencer sarcastically agrees as we walk down the hallway together, his arm around my shoulder as always.

I lightly nudge him in the shoulder. "It really is, it's not a blizzard outside for once, there's no miserable students walking down the hallway with their hoods up, there's n-"

"Oh wait there's one." Spencer cuts me off to point at some poor guy trying to stay invisible.

"I'm so sorry." I quickly get out to the boy who tries not to glare at Spencer. Everyone knows not to get on his bad side.

"It's not nice to point at people, especially when they are literally two feet away from you and you could potentially poke their eye out that's how close." I scold Spencer once the boy gets down the hallway enough away from us as we walk the opposite direction.

"Okay thanks for the life lesson kitten." Spencer kisses me on the cheek before going to his locker near mine.

"You're very welcome." I grin as I open my own locker.

"So continue what you were saying before, about how today is a happy happy day." Spencer says to me once we start walking down the hallway again to lunch. We couldn't really talk at our lockers since at the few lockers in between ours there was some disgusting couple. That's all I'm going to say.

"Well I already gave a few examples of why, but there is fresh cookies I heard about in the cafeteria, there's no yucky throw up in the gym like there was on Friday, poor Mr. Bennett." I shake my head. "Having to try and clean it up with towels because the janitor was on the other side of school cleaning up something else."

"Yea, Coach probably added some of his own puke to that pile by the time he was done." Spencer chuckles evilly.

"Oh and there's no Clarissa since she is home sick with that flu." I add cheerfully.

"It would've been hilarious if she was that kid that threw up during lacrosse." Spencer laughs.

I roll my eyes. "I guess so. And there's no drama since she isn't he-"

I cut myself off when I spot our friends sitting at our table.

"You spoke too soon." Spencer whispers to me.

I nod my head slowly as we both stare at our table from a far distance. But in a non-stalker sort of way.

There sits Emma and Parker close together looking awkwardly at Nova and Brian who sit across from them. But that isn't even the problem. The problem is that Brian is completely oblivious, Nova is acting normal like nothing happened, and Parker and Emma are watching them like the tourists watch the monkeys at the zoo.

"Well let's go sit down then." Spencer looks at me, his eyes cloudy with an emotion.

We both don't want to do this. We both know Emma will say something to Nova, and in front of Brian who mostly likely doesn't even know yet. And if she doesn't we both know who will. Me.

I nod my head again. "I want to go buy a cookie first."

"You mean two or three." Spencer jokes, making me crack a smile.

"Yes." We wait in line for our treats, since we already both have our own lunches from home.

I fight off looking back at our table, but only once, because I've already looked back there three times in the last two minutes.

"Every thing is going to be fine kitten." Spencer states in a serious tone, looking down at me. "It's not like Nova will be the new Jace, and leave us or betray us or something."

I nod my head at him for the third time since we walked into this crowded cafeteria. "I know, I'm not worried about that. She won't be the next Jace, and that's simply because she kissed that Jace. I'm just worried for Breakfast Club over there. And Emma and Parker. Especially Emma. She already lost Jace, she shouldn't have to lose Nova too."

Spencer sighs. "I understand. But just to let you know that neither of you will lose Nova. Nova is better than that. I mean sure, she kissed Jackass Jace, but he could've came onto her. Or maybe he caught her off guard. That sounds like something he would do right?"

I look up at him, remembering the time Jace was drunk and tried to come onto me. The big difference this time though is that I don't have any feelings for Jace, and Nova does or did, I don't even know at this point. "You're so wise."

"I know." He cheekily grins at me and I melt.

For that millisecond that I do melt into a gushy pile of lovesick girlfriend, I forget about everything. About how Emma was going over to Nova's house yesterday and found Nova and Jace kissing on her front porch. About what that could do to Brian, the amazing guy that is most likely in love with her. About what it could do to everyone's friendship with her.

But that millisecond passes.

Spencer and I walk side by side, holding our cookies in one hand and holding each other's hand in the other.

"Hi guys." I casually greet once we make it to the table.

Spencer and I sit beside each other, me sitting with Brian on my left and Spencer having Parker on his right.

I ignore the looks Emma is giving Nova.

"Hey lovesick puppies, how was the trip to NYC?" Parker replies, ignoring his girlfriends stares.

"Great, we just stayed at my moms condo there, and we toured around the universities and colleges as you all already know." Spencer exclaims, leaving out what he said on the first day. It will be a surprise after all.

"Nice, what schools did you two tour?" Brian asks. We all know he is probably going to get into some fancy prestigious university. I have the slight suspicion he will become some sort of Doctor, or surgeon. We can spot each other out.

"Oh NYU, Fordham University, and Hunter College." I reply, my eyes flickering over at Nova. She doesn't seem the same. Usually by now she would input at least one sarcastic remark. But not even a hello has been said by our friend.

"You two only toured three schools in two days?" Emma questions in astonishment. "I know Jess likes everything to do with learning and school, but even for her that's a little slow."

I roll my eyes and cross my arms.

"We toured around the schools on the first day and toured around the city on the second." Spencer explains.

"Ah, did you guys go to Uncle Boons?" Parker smirks.

I tilt my head slightly. "What's that?"

Everyone around the table gasps.

"You didn't take her to Uncle Boons Spencer? And you think you're a great boyfriend." Emma shakes her head in disgust at him.

Spencer puts his hands up in surrender.

"Can someone please explain to me what this magnificent place is?" I glance around the table with an annoyed expression.

"It's one of the best restaurants in all of New York City, we would all know because we all have grown up near New York City, so naturally we would go there many times." Parker begins to answer my question. "But it's not just some fancy restaurant. It serves frog legs, snails, crab rice, and delicious ribs."

I frown.

"Sorry kitten, I didn't think you would like that restaurant, besides didn't you love that pizza you had?" Spencer gives me a worried look.

And all of this over some restaurant.

"I've heard frog legs taste like chicken.... I love chicken." I pout, but suddenly a smile forms on my face. "But that pizza was pretty bomb."

"Good." Spencer smiles at me.

"Anyways, what did you think of the universities, does NYU have great programs?" Brian asks us, bringing up universities once again.

"Oh yes, they do! I personally like the medi-" I begin cheerfully, but my mood suddenly drops when someone abruptly stops me.

"Who cares about universities?" Nova snaps.

If there was a back of the chair I was sitting on, I would totally slouch back on it. But instead I slouch back into Spencer's shoulder.

"Who cares about universities?" Brian stares at her in disbelief, being the only one stunned by the beginning of her outburst. "Universities and college sort of help getting a job later in life, and getting a job is kind of a big deal, and-"

She cuts him off just like she cut me off, and sighs, obviously in a mood. "Whatever."

"Okay....." Brian trails off and looks at his phone. "I got to go, tech club is having an emergency meeting."

Emma, Parker, Spencer, and I all nod our heads, wanting him to get out of here as soon as possible, before Emma or I snap at Nova.

"Have fun at tech club!" I send him a smile before he rush off, after grabbing all his things. Not even saying goodbye to Nova.

As soon as he gets a far enough away distance my fake smile fades.

"What was all of that about Nova?" Parker is the first one to speak. And he looks disappointed in her. We probably all do.

"Nothing. Just drop it guys." She crosses her arms and looks away for a few seconds before noticing we are all still looking at her. "Why are you all staring at me like that?"

Emma and I look at each other. Waiting for the other to blurt it out.

But then I decide.

You. I mouth to her.

"I saw you and Jace kissing on your front porch yesterday." Emma slips, looking at her best friend with a saddened stare. I could never do it. It's not my place. She was the one who saw them and she  is the one who should confront her.

I watch, my eyes flickering back and forth between the two, waiting for Nova to reply.

"Oh come on guys." Nova let's out a soft laugh. "It was an accident. He called me that morning  asking if we could talk. I said sure, since I thought nothing would happen. And I'm happy with Brian, you all know that. So he came over later that afternoon. At first he wanted to talk about college."

"That's why you were upset when we were talking about universities and colleges." I realize to myself, but then I also realize I must've said that pit loud by the look she gives me.

"Yes. That's why." Nova makes a grim face. "And he was talking about how he got accepted to Manhattan College and he has decided he wants to go there. Then Jace started rambling on about how Clarissa is going to some university in California. He supposedly has some sort of feelings for her." She shrugs, but I notice the way her eyes become fixated on me. "I guess he wanted to stay closer with her or something like that. And she wanted to go to her dream college. I couldn't really understand him since he was drunk, like always."

I look down as Spencer asks the question we are all dying to ask.

"So how exactly does this tie in with him kissing you?"

"I'm getting there, don't rush the storyteller." Nova continues. "He started asking me what college or university I was going to, and not because he was just plain old curious."

"He wanted to stay closer with you too." Emma blurts out, then gives Nova a sheepish look. "Continue."

"Yes he did. Jace began talking some crap about how he misses me, blah blah blah. I tried to make him leave, about to go back inside my house and lock my door, that's how bad it was. And then he kissed me. Our first kiss, and our last kiss. How tragic." Nova's eyes harden at the end as my eyes widen.

  I would've at least expected them to kiss each other at least once when they were completely in love. But by taking Nova's word and glum look I guess not.

"We understand Nova, you did nothing wrong and we are sorry that we thought otherwise." I begin I touch her hand with mine comfortingly.

"What do you mean we thought otherwise? What did you think other than that Jace kissed me?" Nova scans her eyes across all of us.

"Well, you know what our first thought would've been...." Emma trails off, letting her figure it out for herself.

"You thought I would've been with Jace and Clarissa, in some nasty threesome? Or the three mean musketeers?" She looks at us in disbelief.

Spencer and I both look down, ashamed.

"It was an obvious assumption." Emma defends. "But we blew it off right away, because you are you Nova."

Nova firmly nods her head. "Yea, that does make sense. I would've thought myself to be honest if I were you guys. And I'm with Brian anyways."

"Good then all of this is put behind us? No drama?" I look hopeful.

"No drama, all of this behind us." Nova and Emma say in unison and smile at each other.

"Thank God, we didn't need anymore crap." Spencer laughs, as we grin at each other, thinking the each same thing.

There's no more drama in our lives. That's all behind us.
🌸🌸🌸🌸
"Wait, so you two pretended to be British tourists?" Parker barks out into laughter.

Spencer and I nod and grin at each other for what has to been the tenth time today.

"Yea, it was pretty crazy and we were asking the tour guide some very personal questions...." I trail off as we all walk out of the school. It's now the end of the day, and we are all just talking here. Everyone, including Brian. But I still don't know if he knows what happened between Nova and Jace. I'm sure the only person he will be mad at is Jace though.

"But technically I wasn't pretending to be British, just kitten here." Spencer nudges me jokingly.

"Hilarious." I stick my tongue out at him.

"So not much changed when you guys were gone there, except Spencer made Jess into an even badder bad girl that he made her before?" Nova smirks.

"Not much." I confirm, but my eyes flicker up to Spencer's.

"Not much." He repeats. "Well, I better get going home, my mom wants us to do some sort of cleaning binding time."

"Me too, gotta go pick up Lily." I add, as Spencer and I begin our plan. We start walking in opposite directions, then look at each other the same time.

"I love you kitten." Spencer smiles at me, acting casual.

"I love you too Spence." I smile back at him, secretly freaking out on the inside.

"What?" Emma screams at the top of her lungs, drawing the attention of other students nearby as they give her weirded out looks.

I grin as she runs in the middle of us. "When did this happen?" She points back and forth between Spencer and I.

  I look to my side to see Parker clapping, Nova smirking and giving a thumbs up, and Brian grinning.  Then I look back to the fangirl, seeing her with her jaw dropped. Not to mention she is jumping up and down.

Spencer and I smile at each other. "On the trip." I answer.

"Well technically I said I love you first, and you took another day." Spencer says to me as we walk up to each other, looking at Emma and the rest of them.

"Minor details." I grin at him.

"You didn't say it back at first!" Emma begins to scold me. "How could you?"

I roll my eyes. "It's not even that big of a deal, I love him and he loves me. That's all that matters, right?"

"Well yea, but when I told Parker I loved him he said it right back." Emma blurts out, then once she finishes she widens her eyes at what she said.

"So you and Parker love each other?" I smirk at her evilly.

"Um yea, it's not that big a deal though." Emma squeaks out, getting ready to feel my wrath.

"You know I have the right to freak out right now, just like you did for Spencer and I." I put my hand on my hip.

"Oh you don't have to." She says as Parker wraps his arms around her.

"Oh but you do." Parker disagrees, eagerly looking at me. "I think everyone around us would love for you to act like some crazy, girly fangirl."

I cringe at the word girly. "On second thought...."

Everyone laughs at my reaction.

"Hey dude," Parker looks at Spencer.

"Hey dude what?" Spencer replies as I lean into him.

"We both got our girls to fall in love with us." Parker smirks in victory as if they both won some prizes. Well, duh Emma and I are prizes.

"Yea we did." Spencer matches his smirk with his own signature smirk.

The one that I fell in love with.
🌸🌸🌸🌸
"Jess, you know I'm just as good as you." Someone laughs. I recognize the sound of a soccer ball being kicked, but not the sound of the laugh.

"Oh come on, that's not even fair. You learned from the best..." I hear myself laugh back. But I don't hear myself. Everything is fuzzy.

"That's true, I learned from you."

  And with that one sentence everything becomes clearer, I begin seeing things. I see and hear the sound of the wind blowing through the beautiful bright leaves. The red, orange, and yellow leaves that naturally come with it being fall. Autumn leaves, blowing brightly in the shining sun.

But that's just what I see in the background. Right in front of me stands a girl. At first I immediately think it's myself but I stop myself. That's not what I looked like when I was a young teenager. This girl in front of me looks quite similar to what I looked like when I was fourteen. But there is a slight difference despite the same light blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Well little flower, I guess you've bloomed into a beautiful big flower." I hear myself say, in my own voice, but it's not me. I'm standing here watching, my heart beat rapidly increasing.

And I realize, that's definitely not me. Because it's Lily. Ten years into the future. Then is this me speaking ten years into the future?

"And I guess you and your prince will live happily ever after, just like I said years ago." I watch as the almost adult Lily giggles, but it's not the giggle I've heard every day. It's matured. Just like her.

"Well isn't that why you're here?" I laugh, my laugh still practically the same. "That dress was made for you by the way."

As soon as I hear myself say that I look down to her dress. A pale blue dress. The same shade as my eyes.

"Thanks!" I watch as she comes in for a hug. I open my arms, waiting. But I feel nothing. I take a few steps back, confused. It's someone else hugging her.

My heart hammers in my chest at what I see next.

I see a women, in the most stunning jaw-dropping white wedding dress. But it's just from behind, I see the back of her head, the same light blonde hair as the matured Lily.

My eyes widen as I feel myself slowly fade away. I can hear my beating heart screaming. I hold on tight to nothing.

"Jess! Come on we are going to cut the cake!" I hear a familiar voice yell happily.

I can't turn around though, as I watch the women in the wedding dress.

I stare as she turns around, and I feel myself continue to fade away even more. As I see myself, with my hair perfectly styled, a fancy glass of wine in my hand, my sister by my side, a soccer ball by my feet wearing heels, and I see the glow radiating off of me.

And I'm the women in the gorgeous wedding dress, the one with the red wine, the one going to go cut the cake.

I wake up gasping for air. My chest moving up and down, my heart beating faster than ever. I cling onto my chest, trying to calm my heart down.

"It was just another dream Jess," I mumble to myself as I rub my eyes. It was real though. It felt real. It was like I was there, my eighteen year old self, watching my mid-twenties self. I was there. I was the women in the wedding dress.

I groan closing my eyes agin, not even bothering to look at the time on my clock. I'm about to let my head lean back onto my pillow, but I pause when I hear something unusual.

Whispering.

I open my eyes again.

"Happy birthday!" I hear two familiar voice cheer.

I look to my side to see Spencer and Lily. But it's not another dream again, because it's been almost a month now.

I grin back at them, looking down at the cake Spencer holds.

18.

Today is the day. April 10th.

And not just because I'm officially about to be a women. But because it's game day.

Be prepared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  Hey perfect people! Btw the song playing is called beating hearts and I just had to add it because it sort of had to do with the dream Jess had! Oh and then there is the dress teen Lily was wearing.... And the girl in the picture looks a lot like her so maybe that could be her?

I just realized something! The big birthday chapter with soccer game and everything.... I will be uploading it on my own birthday! Is that a coincidence or what?

  So I will most likely be uploading that chapter then, maybe not though, since I will be going away up until then and I will be spending my birthday with my family. I will try my best everyone!

  Anyways what did you think of this chapter? Are you happy Nova and Jace aren't together? Thoughts on Clarissa? When will Spencer and Jess decide which University or universities? And what will this next soccer game bring? Let me know in the comment section! Please don't be a silent reader!

Bye for now my lovely bookworms,
Ashley🌸