★ . ꜝꜞ ᳝ ࣪ CHAPTER 023! ☁️ׂ ɞ˚₊
❝ eternal sunshine ❞
( social media + real life )

✶ IG!

destinydoe added a photo to their story

♫ eternal sunshine, ariana grande
❛ i found a good boy and he's on my side,
you're just my eternal sunshine. . . ❜

♡ by jordanav3ry, rubeeeen, and more

jordanav3ry added a photo to their story

♡ by destinydoe, adoragrant, and more

✶ IRL!

destiny grins at the image displayed on her phone screen, holding it up and admiring it as if it's a trophy of sorts.

"enough with the cheesing, des," jordan's lighthearted voice snatches her attention from his instagram story, looking up to him as she's quick to teasingly roll her eyes.

she steps away from his car she was leant against and walks over to him with amusement dancing across her face. "literally your fault, but okay."

"can't exactly complain about that, can i?" he responds as a grin grows across his face, destiny feeling flustered in his presence as he looks down and mixes around the icee in his hands. he then looks up to her teasingly. "you can't tell me this doesn't look better than yours."

destiny huffs at his words, defensively mixing around hers as well with her spoon in hand. see, after she had met up with the group chat at school to quickly debrief her and chris' delightful conversation, they quickly all came to the conclusion that riding home with the boy would be nothing but torture for her. she opted for asking jordan for a ride home instead since they had fun getting chick-fil-a together, and when he texted her only an hour after dropping her off proposing that they go get icees, she wondered what she was ever doing once letting herself fall into chris' trap.

she hasn't even been thinking about the fact that he was one of the first five accounts to view her instagram story—the one aimed towards him, yeah, that one—really. she couldn't possibly think about such a thing with such a more honest, equally attractive boy in front of her. truly.

the thought of his face makes her see red currently, so she figures she's finally taking the right path being here with jordan.

it's just the guilt nagging her—the gut wrenching feeling shoved to the back of her mind—when she's reminded of how quick she was to leave him behind in hopes of being with chris. she's trying not to think about it when he's looking at her the way he is now, but she's afraid for the time coming that he tries initiating a kiss, because when he does, she knows it won't feel as nicely as it should with all that she did last night floating around in her head.

"please," destiny scoffs as she pulls herself out of her thoughts. "you mixed like three different flavors. i think i'll stick to blue ras."

"'cause i'm a pro," he easily defends his choice of icee combination. "so basic," he goes on to call her, his voice only teasing as destiny laughs.

"you were just eating from mine like five minutes ago," she knowingly reminds him, a sheepish smile taking over his face as she grins at the sight. "i don't even want to hear it."

he sticks his hands in the air, still holding his spoon and icee in each as he mockingly surrenders to her. "hey, take it easy," he says, lowering his hands after feeling satisfied at her giggling. "you got me. i still enjoy the basics too, what can i say?"

"you're so goofy." destiny rolls her eyes in amusement, walking away from him for a moment to throw away the remains of her icee into one of the closest trash cans in the empty parking lot they're stood in. she feels his eyes follow her every movement, and she'd be lying if she said it didn't make her all giddy.

"is that right?" he replies, a smirk appearing to toy at his lips as destiny reactively pushes her lips together. she's stood in front of him again now, and with the lighting dusk provides, he looks especially good.

"mhm," she only hums, watching curiously as he turns in the same direction she just went in. he goes to throw the rest of his away as well, and when he comes back to her, destiny decides to hopefully make her chest a little less heavy. "hey, thanks for being so cool with me after i kind of ditched you for chris, by the way..." she brings up hesitantly, his face changing. "i was a dick, so i appreciate it. really."

jordan is silent for a few seconds, and destiny mistakes the air to be growing tense until he ultimately responds, "don't sweat it." destiny is relived for a small moment until he continues with slight hesitance. "just tell me one thing," he starts, her heart already dropping. "was the reason you stopped answering me last night because you were with him?"

destiny's face must change into something so distinctively guilty, because before she's even given a chance to respond, he sighs. she can tell he sighs because he knows her answer, and it causes her to frown intensely. "jordan," she tries. "i'm sorry, i—"

"you don't have to apologize, des," he cuts her off hastily, only adding to her frown due to his change in voice. "i can't expect you to be committed when we're only talking, i get it," he's attempting to understand her perspective when he shouldn't.

"no, jordan," she's the one sighing now, not wanting him to begin thinking something he doesn't need to. "it was my mistake, really. chris isn't someone you have to worry about, and i shouldn't have made you feel like that," she tries her best to reassure him, his eyes jumping across the different features of her face. "he's just.. not in the picture anymore, trust me."

jordan purses his lips for moment, analyzing destiny's expression before ultimately shrugging his shoulders. "i trust you, des," he tells her sincerely, her frown washing away. she is only half-relived however, as she's currently trying to ignore the part of herself feeling that she's obviously leaving some truth out. "i wouldn't have let it go if i didn't."

desiny refrains from smiling as she's in disbelief that men like him actually exist. "you're too good to me," she sighs wholeheartedly.

"i've gotten too sucked into your charm now to act any different." destiny's face lights up at his words, and jordan finds the view much prettier than the sky above them. he shakes his head, stepping forward and wrapping an arm around her shoulders to spin her around. she no longer resists her grin now, as he begins walking with her to his car. "you're still coming to the party tomorrow, right?"

"duh," she responds obviously. when she says she's fully in with him now, she means it. "i wouldn't miss it."

"good," he responds without missing a beat, "i was looking forward to showing you off."

yeah, she could get used to this.

chris closes his eyes shut tightly, his jaw clenched in place at the sound of nate engaging in normal conversation with his brothers. when he decided to come home with them to hangout for a bit, chris couldn't decline without it seeming weird, but the silent growing rage in his chest towards his own best friend is becoming too much with such suffocating background noise.

see, after nate and chris finished their talk, chris was severely pretending like the conversation didn't immediately crush all of his hopes, and has been since, quietly containing the anger still causing his blood to boil.

the anger only became worse after destiny's fucking instagram post, and he's felt somewhat frozen in time since their conversation over text ended. so much went wrong in literally twenty four hours, and the fact that he can only blame nate for a small portion of such, is making him unfairly more pissed.

he knows he already fucked himself over when he allowed nate's words to influence him into sending a text that he never wanted to in the first place, but today being the day out of all days for the friend group to find out that chris has been on good terms with jada has definitely set his fate in stone.

anytime he thinks about the fact that he's not only lost what could've been with destiny, but also apparently lost her as a friend now, he swears he can feel bile rising in the back of his throat. this was the last thing he wanted, but his anger has been begging to be let out since lunch and he just snapped after seeing destiny's spam post. he should've known she wouldn't waste time distraught over him when with the whole jada thing, it probably looks like he intended to play her from the start. that makes him want to fucking scream. he can't even tell her it was never like that, because now he has to worry about nate hot on his trail.

the jada thing—it's not even like that. he just kept running into her in the hallways and he really didn't mind because he'd try to keep his head down most of time, but she was the one to approach him asking to drop their bad blood. he was hesitant too, but the group has been so quick to disapprove of his actions that he hasn't gotten a chance to explain that, so he's just been sitting on the couch in a pool of his own misery. he knows it's stupid to be friends with jada again, but it just seemed easier than actively avoiding her. he'd never talk to her outside of school; she's just one of the only people he knows in the government class he switched over to. he's been unable to see anyone in a romantic light after his special night with destiny too, so it's not like he has to worry about that either.

he swears the universe is attempting to get a laugh at him with the way he just felt so confident the other day about finally getting his feelings in check, only for everything he's ever wanted to slip from his grasp in a day.

he lets out a deep sigh as he picks up his phone from his lap, turning it on and unlocking it with his face for it to immediately open on the same app he was on previously—or more specially, the instagram story. he kisses his teeth as the same ariana grande song plays through for the fifth time since he first saw destiny's post. the lyrics are obviously directed at him, and he knows why, but he'd rather die than attempt to shoot her another text with all the resentment he's facing still built in his chest. he's so, so cooked.

it only continues to get worse though, as when he finally swipes out of it, he notices jordan has posted a new story that he hasn't yet viewed. the fact that he gets a weird feeling in his stomach before he clicks on it should tell him enough, but his face drops quickly after he views his post. destiny looks as good as she always does and fuck, he's already lost. there's really no coming back to this—especially now that nate is too big of a factor.

she looks so happy in the picture jordan's clearly taken of her too, and it makes him sick with the remembrance of how that was him in his place taking pictures of her just a day ago. a part of him wonders if jordan's aware of that, but jordan is a good guy and he unfortunately knows that, so the thought isn't even worth it.

he frowns as he continues staring at the picture of destiny. jordan is good for her, and he's been denying that for the past weeks because he knows he wants to be the one able to do that for her. look at where he's gotten though: he's only hurt her when that was the one thing he wanted to stay far, far away from from the start. he's sure all he's brought her is pain and the thought of her shedding tears on him makes him feel like a criminal. maybe in some twisted way, this was meant to happen—for destiny's sake, before chris is able to hurt her any longer.

he lets out a quiet sigh and swipes out of instagram finally, instead rummaging through his sweatpants pocket until he's able to grab his airpod case. he then puts them in, feeling at peace when he sets them to noise cancelling, and allowing himself to be distracted momentarily after he gets his current playlist playing.

it's time to accept defeat he's decided; he won't be able to deal with the guilt if he ruins the one girl for him any more.

💌

u guys have no idea how long it took to make this chapter presentable enough to upload 😭 literally had to copy and paste the written chap in bits so it wouldn't bug wps alignment glitches

i know you guys want aaa and national anthem updates and while i completely understand, i am begging you to just hang on 😞 being completely honest i'm kind of in a writing slump rn and nervous is the easiest fic to write for me, so please, just continue being patient w me i appreciate it so much 💝 u guys know writing motivation comes and goes in phases for me so i promise you there WILL be updates in due time, i'm just dealing w more important personal stuff to focus on rn

<3
jaden