★ . ꜝꜞ ᳝ ࣪ CHAPTER 026! ☁️ׂ ɞ˚₊
❝ right in front of his face ❞
( real life + social media )

✶ IRL!

the summer air is warm as chris sits along the edge of his porch. a crease grows between his eyebrows as he focuses on his phone in hand, and the breeze he feels blow against his skin every few moments has him feeling extra at peace.

he's currently waiting for destiny. he and his brothers originally planned to go over to nate's place together, but matt and nick wound up tied up by other plans, which left chris with no plans nor a car. that's when nate suggested in the group chat to just pick him up, but destiny suddenly jumped in wanting to get an opportunity to drive. see, she just recently attained her full license, and since she has no car, the only chances she gets to drive are when she bugs someone in her family to let her take the wheel.

he can't really complain because it's a ride there nonetheless, and he doesn't get to see destiny alone very often. he's always enjoyed her company though, and knows he won't get much opportunities to see her soon with her plans to hit the bahamas with adora. they leave in a week, and he's unfortunately noticed the days counting down.

he could lie and say he doesn't find her choice of destination such a bummer, but he finds her absence especially noticeable in group settings. he feels like he's always the first to notice when she's disappeared off to somewhere, and the thought of missing out on searching around for her this summer has him frowning a tad. it always has him feeling like he needs to fill her in on anything she may have missed, but that's just the way their friendship has always worked and he'll have to continue it through the distance, he figures. having her in the back of his mind is nothing out of the usual when she's such a constant in his life.

the loud blaring of a car horn is what pulls chris' attention from his phone, his head automatically snapping up on instinct. his eyes widen at destiny already pulled into the driveway, squinting to see her in the drivers side through nate's tinted windows. he hastily stands up and begins approaching the vehicle after he's slid his phone in his pocket. it's crazy how he hadn't even realized she arrived.

once he opens the passenger door, frank oceans soft voice meets his ears and he's hit with the sight of destiny in the driver's seat. her attention is on her own reflection in the small mirror she pulled down from the ceiling, not yet turning her head to face him as her fingers rub along the edge of her shiny lips. he figures she is adjusting her freshly applied lip gloss as she's leant forward in her seat, chest against the steering wheel as the air conditioning fans her hair out of her face. chris is surprised by the breath that gets caught in his throat when she finally drops her hand and turns to meet his eyes. she seems confused as to why he's still outside, but he's too busy trying not to break out into a coughing fit over the way her brown eyes seem so golden in the daylight as she looks at him now, to grow offended over her eventual laughter. "are you gonna get in the car or what?" she teases.

her playful tone of voice has him blinking repeatedly to snap himself out of... whatever that was. he feels extremely taken aback at his own thought process as he climbs in the car, but he tries not to make it evident on his face. "yeah, yeah. sorry," he mutters.

must be allergies or something.

allergies? what was he ever thinking?

this is what's been keeping chris up at night recently. he keeps replaying other similar innocent-seeming moments over in his head and rethinking them entirely. he thought he must have caught feelings for destiny after she went away for the summer, but his gut is telling him something completely different which he doesn't want to admit to at the moment.

it just couldn't be true. it can't be that simple. that would mean he's spent so much time feeling as if he's on the search for something for a reason, sure, but it couldn't have always been right in front of his face this entire time, right? then, all he's been doing for the past years has been a waste of time.

he feels at such a loss, trying to comprehend that he has always wanted destiny. he just couldn't become aware of it until he lost her entirely—of course. everything makes sense now though: why chris can never commit, why he always feels like somethings missing with girls, and probably the exact reasoning why jada was always arguing "he didn't actually love her." everything's always felt right with destiny—how could he not realize that?

he runs a hand over his face, pathetically thinking back on all the times in which he would seek destiny's advice over girls he was momentarily talking to. he's been acting a fool for so long, he can't believe it. now, he hasn't been able to answer his snapchat recents since destiny's last text to him, finding watching the streaks all slowly end more appealing. he doesn't know how she's ever going to take him seriously when his behavior towards girls is all she's ever known. it's what's she's used to, and the fact that she probably thinks she's just a page in his book because of exactly that, makes him a little sick. he has years of damage to undo, and that's not even including the catastrophe of the past few days that he's created.

chris sighs heavily before raising his fist to his own bedroom door and knocking three times. he's been out at lacrosse practice with matt, but jada decided to stay back with nick and the rest of his family. it was within the first five minutes he walked into the living room after arriving home that nick let him know jada was apparently upset over something.

his brothers were quick to point out how her being upset is nothing out of the usual, but he was more focused on the reasoning, so nick informed him how marylou was showing him childhood pictures and jada 'quickly shoved her way into things.' after chris was done scolding him over his choice of words, nick told him how she apparently saw something she didn't like and dramatically exited because of it. the explanation only further confused chris, so he's decided to face her camping out in his room head on.

there's a beat of silence followed by his knocks and he's busy thinking about how ridiculous it is that he has to even do such a thing before entering his bedroom, when finally, he hears her call out, "come in."

he enters to the sight of her sat on the edge of his bed, a frown permanently etched across her features as he closes the door behind him. he registers her expression and frowns as well. "baby," he sighs, already exhausted. "what is it now?"

"now?" she repeats, her voice clipped as chris already knows he's fucked up with his choice of words. arguments with her are so easy to be trapped into that most of the time, he just accepts it. he watches as she immediately grows frustrated, scoffing before chris is even aware of why she's upset. "because i'm just always looking for something to be a bitch over. got it."

"that's not at all what i said, and you know it," he replies seriously, his lips set into a thin line as he comes to stand in front of where she's sat. her face remains set in stone as she looks up at him, so he sighs, softening his voice, "c'mon, what's going on?"

she shakes her head. "what do you thinks going on?" she responds pointedly, chris' brows furrowing with how snappy she's being. "what is it always about? what is it about every single time?"

chris' mind becomes scrambled with all the different possibilities of subjects she could be talking about, the crease between his eyebrows only growing until it finally hits him. he realizes quickly what she is referring to, and his expression changes. "jada," he starts, and she must pick up on his different body language, because she somehow seems to visibly grow angrier.

"no, don't 'jada' me," she mutters bitterly, shrugging the hand he places on her shoulder off of her. she leans forward to swipe something off of his bedside table he hadn't even noticed yet, and his eyebrows raise when he realizes it's a photograph that she quickly shoves into his hands. "she's everywhere!"

"i'm guessing mom had this," chris murmurs more-so to himself as he glances over the old photograph of a younger version of him and destiny. his mother always kept pictures like this as they grew up and while he usually loved that, it's not exactly helping him any right now. he eventually pries his eyes from the snapshot in time and looks to his distressed girlfriend in front of him. "jada, i don't know how many times i have to tell you that she's just a—"

"why don't you try telling her that?" she interrupts him before he's finished with his sentence, his lips pressing together as she folds her arms over her chest. "she's in all those group chats you're in, you see her every time you see nate, and while everyone else might not, i can clearly see the heart eyes she shoots you across the lunch table!" she exclaims frustratedly, chris reluctantly stepping back when she suddenly stands up. "you're blind and i'm sick of it."

chris blinks repeatedly at all that she shoots at him, beginning to shake his head once he's processed the end of it. "you're getting all of this from a picture."

"it's not just the picture!" she responds aggravatedly, her voice raising as chris just takes in a breath. "i see the way she looks at you."

after a moment of silence, chris only sighs. it's like she's speaking a different language to him. nothing she says makes sense in his eyes. "i don't know what you're talking about," he weakly responds, obviously not at all satisfying her with his answer. "why can't you just trust me?"

jada hits him right in the heart when she hurtfully replies, "how could i when you make it so hard?"

so many of the pointless arguments he had with jada were over destiny. how could he not realize what's been in front of his face the entire time—like literally the entire time? it's destiny—of course it is. it always has been.

with a quiet sigh, he leans back in his desk chair and allows his eyes to wander towards destiny's table a short distance from his. this is the period he had once chosen to sit away from her in, but now he finds himself pathetically counting the floor tiles between them. all of her stuff is sat on the empty chair next to her, as if she wanted to make sure no one tried attempting sitting there. he frowns as he glances over her, her hoodie pulled up to her chin as her legs are pulled up on her chair. her eyes are focused on whatever the teacher is presenting at the board, but he's sure she's not really listening judging by the same airpods chris has on also in her ears.

he misses her, but he figures it's for the better that they aren't talking. when he looks around, it feels like everyone is happier but him.

nate actually approves of jordan, and ever since the party, it's like he's really destiny's boyfriend. it's only the first day back, but chris has already picked up on every bit of it. destiny and jordan haven't put the label down as far as he knows, but all of their friends treat them as a couple and have welcomed jordan with open arms. they join them for lunch and breaks when they're not off with each other, and destiny is still choosing rides with him over matt. chris knows it's just to avoid him, and he also knows he isn't allowed to express his distaste over it all, so he keeps his mouth shut. see, he can feel that the group is still kind of upset at him over keeping his reconciliation with jada a secret—ruben and adora especially, but that's a different story—and he wishes that they would realize all he sees it as is less stress on him.

what really stood as the icing on the cake today was watching nate dap jordan up after matt pulled into the parking spot next to jordan's, and the way destiny smiled when the guy opened the door for her before walking into the school. it's like the universe is laughing in his face, giving him a hard look at real, live karma.

destiny is lost in her own head as she stares at the teachers scattered handwriting across the white board. her airpods are blaring a song to distract her from herself, but her thoughts are too loud for her to even differentiate which music artists play.

jordan is so good to her that she's sure she must have dreamt him up during one of her childhood birthday wishes for a prince. he's everything she could possibly want in a guy and more. he respects her and he sees her for who she is. she'd be selfish to possibly wish for anything more.

those selfish cravings however, are apart of what pulls her eyes off of the white board and to the side. she subtly turns her head in the direction she knows of chris' table to be, and feels her heart drop at the sight of him alone with his eyes glued to his phone. they've never had a period of no contact before, so destiny feels the weirdest she ever has before not sitting in the seat next to him, but she also knows it's for the best.

she misses him, and misses being his friend at the very least more than anything, but she can't be friends with him after experiencing the spell of his lips on hers, and she can't have him in her life at all after he let jada back into his so carelessly.

"it's just a poem? i don't get the big idea."

"just a poem? chris, where have you been for the past ten minutes?"

chris shrugs from his place on the couch, keeping his eyes on the extremely offended destiny next to him on the recliner. "i don't know, listening?" he responds obviously, grinning once the girl rolls her eyes at him.

"obviously not good enough," she mumbles childishly, shaking her head in disapproval as a group of footsteps begin to be heard around the corner. nate and destiny came over to the triplets place tonight to watch a movie and nate, matt, and nick left to grab popcorn from the kitchen, so they're assumedly on the way back to interrupt destiny and chris' moment alone. he can't exactly remember why the second they were left alone that destiny began rambling about the movie 10 things i hate about you, but chris has been finding it pretty entertaining. "the poem makes or breaks the movie."

chris only tilts his head, teasingly smirking at the girl when he questions, "didn't you already say that about heath ledger?"

destiny's cheeks shine red as nick, matt, and nate begin piling back into the living room. "why is that the only moment you choose to be a good listener?"

chris shrugs, not given an opportunity to respond as nick clearly catches onto their conversation first. "oh chris, you've gotta learn to stop her within the first minute or she'll just keep going," nick speaks up knowingly, earning a laugh from nate as destiny scoffs.

"i thought it was funny," chris tells him honestly, causing the group to laugh as destiny purses her lips. he notices her expression as he looks over to her and says, "you can tell me more about it later, des."

"uh uh," she surprises him by shaking her head, crossing her arms over her chest and sternly letting him know, "we can talk about it when you actually watch the movie, doofus."

his jaw first drops in offense, but after she stays strong in remaining serious, he amusedly rolls his eyes. "okay whatever, dork."

destiny uncomfortably shifts on her feet, transferring all her weight to her other foot as she stands behind jada and chris in the lunch line. it's like the universe was trying to get a laugh out of her, watching from the sidelines as she looked around hopelessly for ruben or adora to save her before ultimately realizing she was stuck behind them in line.

the couple is unfortunately not on the outs for the week, but rather glued to one another's hips as they stand there. chris has a light hold on jada's back as he leans down to whisper something in her ear—something that must be really funny—and causes her to break out into giggles. destiny feels like their backs to her are a wall as she's left out of their giddy whispering, her heart deep in the dumpster watching chris grin triumphantly at the sound of jada's laughter.

jada whispers something back to him then, and his eyes momentarily jump back to destiny. his eyebrows raise slightly and destiny's heart is crushed under his shoe without his realizing because she can recognize the way he does it only because he forgot she was there. he makes an effort to readjust how he's stood after becoming aware again that she is behind them, but it's no use, destiny already feels pathetic.

jada readjusts as well more reluctantly, frowning as she follows his lead to turn around and face her. chris doesn't notice the way her expression falters when her eyes meet destiny's, but it's all that destiny can see. her smile is genuine when chris places an arm around her shoulders, but it turns to plastic as her stare lands on destiny.

destiny is about to look to her feet when chris says, "hey, thanks for putting me on 10 things i hate about you, by the way, des." his voice is light and able to diffuse some of the tension he's seemingly oblivious to.

destiny's face lights up just slightly at his words, not believing he'd actually take a movie suggestion from her. as soon as the hint of a smile forms on her lips though, it seems that jada is quick to shut it down. "yeah," she chips in, her smile conniving as destiny's face instantly drops. "the recommendation was much appreciated. we loved it."

if destiny was alone right now, she'd be crying, because of course: he took something that destiny liked and only saw that jada could possibly like it too. she can't believe she still gets surprised over things like this. the cracks spreading across her heart feel fresh though, as she smiles politely. "of course," she replies although she wants to die.

the very thought of the girl destiny spent so long feeling insecure over has her sinking further in her seat. she quickly finds herself wanting to give into old habits and pull up instagram to ruin her streak of not looking at jada's profile the longer that she has to spend in this classroom. within five minutes, the familiar username is typed into her search and she's pulling up the most recent post of the girl she's always coming second place to.

yourfavjada

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yourfavjada 🪐🪐🪐
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she silently sighs more and more the longer that she stares at the picture she unfortunately views as flawless. she can tell by her smile that she's probably plotting on chris in her head at the very second destiny is thinking about the possibility, but she doesn't even care anymore. she's sick of caring.

every time she struggles to understand what chris was ever doing with her, it seems she can be reminded by just taking a look at her appearance. she hates knowing how many times before she'd stare into her phone wishing she was someone she doesn't even like—just so chris would want her.

she spent so much time pining over him and engaging in petty girlish rivalries just for what? nothing. so, so many tears she wasted on crying over someone who's never really even seen her. looking back now: all she can see it as is pathetic. what pains her the most is that he can not even be blamed for her unrequested, nor requited, loyalty to him—only she can.

now, all that she can do is seek solace in jordan's arms and really, really, really hope that the empty feeling she keeps shoving to the side will eventually fade away.

💌

we've entered flashback land!!!!!! get cozy cus we'll be here a while 💞 i want u guys to better understand some insight behind all destiny's hurt

wbk jada is destiny's lacy 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

one tab is nervous drafts the other is national anthem drafts i am literally SO locked in and if u ever think "she hasn't updated for a while she probably isn't locked in rn" ur wrong. i'm always locked in.

<3
jaden