I laid my head on the pillow and looked over at James and Syn. James had fallen asleep in his arms and Syn was enraptured in watching the animated film I had turned on for the kid. I had a feeling that James would bring out a nicer side of Syn. To me, he was never a mean person but I was curious how he'd be around someone else he liked.

"I'm going to take him to his room," Syn said as he stood up with James in his arms. I muttered an okay and kept my eyes on the TV.

"Pause it," Syn said sternly.

"You're seriously watching?" I said with a smirk. I always found Syn's fascination with cartoons hilarious, he always tried to deny it but if you left him alone in front of a TV all day, that's all he would watch.

"Yes," he said as he stood in the middle of the room waiting for me to pause the movie. I rolled my eyes as I grabbed the remote from my nightstand and paused the movie. A satisfied Syn nodded and carried James out of the room, and I shook my head.

My phone vibrated and I expected a text from Queen but I groaned when I read Jess's name. I liked her a lot more than I cared to admit, but she wasn't over her ex. At all.

She would talk about him to me every chance she got and I would listen like the good friend I was, but I could only get my hopes crushed so many times. Every time I felt like I was getting close to her she would say something that would make me rethink whether or not she felt the same way about me.

I sighed as my hand hovered over her contact. A part of me wanted to open it, but the other part just wanted to completely forget about her. I ran my hand through my hair in frustration and thought about yesterday. I was so stupid to ask her out, but I couldn't help it.

And now look at you. Pitiful.

All the signs were there though, I could've sworn she would give me a chance, but I guess that's what I got for wishful thinking.

Yesterday

I knocked on Jess' door for the second time, but she still hadn't answered. 'I mean she could be asleep', I thought. Why would she ask me to bring her food just to fall asleep on me?

I moved the bag of food to my other hand and I knocked one more time. If she didn't answer this time I would just wait until tomorrow. A moment later I heard footsteps coming to the door and I couldn't stop the smile that appeared on my face.

You haven't even seen her yet, stop being weird X.

I took a deep breath as I listened to my inner life coach and I put a serious look on my face.

Jess opened the door and I tried to resist the urge to stare at her but failed. Her pink hair was in a messy bun on top of her head, exposing her cute pointed ears. She wore a large blue t-shirt paired with black biker shorts and her face was scrunched up in a grimace.

Her eyes landed on the bag of food in my hand and her eyes lit up and she eagerly took it from me.

"Hi to you too," I said softly with a smile slowly appearing on my face.

"Hey. Thank you for this, I have been craving it all week." She said excitedly as she bounced in her spot.

I wanted to say something about her food choice being disgusting, but I didn't know if it would be offensive or not. She wanted pickles and chocolate syrup with whip cream and when I saw her text, I almost puked in my mouth.

"No problem," I said. I turned to walk away but stopped when she called out for me.

"Can you help me with something?" She asked, a shy smile on her face.

"Sure." I walked back to her and she stepped aside, giving me space to walk in.

Her room was almost exactly how I pictured it. Colorful and girly, a color scheme like hers would've made me cringe if it was anyone else's, but it was cute because it was her.

"What do you need help with?" I turned to face her and put my hands into my pocket.

She laid her hand on her swollen stomach and took a deep breath. "Feel free to say no, but I will cry if you do."

I scoffed and her words and shook my head. "What is it?"

"I need a foot massage like crazy. They hurt so bad and they're really fat right now. Look!" She said as she pointed at her feet.

I looked down and didn't notice anything out of ordinary, but then again it wasn't a habit of mine to look at people's feet. "They look fine to me."

"Xavier, I can't wear my heels anymore," she whined.

"You'll be fine."

She put her hands on her hips and sighed. "So will you help me?" she asked with a pout.

"Okay." She squealed excitedly as she passed me the lotion that was on her bed. "You knew I was going to say yes didn't you?"

She looked at me mischievously and let out a small giggle. "Well, you never say no to me."

She was right about that. When it came to her, no wasn't really in my vocabulary. The unfortunate consequence of liking someone. She sat at the edge of her bed so her feet were dangling and I pulled a chair to sit directly in front of her. She moved her feet on top of my lap and wiggled her toes.

"Get into it, lover boy," she teased. Ever since we met, she and Genesis couldn't stop calling me that. They said that I looked like a player, supposedly it was a compliment, but I didn't take it that way. I was far from that...I think.

I began massaging her feet with the lotion and her eyes began fluttering as a smile appeared on her lips.

"You're really good at this. Do you massage women's feet at two a.m. as a hobby or something?" she joked.

I let out a small laugh and shook my head. "Only you."

At my words I watched her porcelain skin become a rose color and I smiled to myself. "Yeah, whatever," she muttered. A few moments later, I looked up at her to find her looking at me but she quickly looked away like she had been caught doing something bad. I smirked at her reaction and continued my job.

After about ten minutes, she was satisfied and took her feet off of me. As she was moving, a strand of her hair fell out of her bun and I reached out to fix it. I wasn't thinking much about the move until I felt her hand on my chest. I looked down at her to see what was wrong and I found her looking up at me. I fell into the blue ocean that were her eyes and my breath caught.

I felt like I was frozen in my spot and I had no idea what to do. I saw her tilt her head up at me and her pink lips parted as I swallowed a lump in my throat.

X, kiss her you fool.

I followed my own instructions and brought my lips onto hers. Kissing her was everything I had imagined plus more. She buried her fingers in my hair, pulling me deeper into the kiss, and I cupped her cheeks in my hands.

She tasted of strawberries and candy and I didn't want to stop, I didn't know if I could. A few moments later she pulled away from me and I frowned. She smiled up at me and brought a hand to her lips. "Sorry, I wanted to do that."I nodded and opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She let out a small laugh at me for embarrassing myself and I shook my head. "You're adorable."

Ouch, X...I know that hurt.

I rolled my eyes at my subconscious and shook my head.

Are you just going to stand there? Ask her out you motherfucker!

I furrowed my brows as I thought about how insane I was. I was giving myself advice as if I was another person. It was a weird thing, but I had been doing it for years. Syn liked to tell me that I was possessed or something but I knew it was all me. He just liked to scare me.

I wanted to ask her out right now, but I was hesitant. I wasn't the type to just simply ask someone out. I needed to plan meticulously and choose a time and place and talk to Syn about the chances of whether or not she would say yes. But right now just looking at her...and definitely, after that kiss, I couldn't help it.

"Would you want to go out with me sometime?" I asked eagerly.

Wow X, could you sound more desperate?

Was I desperate? I thought about the words I had uttered and maybe I was a little too excited, but it was too late to take it back. "Like a date?" she asked as she lifted her brow.

"Yes...?" I said slowly as I tried to gauge her reaction.

"No, I'm sorry Xavier. I can't date you, right now considering..." she said as she pointed at her pregnant belly. "I need someone more mature, you know? You're too young for this."

Her words had sent what felt like bullets through my chest and my heart splintered into a million pieces. All the daydreaming I had done about being with her and eventually helping her with her baby just disappeared like a puff of smoke into thin air.

I looked at her and found her looking at me in amusement as if it was funny that I had asked her out. "So you kiss me, then say I'm too young for you to date?"

"It was my hormones," she said with a small laugh, waving her hand in the air.

I didn't understand what she found funny about this and it was pissing me off by the second. Did she kiss me because of fucking hormones? How did that make sense?

I nodded slowly at her words and turned to go to the door and left. I heard her calling my name, but I ignored it and walked away.

I cringed as the memory passed through my mind. Jess seemed like she was playing me, she kissed me, and then a second later she doesn't want me. It fucked with my mind so much and I hated it. I stayed up all night thinking if there was something I did that made her feel that way, but I couldn't think of anything.

My jaw clenched as I thought about Jess more. I had been nothing but nice to her but she humiliated me. If there were no feelings there she didn't need to fucking kiss me.

Syn walked back into my room and raised his brow. "Are you crying?"

"No, asshole," I hissed. My tone made him raise a brow at me and I looked at him apologetically. I wasn't trying to take my frustrations out on him, but I was mad at the world.

"She sent me a text," I said as I held up my phone. Syn threw himself on the other side of the bed and looked at the ceiling.

"What did she say?" He asked.

"I haven't opened it," I said as I stared down at the notification. "What should I do, Syn?"

"You're asking me?" He lifted a brow at me in disbelief and I scoffed.

"Yes. I don't know if I should read it and text back, or go talk to her or if I-"

"Give me your phone." He interrupted.

I hesitantly passed him my phone and he opened the text message. I watched him read the text and when he didn't speak my anxiety skyrocketed.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It is a paragraph," he said as he continued reading. I nodded slowly as I continued to watch him impatiently. I didn't want to care anymore, but I did and I needed to know what she said. But do I?

Fuck, I'm indecisive.

Syn tapped a few keys on my phone and turned it off. He tossed the phone back to me and returned to watching the movie. I shook my head at him and opened my phone to read the text, but when I opened the conversation with Jess the message was gone.

"You deleted it?" I raised my voice. There was no way he could've done that.

"Yes."

"Why?" I wailed.

He rolled his eyes and me and shook his head. "Because nothing she said was important."

"What did she say?" I asked.

"You can ask her yourself if you want to know." He said as he glanced at me. "But you want my advice?" I nodded slowly at him and took a deep breath. "Fuck her," he said with a shrug and I swung my head to face him. Noticing my confusion he decided to speak up again. "Jess, fuck her. You're a catch."

The sadness that I was drowning in evaporated when I heard his words and I grinned. "You think so?"

"I know so."

"Aww," I said as I reached out to hug him. He tried to move away from me, but I caught him and pulled him into a tight bear hug.

"Get off!" He screamed, but I ignored his yelling. I needed a hug anyways and I would get one from him involuntarily if I needed to.

A laugh at the door interrupted our moment and our heads snapped in the direction. Syn's mother snapped a picture of us before we could separate ourselves and I grimaced."I'm sending this to everyone." She laughed as she left the room.

Syn moved away from me as he pinched the bridge of his nose and I burst into laughter. I tried to reach out to slap him on his shoulder, but he stepped away from me and held up his finger.

"Get ready for the club...before I change my mind." He rushed out of the room and I shook my head at him. I knew he loathed me, but what else was I supposed to do besides annoy him for all of eternity?