rupalg thankyou for being such a good support of this story. Can't thank you enough for your motivating words that keep me going at times.

___

My head whips in Chris's direction as I stare at him but my attention is short spanned as Adam starts laughing. The idiot actually starts laughing to the point where he's holding his stomach and lying on the concrete ground.

"Shit, Adam! Shh." I plant my hand over his mouth but that only makes him laugh more.

Chris walks towards us and frowns at Adam, "What's wrong with him?" He asks.

Adam finally sobers up and winks at me, "You owe me ten bucks."

"I never betted on it. And this doesn't mean shit." I tell him.

"What are you both on about?" Chris asks, annoyed.

Adam snickers, "I was just trying to prove her a point."

"By kissing her?" Chris shoots back which makes me gape at him.

Holy shit. He is jealous.

Adam wiggles his eyebrows at me, as if implying, 'what did I tell you?' Shit! The guy is actually right. I shove him a little and he kisses my cheek, his lips lingering on my skin and from the corner of my eyes I notice Chris's jaw twitching.

"I'll catch up with you later." Adam says before making his way to Luke and his friends.

"Can we talk?" Chris asks and I stare him, looking right into his eyes. His gray eyes don't emit any emotions, coming up blank.

"What do you want to talk about?" I ask, trying my best not to snap at him.

"Oh, she finally speaks." He says, a smirk on his features and I roll my eyes.

"I don't have much time."

"Yeah, you got a business meeting to attend?" He's still smirking.

"Get to the point, Jones."

"It's Jay for you." He says and I try not to smile.

"Alright Jay, get to the point."

"I was a jerk, alright? I should have listened to your apology before snapping at you. I am sorry. Your silent treatment has been annoying the fuck out of me." He says, staring down at me.

A nervousness runs down me when he looks at me like that. The fact that I just realised that Chris can be jealous where I am concerned, it kind of makes me feel giddy. Because honestly, it annoys the hell out of me that he brought Melissa along.

"I don't know what to say." I tell him honestly.

"Curse me out if that's what it will take for you to not ignore me."

I smile a little. Honestly, I was getting irritated with the whole ignoring game myself. I miss him and his annoying self. But, I am still maintaining my five feet distance from him.

"Okay. You're an asshole." I tell him and he laughs.

"Yup, sounds much better." He smirks, and then his eyes trail off to Melissa and Jordan who seem to be in an argument. Jordan is mimicking her voice and watching it from a distance is the most hilarious thing ever.

"Go save your girlfriend." I tell him.

He shakes his head, "For the last time, she's not my girlfriend. You are making me believe that you're jealous of her."

Bull's eye, Jay! But I don't say it out aloud, but just look at him, praying that I can fake being confident and not flush at his comment.

"That's ironic, isn't it? You don't seem to like Adam very much." I smirk at him and his mouth falls open.

He definitely didn't expect me to say that out aloud and mentally, I am patting my back for having a smartass comeback to him.

"Who doesn't like me?" Adam asks, appearing behind me, an amused smile on his face as he wraps his arms around my waist.

"I definitely like you." I tell him, smirking a little more as I look at Chris who's glaring at the two of us.

"Thought so, babe. Do you know,man? She was an amazing girlfriend, too bad she broke my heart." He tells her, obviously testing the waters around her.

"I did not break your heart. You broke up with me." I point out.

"For valid reasons." He says, in all seriousness and I shut up.

"Sorry." I mumble and he sighs.

"It's okay, shorty." He kisses my forehead and looks at Chris, "If you know how to land Adrianna Claire Brooks as your girlfriend, call me up." He smirks before going in the opposite direction to Jordan.

"He's a mouthful." Chris mutters.

"I wouldn't know." I say with a grin and he stares at me.

"You make more sexual innuendos than I do." He remarks and I laugh.

"You missed it, jerk."

He smiles at that, "Don't inflate your ego, Claire."

"It happened when you were jealous of Adam." I say and he just shakes his head, not even trying to deny it.

After a while all of us gather around the creek, sitting in a circle. Adam offers me a jelly and I smile at him because he fucking remembered! On our first, after having chinese at his favourite small chinese corner, I forced him to find a place where we could get jellies because I was craving some, and I was on my period, so I was extremely pissy.

"Can we all act like teenagers and play truth and dare." Chase whines and I grin.

"We are teenagers, Chase!"

"How about truth, dare or strip." Jordan pipes in and I narrow my eyes at him.

"I cannot strip out of this shit." I tell him and he smirks at me.

"Your clothing is the major reason I suggested this." He winks.

"We are outside, Jordan. Ever heard of bugs and mosquitos?" Rose adds and I give her a thankful smile.

"Okay then, truth and dare it is." Breanna says.

The game starts and Aiden is the first one to go, so I shoot the question, "Oh oh, I know I know. Aiden, are you top or bottom?" I ask, a grin on my face and both Jordan and Chris shake their head at me.

"What is your obsession with top or bottom?" Chris asks from across me and Adam coughs.

Okay, so Adam and I didn't do anything apart from second base. But, he knows my obsession with it. I literally ask everyone! I know Breanna likes to be bottom, in whatever straight terms you can understand that. Evan is definitely top! Can't explain how I know.

Everyone turns to Adam and Evan eyes him and then turns to me, "Do I even want to know?" He asks and I shake my head, patting Adam on the back.

"He just has a really innocent mind." I say and Adam gapes at me.

"You corrupted it an year ago, Adri." He jokes and I laugh at him.

"Aiden, answer?" I press and he shrugs.

"Bottom."

And, the game begins. From the weirdest dares like try to lick your elbow or lamest truth questions like share the most embarrassing moment. We didn't have alcohol, but we still laughed like crazy and we took turns, one after another and anyone could pose the question.

When it's my turn, I look at everyone, "Truth." I say.

Everyone looks at one another before Jordan smirks at me, "Top or bottom?" He asks.

I laugh, "Pass." I say.

"Hey, no one made that rule." Luke interrupts, obviously amused but I shrug.

"I just did. Pass!" I repeat.

"Okay, different question. Describe your most memorable date." Chase says and everyone immediately stares at me with curiosity.

"Alright. I am not mentioning who it was with." I lay down my condition and half of them groan but agree either way. "So, um.. it was in summer and I was in that cheesy floral print dress. We were in a park, and we were having a lot of fun. And it ended with a five second kiss. I counted." I finish with a small smile.

"Lame." Melissa says and I ignore her.

I feel a particular pair of eyes on me but I am so afraid to look up. Somehow, I muster up the courage and sitting across me in our circle, Evan just stares at me, his lips parted a little. I give him a small smile and he just blinks at me.

The date I just described? It wasn't a date. We were eight, and it was just another day when Evan and I were hanging out, which turned into a huge argument because we were taking turns for slides but he wanted to go again. I was yelling at him and just to shut me up, he kissed me.

The idiot stole my first kiss, but he also gave me his.

I didn't think he'll catch on, but from his expressions, I am pretty sure he did. I look at him and mouth, "Look away." without anyone noticing it. But thankfully, he snaps out of it.

The game continues on but somewhere in the fifth round, my phone buzzes so I pull it out. My phone almost drops in my lap when I notice that it's an email from my mother.

With shaky hands, I pick up my phone and excuse myself from the group. Everyone stares at me but no one says a word. Chris is about to get up when Breanna looks at him and mouths, "I got it."

Why do they feel like I need someone? I look down into my hands and realise that I am actually shaking. I take a deep breath and go to stand by a tree, hiding behind the trunk as I stare at my phone.

"Is it her?" Breanna asks and I nod, gulping. "You gonna open it?"

I press my thumb on the lockprint and it directly opens the mail.

Dear Adrianna,

Never in a million years would I have been able to think that you would reply to me. But, you just did. You have no idea how happy that makes me.

I want to do this whatever way you are comfortable but I would prefer to meet you in person.

Let me know if you are okay with that.

Yours,

Cassandra.

"She sounds okay on the emails." Breanna points out and I scoff.

"If she was okay, she wouldn't have abandoned me." I point out.

"Touche."

We hear a movement behind us and notice that both Chris and Evan are standing there. I pass Chris my phone and Evan reads it by his side.

"What's it gonna be, An?" He asks, looking at me and I shrug.

"You thinking of meeting her?" Chris questions.

"I am pretty sure that phone calls aren't made for this kind of situations. But I need at least one week before I can mentally prepare myself to meet her." I say.

Evan's eyes shoot to me, "You are not meeting her when Scott and I are not in town." He says, finality in his tone and I frown at him.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because I said so, An. I don't care how fucking sweet she sounds. The woman abandoned you, alright? She's not making it up for eighteen years over one conversation and no matter how much shit you feed me, I know how overwhelmed you will be." He says, his tone on the edge like it always is when her topic comes up.

"Ev—"

"No. Absolutely fucking not. Remember what happened four years ago? I still thank my fucking stars for coming home early from the vacation. Just.." he trails off, his hand in his hair, "Listen to me, please. Okay?"

I don't know how to respond to him so I just nod. If anyone hates Cassandra more than I do, it's Evan. Four years ago when Dad explained to me why I didn't have a mother, it just broke me. Evan was out of town back then and wasn't supposed to come back for another two days, but he came back early. And then he looked through the window and saw me crying on the floor against my doorframe. He was at my house in two minutes and stayed the whole night with me while I cried like a baby.

He has always been on edge about her topic ever since that incident. And I can see how anxious this makes him, so for the sake of his mind, and mine, I'll not meet until they are back on next Monday.

I move to hug Evan and he immediately wraps his arms around me, holding onto me tightly while I whisper for him to calm down and he takes in a shaky breath.

He places a kiss on my hair and turns back to walk to our group, probably to calm his thoughts down. Breanna squeezes my shoulder before walking back as well, leaving me alone with Chris.

"He worries a lot about you." He says, still looking at Evan who's sitting by Rose with his eyes closed.

"Isn't that what best friends are for?" I ask with a small smile, "We have seen each other at the worst. Probably that's why."

He nods, "Want to take a walk?" He asks and I nod.

We walk next to each other in silence for a while until we find a large boulder and I sit down on it and he settles down as well. I make sure that there's plenty of space between us, which makes him frown but he doesn't say anything.

"So, not to pry or anything, but what happened four years ago?" Chris asks and I sigh.

"My Dad told me the story about how he met her. I mean, I was fourteen and she was never ever mentioned. Like, obviously, something huge was missing in the picture and I was aware of it. Whenever I asked him about anything related to the word mother, he would change the topic." I pause and take a small rock in my hand before tossing it in the lake, "I think it hurt him that I asked about her because he never made me feel like he couldn't be there for me. He explained me all the shit about periods as well, just so I didn't feel like I don't have a mother to explain that stuff to me."

I look at the water falling down from the creek, "I didn't ask to hurt him. I asked because I was curious and because I never got answers. So, I mustered up some strength to go to him and asked him if she was dead. He obviously was very surprised because it was out of nowhere. And honestly, that was the only possible explanation I could come up with. Because I had no memory of her, but then I thought that she could have died early, because obviously, children don't remember shit. But there was not even a single glimpse of her anywhere in my brain."

Chris listens to me patiently and then questions, "So, what did he tell you?"

A bitter laugh escapes my lips, "He met my mother at Paul's office. They were working together and he immediately liked her, and thought they hit it off. One night after some work related party, they both got drunk and hooked up and she started panicking because she had a boyfriend from five years which she failed to mention to my father. Her boyfriend was living in Europe at that time, so it was a long distance thing, but when he came back, they were to be married."

Even repeating these words leave a bitter taste in my mouth. Evan and Breanna are the only people I have ever repeated things to, and telling Chris was a choice, but he already knows so much. He might as well know the story, also because a huge part of me trusts him.

"Holy shit." He whispers and I nod.

"So, they obviously decided to forget about it. But, two weeks later she showed up at my father's apartment and told him that she was pregnant. She was hoping that he'll shut the door in her face and tell her to get an abortion but you have met my dad. He isn't that man!

"He told her that she should have the baby and she went gaga over him about her boyfriend. So he took the easiest way out, he told her to hide it from the boyfriend and that she could live with him during the pregnancy and that he would take care of her. Her boyfriend wasn't coming back for an year anyway." I shrug, trying to not let the tears burning my eyes fall down.

"I am assuming she accepted that." He says, breaking the silence that had settled over.

I nod, "Yup. She wanted to give me up for adoption, but Dad refused. He said that he'll take care of me and that she could go on live her life like she never fucking had a daughter. I was born, and the woman didn't even have the decency to hold me in her arms. Not even once! She discharged herself from the hospital without Dad knowing and disappeared. Well, until she sent that email to me."

Tears fall down my eyes but I immediately wipe them and suck in a deep breath. I won't cry over her, I cried over her for years, but I wouldn't cry over her today.

"I can't believe you are even thinking of meeting her." He says, looking at me and I offer him a small smile.

"If you haven't noticed Jay, I give people way too many chances." I point out and he smiles at me.

"I hold onto grudges a lot." He confesses.

"Yeah, I figured." I tell him. "Also, I know it's implied, but don't repeat that sloppy story to anyone. Apart from Dad, and my two dork best friends, you are the only one who knows."

He smiled at me, "Don't worry about it, Claire. Your secrets are safe with me."

•••

heyy guys! i realise i have many silent readers, but i would really appreciate if you guys could vote and show support, because it keeps me going and motivates me a lot to write!

anyway, hope everyone's having a good day.

vote. comment. support. x