The beauty of chapters: I thought he was the one

Chapter 40

Dubraska

I finish drying the last plate when Jackson's voice could be heard coming from the living room. I rubbed my wet hand against my t-shirt, walk out to the living room and found Jackson leaning down over the fish tank.

"You owe me twenty bucks." He told Michael, in good spirits before noticing me in the corner. He turned with a smile on his face before his eyes went down to Michael's clothes on me and his smile dropped for a split of a second. He quickly pulled it back up but it was no longer sincere.

"Why is it so quiet in here?" He searched for the speaker, connected his phone and Michael who was completely oblivious to mood change, took the phone from him to play Angel by Shaggy.

He then disappeared down the hall and came back with cleaning materials, singing. It wasn't long before Jackson jumped on Shaggy's verse, singing word for word with the accent and everything, and Michael hyped him up.

Life is one big party when you're still young
But who's gonna have your back when it's all done
It's all good when you're little, you have pure fun
Can't be a fool, son, what about the long run?

Looking back, shorty always ah mention
Said me not giving her much attention
She was there through my incarceration
I wanna show the nation my appreciation

I was confused on whether the person singing and dancing in front of me now was the same one fighting to keep it all together last night.

It was a completely different atmosphere.

A completely different person.

Jackson held both his arms up at his sides and swayed to the beat of the music. Grooving.

"Dubraska, what do you wanna do?" Michael asked going back to the original task.

"What do you mean? it's you fish."

"Well you wished for them to die." I gasped at the audacity.

"And you actually killed them." I fired back. I couldn't believe he still remembered that.

He looked at me from head to toe like who was I to even talk back to him. I waited for him to make a sly comment but he didn't. Somehow that was more offensive and I shoved him. Didn't do much when he barely even moved.

"Can yall not flirt in front of me." Jackson commented.

"You're the one who tried to kiss her."

Wow. It's like I wasn't even there.

Jackson's eyes automatically shot at Michael with the same amount of shock as me before dashing to me to see my reaction then back at the tank.

Awkward.

Quietly, I went to sit on the couch and watch them remove the dead fishes to clean the tank. This was weird. They were friends, best friends and one tried to kiss me while the other one succeeded. Did they not find that weird? That they were both attracted to the same girl?

"Yo there's a shrimp still alive." I heard Michael say. He lifted the little creature up in front of Jackson who wanted nothing to do with it. He pushed himself back but the fish tank blocked his way so only his upper body went behind.

"Don't."

Michael walked towards me instead and sat down with his hand held out to me. "Give me your hand."

I hesitated for a second then gave in.

He hovered his hand besides mine and the little shrimp crawled off his palm onto mine. Its little feet tapped against my skin creating a weird, ticklish sensation. I tried to hold on for two seconds then could feel the nervous giggles coming out so I returned it Michael.