HIS BEAUTIFUL SECRET (completed)

CHAPTER 14 - WHY CAN'T WE BE LIKE THAT?

The next morning I woke up to a quiet house with thoughts of Jake still filling my head. I wanted to remember every word from the night before. How he felt when he was around me, why he felt so strongly about defending my virtue, everything!

My thoughts wandered to how amazing it felt to kiss him. His lips were so soft and I loved the sound he made when I kissed his neck. It drove me insane.

I picked up my phone to see if he had left me a message and to my surprise, there it was.

"I dreamt of you last night."

My heart fluttered as I tried to think of a response.

"And what was I doing in this dream of yours?"

His next response made me blush even though I was by myself.

"Letting me do all the things I want to do to you," he flirted back.

"Well, I tried to let you last night, but you resisted my charms."

"If you could only see what I was doing to you in my dreams. You would understand how powerless I am to your charms," he shot back.

"Well sir, if you would quit denying me, those dreams of yours could come true," I replied stating the obvious.

"If I quit denying you, you wouldn't be able to handle it, sweetheart."

Ok, he had me there. As much fun as it was to torture him last night, the thought of 'being' with him scared me to death.

As our conversation was getting heated, Jenny called. She told me all about what happened after she dropped me off with Jake last night. Tripp and Jonathon left not long after she returned to the party. Jenny was certain it was because they felt intimidated by Tag and his friends. She also felt like the other girls were giving her dirty looks all night.

It surprised me to learn that Tag did not let that deter him. He kept insisting Jenny stay for another round of Corn-hole. She spent another two hours hanging out with him. From the excitement in her voice, she loved every minute. I teased her about having a crush on him, but she denied it. She insisted she was still talking to Tripp.

"Jenny, does Tripp give you drunken butterflies?" I questioned.

She responded just how I expected she would. "No, but he is a super nice guy and I always have fun when I am with him." I knew she was not "into" Tripp. She never gushed over him. I never got a call from her telling me every detail of her date.

"You're crazy Sky, Tag is not interested in me, we don't run in the same circles," she pointed out.

"I don't think Tag cares about titles, Jenny. If he did, he wouldn't have spent time with you while fighting off the 'beautiful ones'," I reminded her.

After I hung up, I willed myself to get out of my comfortable bed. It had been so many nights since I slept there and as cold and empty as the house felt, my bedroom was still my safe place.

I went to check dad's room, and he was sleeping. "Well, at least he is here," I thought to myself. Pulling his door too so I didn't disturb him, I went to the kitchen and grabbed something quick for breakfast.

Looking around the kitchen, reality set in. My mom had left, and she was never coming back. When she left, she left a mess. The house was in shambles and looked like stage five hoarders lived there. It wasn't like she did it on purpose. The house stayed in a perpetual state of chaos.

My dad apparently attempted to "remodel" the house when I was younger. When an argument ensued mid-way through, he stopped and never returned to it. As a result, the kitchen had two different flooring finishes, and they were both tattered and torn. 

There was once a laundry room in the kitchen's corner. The only remnants of it being boards still attached to the ceiling and the floor. It looked like something someone had demolished but never completed. It stood there in full sight from the kitchen, somehow morphing into it.