Forbidden Love

15

Jaxon

It astonishes me how easily this girl falls asleep. I park a couple houses down from hers because part of the deal was for Corey not to find out and its only day one. I'm not ready to rub it in just yet and lose what I've worked so hard to gain. I do have some self-control.

"We're here," I say a little above a whisper. She doesn't respond, so I poke at her head. "Hey," Her eyes do that fluttering thing as she opens them and yawns. "Did you not sleep last night or something?"

"Not really," She unbuckles her seatbelt. "Thanks for parking far."

"No problem," Before she can leave, I point to my shirt. "I'm gonna need that back."

A sheepish grin hits her face. "Oh, right."

"I'd let you keep it because maybe Corey would be around to see, but I know how you are with that." I tease her and she rolls her eyes.

"You need to get over Corey. Seriously, it's like you're obsessed with him."

"I'm not obsessed with him." I shoot back.

"Could've fooled me," She takes my shirt off and I look away. To be respectful of course. "Here," She tosses the beanie she was wearing on my lap. "I'll keep the shades though."

"Huh?" This time I do look at her, but she's already stepping out of the car wearing my shades. She does a little wave and once she's inside of her house, I start to head over to Paxton's.

~

The Carter house has always been a sort of solitude for me. Paxton and Olivia live with their aunt who is rarely ever home because she's a flight attendant. But even though no one is around much, the house is never silent. At least it never usually is. Which makes me hesitate when I open the front door and get greeted with the sound of...nothing. Paxton always leaves his doors unlocked because "he can handle himself" if a murderer comes in. I step inside and the smell of the Carter's engulfs me.

I head down the hall to his room, wondering if maybe he left his truck in the driveway and took a walk, but the second I open his bedroom door, he holds a guitar to my head ready to hit me.

I jump and flinch back. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"What am I doing? What are you doing?! Don't sneak up on me like that! I could have killed you!"

I roll my eyes. "With a guitar?"

"Guitars hurt. Trust me."

"And how would you know?" I fold my arms. "Getting hit with a lot of guitars lately, huh, Pax?"

"Liv gets an attitude when I don't listen." He mutters and puts his guitar away. "Anyway," He pivots and smiles at me. "Did you have a good date?"

"Jaxon went on a date?"

I look down just in time to see Isaac pop his head out from under the bed. "What are you doing under there? How long have you even been here?"

"Few minutes, and I thought you were a killer or something, so I hid. We stayed up late watching a horror movie, if it's not obvious."

"Not at all," I mutter as he climbs out from under Paxton's twin-sized bed.

"So how was the date?" Isaac asks. "Who'd you go with?"

"He went with Luna Stone." Paxton chimes in.

I kick his leg. "It wasn't a date, I fed her because someone was too busy partying."

Paxton ignores me and throws himself onto his beanbag. "I think you should thank me for getting you in with her. Luna's pretty cool. Right, Isaac?"

"I don't know. Aren't the Stone's like...crazy?" Isaac looks between the both of us. We all know about the rumors.

"They are."

All three of us gasp at the new voice. Mason leans against the doorframe with a smirk on his face.

"Mason! Have you ever heard of knocking on the front door?" Paxton tries to catch his breath.

"Have you ever heard of locking the front door?" Mason shoots back.

"Fair enough," Paxton nods once.

"Anyway," Isaac takes a bite out of a gummy worm from wherever he found it. "I hear Luna and Joseph are the evil masterminds behind everything that goes on in the house. Corey and Juliana are just the muscle."

Mason snorts just as Paxton says, "Juliana doesn't seem like the muscle type."

"Looks can be deceiving." Isaac says in the creepiest voice he can manage.

I roll my eyes at the idiots. "You guys are all gullible. The rumors are just that. Rumors."

They all stare at me for a minute before Paxton grins. "He's standing up for his girlfriend, guys."

I throw one of Isaac's gummy worms at him.

"I'm kidding," Paxton holds his hands up. "But I was serious when I said Luna's cool."

"She's alright," I shrug and then my curiosity gets the better of me. "How do you know she's cool? Did you guys hang out when I was away?"

"I think I kissed her once." Paxton looks up like he's really thinking about it. "Wait—yeah, I definitely kissed her. It was at a party."

For some reason that annoys me. Not because Paxton kissed her because he makes out with just about everyone, but because she kissed him back. It's not because he's a guy and she's a girl. I just thought Luna's standards would be higher than that. We all know Paxton has none.

"You made out with a Stone?" Isaac makes a face.

"Only Luna," Paxton answers. "Juliana's my sister's best friend, and she's also taken." We all cast glances at Mason.

"Not by me," Mason drawls. "By all means, take her. I'm begging."

"Denial is the first step of falling in love." Isaac gives him a knowing grin.

I furrow my eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure that's the first step to grieving." I'd know.

"Nope, Isaac's right, it's falling in love." Paxton gives Isaac a nod of solidarity before turning to Mason. "He's in the first stage."

"I hate you all." Mason huffs.