Deception of the Heart

Amara’s P.O.V.

I could already feel the pain of the sunburn as I grabbed the last stack of clothes and threw it in the drawer. “Thanks for the help, Brooke.” I said.

She’d spent the last half hour on her phone. She looked up with a grin. “Sorry, I was texting Jayk. He’s going to pick me up for dinner in a little bit. I just can’t wait for you to meet him. You’re going to love him.” She had this idiotic smile plastered on her face as she looked back down at her phone.

“If he treats you good and makes you happy, then I already do love him.” I replied back. I hadn’t seen my sister this happy in years.

She laughed. “Please don’t interrogate him when you meet him.”

“So I should put my shotgun away?” I asked jokingly.

She laughed even louder. “Yes.” She answered. “He’s really a great guy. It’s just..” She paused, “never mind”.

“Nooo.” I said setting the last couple of boxes I had to unpack yet. “It’s just what? Tell me.”

She sighed and then turned to face me. “We’ve been dating six months…..” She paused and thought about it.

“Uh huh, so you’ve told me. What’s wrong, sis?” I asked, not wanting to sound pushy, but I could tell something was wrong.

“I don’t know.” She paused and sighed again. I watched her smile turn to a frown, and every second that passed by as she hesitated to tell me what was really up only made me really start to hate this guy. “Well,” she finally began. “Every date that we’ve ever gone on has always been out, or we’ve stayed in.”

“Ok.” I said, not really seeing the problem.

“When we stay in, it’s always at my place.” Ahhhh… Now I see, yeah, I was really starting to hate this guy. “I don’t even know where he lives. I’ve never met any of his friends, although he brings them up constantly.” She bit her lip. “When he does sleep over, he’s always gone before I wake up.”

“Hmmm.” I said. I didn’t want to tell her what it sounded like to me, I’m sure she already knew herself.

“The worst part is I gave him a part of myself last night that I can never get back.” She said finally looking up.

“Oh…” I said, immediately regretting it as soon as it left my mouth. She looked away. “I’m sorry; I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I guess I’m just… Surprised. Did he force…”

Before I could even finish my sentence she cut me off. “No, of course not. He was really patient with me. I was the one that made the first move. He was really sweet, and gentle. He even sang me to sleep afterwards. It was honestly like a fairytale…… Until I woke up and he wasn’t there.”

Now I really didn’t like him, but I couldn’t tell her that. She was falling for him; hard. “I can see you care about him a lot; you wouldn’t have gone that far last night if you didn’t. What I think you need to do is talk to him about how you feel. Ask him why you’ve never been over to his place, and why you’ve never been introduced to his friends.”

“What if I don’t like his answer?” She asked with a worried look.

“Then he’s not worth your time.”

Jayk’s P.O.V.

I gently knocked on the door and waited for Brooke to answer. A few seconds later I was greeted with a smile and a kiss, and I thought it’d take a lot more than an “I’m sorry” text to convince her to forgive me for this morning. “Hey, babe”, she said pulling me inside the apartment. I pulled out the bouquet of flowers from around my back. Her face lit up. “They’re gorgeous. Thank you.” She took them to the kitchen and placed them in a vase and filled it with water.

“I’m so sorry about this morning; early rehearsal with the guys.” I walked up behind her and slipped my arms around her waist.

“You could’ve left a note or something.” She said turning her head to look at me.
I kissed her on the cheek which made her smile. “I was running late.”

“I forgive you….. I guess.” She said as she turned around in my arms and laced her arms around my neck and kissed me. She was wearing that perfume I liked, and her lips tasted like cherries. Damn, she was driving me crazy.

She stopped when she felt the affect she was having on me. She looked down at my bulge with a smile. “Put him away, I want you to meet my roommate before we go.” She pulled away from me and disappeared to find her new friend. “Hey, Jayk’s here, come meet my bae!” She yelled.

Fuck… I tried to think of something to get rid of this boner. Um…. The time I accidentally walked in on Blake naked. Yup… That definitely did it. I was scarred for life. I shook the memory from my head now that my little issue was gone. Brooke came back into the room with a frown. “Well….” I said, ready to meet her friend.

“She just got in the shower.” She answered.

“Ah, that’s ok; I can always meet her when I drop you off later.” I said wanting that beautiful smile to return to her face.

Brooke’s P.O.V.

I sat in the passenger seat of Jayk’s car thinking about what Amara and I had talked about. Jayk finally broke the silence. “So, I was thinking we could go to this restaurant I know of, it has an amazing view of….”

“Why haven’t you ever taken me to your place?” I decided to just ask him flat out.

“Ugh”, he said, surprised by the question I guess. “I live with two other guys; it’s not really the most romantic place.” He answered finally.

“That’s the other thing; why haven’t I been introduced to any of your friends?” I could feel the anger building up all over again.

He looked at me momentarily and then returned his eyes to the road. “What’s this about, Brooke?”

My stomach was in knots, but there was no turning back now. “This is about you not letting me in to your world, Jayk.” Don’t cry, Brooke. Don’t cry. “It’s been six months; to me, that’s a long time. And last night…” My mind was racing. “I let you in, Jayk. I gave you….” I paused, and then sighed. “Look, I don’t want to sound like one of those clingy girlfriends. That’s not who I am, but I just want to know how you feel, because I’m falling for you, and if you’re not….”

He grabbed my hand and brought it to his lips; he gently kissed it and then looked at me with a smile. “I get it.” He said as he made a U-turn. “I’m going to introduce you to the guys.”

Amara’s P.O.V.

I felt a little better after my cold shower, but not much. My stomach began to grumble. I walked into the kitchen to look for something to eat when I noticed a vase of flowers sitting on the counter. “How sweet”, I said sarcastically to myself. “You’re going to have to do a lot better than some cheap ass flowers, asshole.” I grabbed a cup of noodles, heated it up, and disappeared to my bed room for the night. What to do, what to do. I sat on my bed, bored already. I thought my life in LA would be a lot my eventful.

I grabbed my phone and dialed a friend. I slurped my noodles while I waited for her to pick up. “Hello”, she finally answered.

“Hey, Aria”, I said cheerfully with a mouth full of noodles.

“Amara!!” She said happily. “Are you all moved in?”

“Yea, for the most part”, I said looking at a few boxes of books I had yet to unpack.

She giggled. “So how’s LA treating you?”

“GIRL”, I said a little too dramatically. “My baby broke down, and I got sunburn waiting for Brooke to come pick me up… It’s been all bad.” I started laughing.

“Ouch”, she said laughing. “Other than all of that, how do you like it?”

“I don’t know, I haven’t seen much of it yet. I can’t wait to get out on the beach, though.” I answered, closing my eyes as I lie back on my bed pretending to be lying in the sand.

“Where’s Brooke, she hasn’t shown you around yet?” She asked, still laughing.

“Pfft.” I said. “She’s got a lot on her plate right now with school, work, and her d-bag boyfriend.”

“What, she has a boyfriend?” Aria asked.

“Mmmmmhmmm.” I said. At least I wasn’t the only one left in the dark. “She’s been with him for six months. I should really let her tell you all of this, but from what she’s told me, he seems like he’s leading her on. I just don’t want to see her get hurt.”

She scoffed. “Yeah, I know how that feels. My ex and I were together a year, before he up and left me to move to LA. I guess he’s in some band now, I don’t know.” I could hear the irritation in her voice; she still cared for him a lot. “Just tell Brooke to be careful, I don’t want to see her heart broken like mine was.”

“I’ll have her call you so you can tell her.” I said.

“Better yet, you two should come to Vegas and visit me. I miss you guys, and it sounds like Brooke could use a girls night out, or girls weekend.” She suggested.
I definitely wouldn’t mind a weekend in Vegas. “I’ll talk to Brooke about it and let you know.”