Jade drove as fast as she legally could away from the group hanging out in Jamie's driveway. She sould not believe how hurt and angry she was, mainly at Jamie. First to walk in on Josh and..and..and then to find out that Jamie KNEW, and didn't say anything. She had no idea why her friend, her best friend in the whole world would do that to her. But then, Jamie had not acted like herself since Taylor entered the picture. "No matter," she tried to tell herself, "Jamie's always been fucked up where men were concerned and she still managed to function normally. She should have told me.." she told herself out loud. Jamie knew she was struggling with what to do about Ike and whether or not she should just break it off with Josh, she could have done it alot more quickly if someone, ANYONE would have told her what was going on. Jade put the car in gear and realized she was outside the movie theater she'd joined Ike and Zac at. As she got slowly out of her car, deciding that she'd see a movie so Jamie would not find her for a while, she saw Isaac emerge from his car and stride toward her. "Shit.." she muttered and quickly wiped her eyes again. "Hi Jade." Ike said softly, stopping directly in front of her. "Hi." was all she could manage while looking at her feet. "Jade.." he began, stammering, "..I just wanted to be sure you were okay. Are you?" he asked hopefully. "I dunno." she managed to choke out, tears readily welling up in her eyes, waiting to spill down her cheeks. "I'm sorry you found out the hard way." he told her. "Yeah..me too." she said, eyes still riveted to the patch of pavement between her feet. "Jade..." Isaac spoke her name, but had no clue as to how to proceed from this moment. He wanted to encircle her in his arms, kiss all her tears away, make all the things that she'd witnessed in the last day disappear. He wanted to hold her and love her, until she was completely HIS and forgot that Josh was ever even on the planet. "Ike when did you know?" she whispered, still unwilling to look up. "A few days ago, Jade." he sighed heavily and jammed his hands into his pants pockets. "I didn't know how to tell you without it seeming that I was making it up. You know...just to...get..to you." he finally managed to say. "You should have told me, Ike." she sniffed. "Different. Things would have been so different..." she murmured. "And what would that get me?" he asked, suddenly angry. "You could decided you wanted to be with me just to piss him off, get even, whatever. BUT I LOVE YOU, Jade. I didn't wanna be the one to get walked on, be your rebound boyfriend...I wanted you to CHOOSE me..." he looked up at the sky, realizing he'd just spilled his deepest desire to her, and he had NO IDEA whether she would return his feelings. Jade's heart beat wildly out of her chest as she looked up at him. She heard him say it. She knew she did. Her heart felt as if it was going to burst into a million pieces. "Ike..you said.." she stammered, emerald green eyes sparkling with fresh tears welling up in the dim lights of the parking lot. "Did you?.." she couldn't help asking for confirmation as his face took on a serious expression. "I did, Jade. I do. I love you..." he stepped closer to her and cupped her face in his hands. "I feel like I have been waiting an eternity..." he told her as his lips hovered close to hers. "Tell me it's not just me, Jade. That this is not just because you're still angry with Josh." he whispered, his lips brushing hers gently as he spoke. He looked into her green eyes, waiting for her to tell him what he wanted to hear, needed to, hear her say as his lips remained a breath away from hers, when all he wanted to do was crush his mouth down on hers, and make her his. He sucked in his breath as her arms snaked around his neck and her fingers tangled themselves in his hair as she slowly tilted her head. "I do Isaac...I love you...since you kissed me outside Jamie's apartment under the stars.." she whispered as he finally crushed his mouth down on hers and kissed her so thoroughly her head spun. |