Chapter 21

It had been about two months since Mia enrolled at the academy and thus far, it hadn't been that bad. She managed to make a few more friends, mainly girlfriends, but her friendship with Jake had only strengthened.

She felt happy that she got to meet someone as great as him. His friends were nice as well and she has been getting to know each of them better every day.

Jake had made her feel comfortable in homeroom and in all the classes she shared with him, and even when she wasn't in the same class as him, one of his friends always was, so she was never really alone.

That is where she had to thank her "social butterfly" personality, if it wasn't for that she probably would've never been able to make new friends. Rumours had been going through school that Jake and Mia were dating, but it was just that. Rumours.

And although she could see herself developing some sort of feelings for him in the future, she didn't think it would happen. Firstly because there was too much competition. Every girl in school wanted him to herself and to be honest, Mia never really thought about him in that way.

Secondly, even if she were to miraculously fall for him, which she assured herself she wasn't, thinking that he wasn't interested in her in the slightest. She felt that she just was not up to his standards.

If that was reason enough, she didn't know what would be. Besides, she needed to focus on her schoolwork so that she could get into the best college where she could study law.

She wanted to follow in her grandfather's footsteps and become a detective. Mia remembered visiting him on school vacations and going to work with him while Felix was being babysitted by my grandpa's maids.

It was always so much fun seeing her grandfather hard at work, trying to solve some nearly impossible cases, only to solve them every time.

She always dreamt of being like her grandfather.

Brave, fearless, kind-hearted and smart.

But along with the dream came a lot of stress and fear that she might disappoint those who believed in her.

That was her only fear. To disappoint those who believed in her, consequently losing them or damaging her relationship with them.

The school was taxing. Well, what did she expect? For it to be easy since she's smart? Maybe that was what she thought.

She was just so tired all the time, so much so that she started to spend less and less time with her brother since she was always busy with some sort of school project or her tonnes of homework.

She felt guilty for neglecting her little brother like that. But it didn't seem to bother him all that much. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise.

With the amount of work she had, it forced her to loosen the reigns a little bit, and that gave him more freedom to explore and discover things for himself.

But she couldn't help but be protective of him.

Besides him being her little brother, he was also the closest thing she had left to her mother.

He resembled her so much, it was like having her here with them. She knew it was wrong to use her brother as a way to her mother, but she couldn't help it.

The thought of her made Mia calm and allowed her to collect her thoughts. Having the best brother in the whole world also helped to keep her mind off of all the bad.

That's why she was so happy to have had Jake in her life. Besides him being her friend, he also helped her to forget about the bad in her life and motivated her to focus on the good instead.

He helped her when she was wrong and had learned to trust him. In fact, she trusted him so much that she didn't even question when he asked her to his home.

She knew they would probably just be doing their homework together anyway. But it shocked her when instead of leaving after he invited her to his home, he trapped her in between his arms and kissed her.

What shocked her even more was the fact that she kissed him back!! Never in her life, would she have thought that she would be reciprocating romantic feelings for a guy she had just known for two months.

And what confused her even more, was the fact that once he left her a blushing mess, she realised for the first time that she had harboured feelings for him all this time.

That scared her. It scared her that she was having feelings for someone else than the man she had loved for two years.

Sean. She felt so guilty. He had told her he loved her before she left, and now she was doing this.

It wasn't fair, it was terrible. She felt like a horrible person.

When she arrived at Jake's house later that day, he had met her at the front door and almost immediately insisted on taking her on a tour of his house.

He told her that his mother, father and older brother were all together on a business trip and wouldn't be home for another week. He led her up the his bedroom and they made themselves comfortable. Mia took out her books and waited for him to do the same but found him just staring at her.

"Jake, is something wrong?" she asked, slightly worried.

"No." He simply said, as his eyes lingered and his gaze hung over her like a cloud.

"Then why are you staring, you idiot?" she asked teasingly.

"I just thought about how nice it would be to kiss you again." Jake said as he took her chin in between his thumb and forefinger and carefully dragged her face closer to his.

"J-Jake what are you doing?" she asked hesitantly as she knew exactly where this was headed, and it was nowhere good.

"I told you. I want to kiss you again." He said, his face so close to her that she could feel his minty warm breath fanning her face.

Her breathing seemed to stop as he leaned in closer, slowly closing the gap between them.

She closed her eyes as she felt his plump, warm lips graze hers as he kissed her. She felt herself kissing back as their lips started to move in sync.

She felt all her self-control leave her body as she kissed him back harder, all rational thoughts leaving her head as her mind started to fill up with ideas of what was happening, where this was heading and what she was busy doing.

She felt his arms pull her closer to him, as they started to lay down on the bed, Jake hovering over her body. Mia felt his warm hands move underneath her shirt.

She gasped at the weird feeling and felt Jake slip his tongue into her mouth, roughly kissing her.

She felt herself getting aroused and needy as he continued to kiss her.

And although she was thoroughly enjoying this moment, there was still this little voice in the back of her head that told her that what she was busy doing was wrong.

So she decided for the first time in her life, that she was going to listen. She placed her hand on Jake's toned chest and found the strength to slowly push him away. He looked at her in confusion and she told him to get off of her, which he did.

"Look Jake, this isn't right. We shouldn't be doing this." She tried to let him down slowly but found it very difficult since she realized her feelings had developed into something unknown.

"What do you mean Mia? Weren't you enjoying that? Cause it seemed like you did..." Jake said, as his disappointment started to turn into annoyance.

"Jake please don't be like this. I'm not doing this to hurt you. I wanted to tell you I had a boyfriend since the first time we kissed but you never gave me the chance!", she said as she tried to convince him to let it go. Maybe she was trying to convince herself even more though.

"I don't get you, Mia. You kiss me back but then tell me you have a boyfriend? How is that fair!?" Jake yelled at her.

"Look it's not like I was planning to let this happen, Jake! It just did!" she yelled back at him, fueling the shouting match.

"Things don't just happen!" Jake yelled as he started to pack up her stuff before shoving it into her arms angrily.

"You know what? Maybe you should just leave!" Jake said as he pulled open his room's door and pushed her out of it.

Mia was left outside his room, her heart throbbing and tears burning at the edges of her eyes as they threatened to fall at any second.

She wiped her eyes before they had the chance to though, and quickly made her way down the stairs of his big house, calling Harry to come pick her up.

When she got home, she darted straight towards her room and started to sob. It felt like she didn't know the exact reason for it either. It was all so confusing.

Was it because of guilt towards Sean? Or was it because she hurt Jake? Since she didn't know the answer, she sobbed even more and could barely sleep at all that night.

She woke up the next morning with dark circles under her eyes and her brain sore from fatigue.

She didn't feel good at all and thought she might be getting sick.

Sick of all the lies.

Sick of the guilt.

Sick of everything.

She ended up not going to school that day and finally managed to get some sleep after drinking a few sleeping pills. She could see that everyone was worried about her but didn't want to bother them so she stayed quiet and to herself all day.

Until Felix got home from school that day.

She heard a knock at her door and told the person to come in. Felix's small head poked around the door and she saw his half-smile directed at her.

She couldn't help but feel the presence of her mom when she saw her little brother.

It immediately made her feel a little less sad.

"Hey, sis. How are you feeling? Mandy says you don't feel well. Are you okay?" her cute little brother asked as he went to sit at the foot of her bed.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just a little bug. It'll pass, I'm going back to school tomorrow." she lied to him.

He giggled at her. "Silly girl, tomorrow is the beginning of the weekend. So you can still get better without missing another day of school!" Felix said and he enveloped her in a big hug.

"I guess you're right. Thanks for reminding me," she said as she ruffled his black hair.

"I'm glad you're feeling better!" He said cutely whilst placing a kiss on her cheek.

Mia smiled at him as she watched him disappear down the hall. She sighed out loud. Why did it come to this?

Having to lie to her brother?

That was a new low.

She had to get a hold of herself.

She had to fix this.

She took out her phone and opened her messaging app.

Mia: Can we pls talk this weekend?

She waited for a reply in anticipation.

Sean: Yeah sure, Is Saturday around 2 ok?

Mia: Yeah, see you then.

She shut off her phone and decided to go downstairs to get something to eat. When she had a snack, she sat down in front of the big TV and scrolled through the channels until she found one of her favourite sad movies, The Fault in Our Stars.

She cried and cried and cried.

And when someone would ask if she was okay, she would just lie and tell them she was watching a sad movie. Everyone seemed to buy it.

She felt a lot better after all the crying and somehow, her thoughts were clear.

She needed to clear things up that, she needed to come clean. Mia needed to tell him how she felt.

She just hoped that he would understand...