You Can Be My Bad Boy: Stop The Plot

~Evening~

Was I surprised to find JJ and Simone on a date? Yes. Did it hurt? No. Why would it? I had a boyfriend who is great and my type! JJ is annoying and the opposite of my type! Why would I mind that he had a girlfriend and that it's my friend and that she was wrapped around his arm like she couldn't stand on her own? I don't. Obviously. And this double date thing was more than fine with me. In fact, I thought it was a great idea! I mean, why wouldn't I? It was great. Everything was great. Great.

"Careful," Simone's voice cut through my very content and fine internal monologue, "You might rip it."

I looked down to see my hands roughly pulling a dress off a hanger. I took a moment before returning to separate the dress and the hanger, more careful this time. It was a beautiful forest green dress. It was a little more modest or old school than most of the dresses that I'd seen, but I liked it. It looked classy and reminded me of the garden. I went to the bathroom of the room that was once mine to put the dress on. Once I was decent I opened the door so that Simone could come in to get ready.

We stood side by side in the bathroom as we did our makeup and hair. I was going to do a natural makeup look in an attempt to seem . . . classy, I guess. My plan for my hair was to curl it so that it fell in waves down my back. Simone's dress was a newer deep purple dress that fit her well and fell to the floor. She was in the middle of doing her makeup, themed to match her dress, when she first spoke.

"How long have you liked Colson?" she asked, seeming to be forcing a casual tone.

"Um," I said, trying to find a true answer, which was harder than I thought it would be, "I'm actually not sure."

"How long have you liked Jace?"

I dropped the brush I was holding and turned to her with wide eyes, "W-what?"

She kept doing her makeup as she answered, "You like Jace, right? It's kind of obvious. How long has that been going on?"

I forced myself to breathe as I hid my blush under the guise of returning to doing my makeup, "I don't like JJ. He's annoying."

"You can think someone's annoying and still like them."

"Well, I don't."

We were silent after that, which I was thankful for. I hated the idea that of anyone just finding out how I felt about JJ that it would be his girlfriend. That was a plot point. So, I had to stop this conversation before anything else happened.

Too bad I've always been bad at doing what I'm supposed to when it comes to the curse.

"Just curious," I found myself saying, "Why did you think that?"

"How do I know that you like Jace?" Simone corrected, "It was a lot of things, but the final clue was how you reacted when you saw us at the 28 Club."

"Could you, for purely curiosity reasons, tell me in detail everything that I did to make you think that I could possibly like JJ?" I asked, as subtle as I could manage.

"You clearly pieced together that Jace and I were on a date, but you seemed to refuse to believe it at first," she started to list off, "You looked shattered when the date was confirmed. You have been tense ever since. The fact that you're even asking this."

"Alright," I cut her off, "Alright. I get it."

"And," she added quietly, pausing her movements to give me a gentle look, "the way you looked at him that first English class and everyday after."

I froze at her words and looked at her. She looked back, compassionate and almost sad. She knew how I felt. Maybe she didn't know the extent of my feelings, but she knew they were there. There was nothing I could do to convince her otherwise. And that was terrifying. For the Bad Boy to have a girlfriend that knew how the Good Girl felt was definitely a plot point.

I screwed up.

Before my pity party could really start Simone returned to doing her makeup, saying, "Just love Colson more and it's fine."

There was something about her tone that made it clear that what she had said wasn't a threat, but a request. She genuinely just wanted me to love Colson more than JJ. No ill intent. No promise to "remove" me if I fail to comply. Just wanting me to love Colson more. In part I was relieved, this wasn't a plot point, but the relief was short lived. Because I loved JJ more.

~~~~

"You ready, yet?" JJ's annoyed voice came from the other side of the door.

"Yep," I called, "Come on it."

The door opened and I saw Colson first. The suit fit well and JJ had done a great job with his hair. He looked nice. He, as usual, turned a little pink as I smiled at him. Then JJ came into the room. The suit fit him perfectly, showing his incredible figure. His hair, which usually fell haphazardly into his eyes, was gelled back putting his face in full view. Everything about him seemed . . . better than normal. Like he had really truly tried for the first time. I felt the air fall out of my lungs as I looked at him, until Simone walked over to him. She cheekily adjusted his tie and I looked away. Of course he had actually tried. He had Simone now. I took a breath before walking over to Colson, smiling.

"Well, don't you look nice," I teased.

He seemed distracted as he responded, "You look good."

Like he couldn't hear a thing I had said.

I tried not to think about JJ and Simone being just right there. About how I probably looked at JJ like that just now. How much I want to, but won't let myself, believe that JJ's looked at me like that before. How much I want him to.

It wasn't fair, to anyone.

I quickly threw those thoughts out of my head and turned back to the group, "Alright, everyone ready to go?"

JJ smiled in response, "We'll take one of my cars."

"One of your cars?" Colson asked, clearly still not fully understanding that JJ was rich.

"Yeah," JJ said, amused as he started out of the room, "One of them."