Always Been You

by Tracy Luu

  “And let you be the one who always wins these arguments of ours?” I grinned. “Now are we going to get started on these dishes or not?”

  “Like I said, not until you give me a kiss,” he smirked back.

  Rather than waiting for me to make the move, Jacob merely bowed his head toward me when Matt and Alex abruptly barged in.

  “We don’t mean to interrupt this husband and wife thingy you have going on in here, but we were just too curious to know how things are going between you two,” said Alex.

  “Have you guys kissed or did we interrupt too early?” Matt grinned.

  “Actually you interrupted just in time,” I said sharply. “Now that you’re here, you guys can gladly take over.”

  “No, by all means continue,” Alex smirked, catching the towel I threw at his head.

  “But you know, Alex, the real question we should be asking them is if they’re doing the dishes, or if they are doing each other?” said Matt, throwing the towel back.

  “If you really want to find out, please stay,” I scowled. “That way I can make sure this bar of soap gets shoved deep up your ass!”

  “W…we better get out of here, Al,” Matt laughed. “I’ve seen what she can do when she’s pissed.”

  “Stupid morons,” I muttered.

  Once Matt pushed Devon out the door, I then turned back to start the dishes when suddenly, I found myself being pressed up against the sink again.

  “Do you know how sexy you sounded just now?” Jacob growled in my ear.

  “Sexy?” I exclaimed, feeling the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end as he twisted me around with one hand while the fingers on his other hand lightly skimmed my waist.

  “Yes, sexy,” he grinned. “And do know how much I want to—Achoo!”

  “Now that you’ve ruined the moment, want to go back to doing the dishes?” I laughed.

  “Uh, uh, like they said, I’d rather do you.”

  Jacob ignored my wide-eyed look and lowered his head. But rather than enjoying the sensations that came over me as he attacked my lips, I lightly pushed against his chest.

  “What’s the matter?” asked Jacob, his breath sounding ragged.

  “They might come in again,” I sighed, sparing a glance towards the hall to where I could hear our friends laughing in the living room. “We really should just clean up.”

  Jacob wasn’t listening. He grabbed my wrist, pulled me back, and I found myself being thoroughly kissed once more. When I failed to pull myself away from the arms that snaked their way around my waist, Jacob deepened the kiss. It felt like he was savouring every second our mouths were fused.

  “Holy shit!”

  Jacob let out a hiss from lack of contact as I tore my lips away and glanced behind my shoulder. Amy was staring at us with this shocked look on her face. But before I could explain what was going on, she quickly took off down the hall. A quick second later, Amy came bursting back into the kitchen.

  “I had to double check that I wasn’t dreaming about catching you two in my kitchen, making out of all things,” she said with excitement. “Now that I definitely know I’m not hallucinating, this is too good not to share.”

  She took off again and the two of us erupted into chuckles.

  “Er, that was unexpected,” I murmured, my cheeks reddening in embarrassment, when I remembered what had occurred. “Oh, no, now the others are going to know about us.”

  “Who cares?” he said with a shrug. “I know I originally wanted to hide our relationship, but I’ve been thinking about this a lot actually, and I want to openly let everyone know. It’s hard not to be with you, holding you, kissing you…”

  “Same here,” I sighed happily, snuggling closer into his chest. “But what about the rumours you didn’t want to hear because I’m with you?”

  “Screw the rumours. If they want to spread anything, they could say I’m one lucky guy for snagging you. Your hordes of admirers will probably want to pound my head to the ground since you’re now off-limits. But if any of them does try to persuade you to leave me and go out with them, then I’ll just have to never let you leave out of my sight.”

  “Possessive, aren’t we?” I smirked.

  “Of course,” he smirked back.

  “And what about your hordes of admirers who’ll want to slap me, or pull out my hair because I’m dating you?” I laughed.

  “I’ll just have to go into protective mode to keep anyone from harming the one I love.”

  My breath hitched, catching in my throat, as a range of emotions ran through my entire body. There was such a humongous surge of electricity rushing inside me, I thought I was going to simply keel over with pleasure from hearing him saying those words.

  “What did you say?” I asked, my mouth going dry.

  “I didn’t say anything,” he said, sounding quite amused.

  “Yes, you did.”

  “If you’re so sure, why don’t you tell me what I said?”

  “You’re going to make me work for it, aren’t you?” I pouted.

  “Would I do that to my girlfriend?” he smirked, kissing my protruding lip.

  “Yes, you would.”

  “Then tell me, what did I say?”

  “You said you love me.”

  “I do,” he whispered, tightening his grip. “I know I told you it’s too early to feel this way, but every moment that I’m with you, I fall deeper for you. You’re my life now, and that is all I will ever want.”

  Breaking out into a brilliant smile as tears sprang into my eyes, this time I didn’t hesitate to launch myself at him and kissed him with my whole heart.

  “I love you too,” I said against his lips.

  “Will you two please stop already?” yelled Matt, his loud voice echoing from the living room. “You’re making us ill out here!”

  I chose not to pay any attention to Matt and concentrated my efforts on my boyfriend’s delectable mouth. My heart was still exploding out of my chest and a smile kept tugging on my lips as we continued with our kiss. When we finally, and reluctantly, let go of each other, we then left the kitchen hand-in hand to explain a few things to our friends. We were met with a warm applause and cacophony of cat-calls erupting throughout the living room.

  “I knew there was something going on between the two of you!” Amy screamed happily. “You just needed a push in the right direction!”

  “It took you idiots long enough!” said Alex.

  “Er…we may as well tell him, Jenna,” said Jacob, giving me a sly look as he stepped behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

  “Tell us what?” asked Devon.

  “We’ve been going out since Sunday,” I said.

  My announcement quickly silenced the room.

  “Before you start wondering why we never told you, it’s because we originally thought about keeping this a secret for awhile,” added Jacob. “I didn’t want Jenna to have to go through anymore nasty rumours because I chose to be with her.”

  “Even if it meant not telling us?” frowned Nikki.

  “Even if it meant not telling you,” I repeated. “You don’t know how much we wanted to tell you guys but couldn’t.”

  “We both just needed to make sure this was the right thing for us in case it was a mistake,” said Jacob. “We didn’t want you all to feel disappointed if our relationship didn’t work out like how you wanted.”

  “We were worried you may lose your chance if nothing happened,” said Katie.

  “I know,” I smiled. “It really means a lot that you guys care so much to be so persistent, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  “I knew you had it in you to finally come to your senses and get your head out of your ass,” chuckled Matt, leaning over to slug his cousin on the arm.

  “We really are sorry we never told you guys before now,” I said.

  “It’s okay,” said Amy. “We understand why you did it in the first place.”

  “There is something else we wa
nt to share with you,” said Jacob, turning to look at me.

  “Are you two engaged?” Nikki asked anxiously.

  “I think we’re a bit young for that, but I wouldn’t mind one day,” said Jacob, shyly. Another surge of electricity ran through my entire body.

  “Then what is it?” urged Katie.

  “I love her,” Jacob replied, not once removing his gaze from me.

  “Jenna?” asked Amy in a barely audible whisper.

  “I love him too,” I said.

  “Y…you don’t know h…how happy I am to h…hear you both say that,” sniffed Amy, as she and the girls quickly pulled me in for a hug.

  “Women,” Matt sighed, shaking his head as he turned back to face Jacob. “Congratulations man. It took you long enough to pick the right one. Treat her well because cousin or not, I will come after you if you hurt her.”

  “I promise,” Jacob grinned.

  “So Jacob, I guess when you said you loved her in your sleep back in the summer, you were telling the truth,” Matt smirked, as I leaned over and slugged him on the arm.

  “What are you guys tal—”

  Jacob had captured my mouth with another searing kiss.

  Chapter 18

  Graduation

  While the girls and I got ready for our graduation ceremony in Amy’s room, my thoughts began straying back to a few months ago, and a small smile started to cross my lips.

  After our friends had found out about me and Jacob, all of them had agreed simultaneously that it would still be best to keep our relationship a secret from everyone at school. Jacob and I had tried to protest the idea, but they had been worried about some of the girls’ reactions to me dating Jacob. Once Jacob heard that logic, he also had thought it would be a good idea.

  Outside from our usual clique, two other people also knew Jacob and I were going out.

  Riley knew of course, but only because he was still worried I was hurt by Jacob. Except even though we’re good friends, I didn’t really feel comfortable talking about my love life with someone who still wanted to be a part of it.

  The other person was Adam. He felt bad about what Ben had said to me. However, when he had approached me to apologise for how rude his cousin had been, he had noticed immediately the subtle signs I was in love.

  According to him, I had a certain glow on my face when he had mentioned Jacob’s name. And since I couldn’t hide my smile, it was hard for me to deny anything when he had asked if Jacob and I were indeed together.

  Regrettably, it didn’t matter. Even with all this secrecy between everyone, they couldn’t stop Prom from happening a week later.

  Like Halloween, the school had been abuzz on who Jacob would take. And since the Prom was a major thing in a teenager’s life, it had also been a very hectic time for me.

  Since everyone knew I was Jacob’s closest friend, and with only one week left until the event, instead of girls waiting for Jacob to ask them out, I was the one who had endured their pestering. They had surrounded me the first moment I had entered into the school, had waited by my locker, outside each of my classes, and had even followed me into the washroom when I had to pee, all wanting to find out what kind of girl Jacob was looking for. Although the thing that had surprised me the most had been Hannah and her group.

  Two days before the Prom, they had approached me at lunch for my help, since they couldn’t understand why Jacob would always growl whenever they had approached him. I thought they would have gotten the hint I didn’t want to have anything to do with them when I had gotten up from the table and had walked away. But they hadn’t. Instead, they had stuck to me like glue and had threatened any girl that came within three feet of me. I didn’t take what they were doing lightly and had told them off once they had scared off the second girl.

  Now that I think about it, I had to admit dealing with them had been easy. Just when I had thought I was finally done with being driven to the point of insanity by them, after school had gotten much worse.

  Usually Jacob would walk with me once school was over. Since he couldn’t because he had to stay behind to talk to his coach, Riley had offered instead. Unfortunately, Riley also had gotten to experience first hand on what I had gone through most of the week.

  As soon as we were out the doors, we suddenly had found ourselves getting jostled together by an over enthusiastic group of girls, like we were a pair of cherry tomatoes in a tossed salad, as we headed across the main field. Apparently, they had gotten desperate with the idea that Jacob still hadn’t asked anyone to the Prom.

  Riley had tried to protect me from the onslaught by standing in front of me, but he didn’t realise how ruthless girls could get. It felt like we had been in an exclusive store where everything was on sale for fifty percent off. By the time I had been able to protect him, Riley had fingernail scratches all over his arms and some bald spots on his head.

  I thought I was also going to get dragged into the cat fight, with the way Riley had looked, but lucky for both of us, all the girls had been distracted by a dark head appearing in the field. A quick second later, Riley and I then found ourselves being yanked out of the tight huddle by none other than Jacob.

  I was grateful for Jacob’s impeccable timing, but when he wrapped his arm protectively around my waist and had announced I was his date, I then became the recipient of glares from furious girls.

  Each one of them had proceeded to call me every foul thing they could think of for the next five minutes. I had been impressed with their command of the English language in spite of the intensity of the situation and never knew we even had such words like the ones the girls had used to insult me with. However, rather than holding back and taking it all in, I had vented out all my pent-up frustrations from dealing with everything for an entire week.

  Some were surprised to see me angry, including Riley, but they then quickly had been shocked into submission once Jacob had begun yelling too, saying that it hadn’t been my idea to trick everyone in thinking he was available when he wasn’t. Furthermore, because he cared for me so much, he had hoped on his behalf no one would hold any grudges and hoped everyone would leave me alone.

  After what had happened the day before, Jacob and I had been worried that someone might try to retaliate. When we had stepped in the front doors, however, we were surprised that everyone had left me alone. Some had approached, but only to apologise for their behaviour towards me. Surprisingly, even Hannah and her groupies said their apologies for lying about me throughout the year.

  To this day, girls still stared at my guy—at a distance of course—but never approached him anymore in school. It could be because soon after Prom had passed, whenever we didn’t have class, he was always holding me.

  “Where the hell is my brush?”

  Amy’s loud voice brought me out of my reverie just in time for me to duck away from a silver stiletto that was flying towards my head.

  “Who cares about your brush!” hollered Nikki. “I want to know where my freakin’ bra went to!”

  “Shit!” Katie cursed loudly. “I can’t find where I put my makeup bag!”

  “Would you girls just calm down?” I yelled back. “The guys will wait for us!”

  “No, they won’t!” scowled Amy. “Knowing Matt, he’s gonna come storming up here in a minute, asking what the hell is taking us so long!”

  “Same as Alex,” spat Katie. “He’s always telling me to hurry up!”

  “Devon too,” grumbled Nikki, who was on all fours and crawling around the floor. “You should hear how much he nags me!”

  “Then we shouldn’t be going with them then, now should we?” I said calmly, handing Nikki back her shoe.

  “That’s easy for you to say,” frowned Katie. “We all know Jacob will wait for you no matter how long you take! We aren’t as fortunate as you!”

  “Not if you listen to my reasoning,” I said. “The guys know how important this day is for everyone, especially for you, Ames. Actually I take it back. This day come
s third. First is the wedding day and the second is having a baby…”

  “Jenna, the point?” sighed Amy.

  “Sorry,” I grinned. “Anyway, they should know girls can’t be rushed. It’s not our fault guys have it easy, and we have to go through all this trouble to look wonderful for them. If they want to bitch and complain then we’ll just have to threaten them again by showing them what we go through. If it didn’t get drilled into their heads the first time, then maybe they need a reminder. But in case I’m wrong, I’ll go down first and let them know we’ll be down in a bit.”

  The girls quickly accosted my arms and hauled me back.

  “You aren’t going anywhere, Jenna,” Amy said sternly.

  “This time you’ll be making Jacob wait for you too,” said Nikki.

  “But I’m already done,” I said.

  “You are not done,” tsked Katie.

  “But…”

  “No more buts!” scolded Amy. “Now sit!”

  Sighing, I quickly gave in and sat down on Amy’s zebra-print chair.

  When I was able to turn to look at the mirror a half-hour later, I was surprised to see that I didn’t look as elaborate like I had been on the day of our graduation pictures, but I was still impressed with what the girls did.

  My eyes were subtly emphasised with a bit of bronze shimmer, and I had the faintest hint of colour on my lips. The idea of the lipstick, according to the girls, was to give the subconscious impression of arousal for Jacob to think in the right direction, and I couldn’t help it and blushed.

  Finally able to leave the room, I then headed down the stairs, still feeling the heat in my cheeks while laughing at how girls could get so girly at things like this, when I saw Jacob. Since I had on the light blue dress I wore in his favourite photo of me, Jacob was holding in his breath, almost like he was afraid he would wake up from his dream.

  “Breathe, Jacob,” I giggled, walking right into his arms.

  “You’re gorgeous,” he whispered.

  “So are you,” I whispered back.

  “I don’t mean to intrude on this tender moment between the two of you, but where are the rest of the girls?” asked Matt, as Jacob reached up, softly touched my face, and ran his fingers gently over my cheek.