First Crush (Dark Falkon Book 1)

by J. O Mantel

  “After that kiss, I don't want there to be any mixed feelings between us.”

  “Oh, Jake, seriously I'm over it, I've already moved on. It's in the past.”

  “Sienna told me that you like me, Ivy, like really like me.”

  “Yeah I know, she told me that she told you, I feel like such an idiot.” She put her head down and finished her salad.

  “Ivy, I'm honored and flattered that you like me. This is exactly what I'm talking about, I don't want you to feel weird about it.”

  “I didn't want you to find out like that, it almost looks as if I was getting someone else to do my dirty work for me.”

  Jake laughed as he finished his beer and lunch.

  “Ivy, you’re cute. I swear I didn't think that at all. It's sweet that you find me attractive and that you like me, but I kind of have my eyes on someone else. No offence you're a great girl and all, but you’re just-”

  “Not your type?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Yeah, Sienna told me, I guess I just didn't want to believe it and I wanted to see for myself.”

  “So this is why you wanted me to come to the movies with you guys the other day?”

  “Yeah, dumb, right?” Ivy kept her head down in embarrassment, “Still think I'm cute?”

  There was a slight pause, Jake looked at Ivy, and she felt his eyes all over her but kept her head down.

  “Ivy,” he lifted her cheek and looked into her eyes. “I meant what I said, you're a great looking girl, you're very talented and you're beautiful. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise, and if they do, then they are the ones who are idiots.”

  A shade of red covered Ivy, again. No one had ever called her great looking or beautiful, ever. She had known Jake a long time, and this was one side of him that she had never seen before. He brushed her cheek as she stared deep into his eyes.

  “Jake, has anyone told you that you have the most beautiful eyes. I'm mesmerized whenever I stare into them.”

  Jake smiled, his crystal white teeth putting Ivy at ease, “Thanks, Ivy I get that a lot. So we’re okay?”

  “Yeah, we’re okay,” she smiled back at him and finished her drink. “So this girl, anyone I know?” Ivy asked.

  Jake looked at her, trying not to be too obvious, “Um…No! Just someone I know, a friend. So what are the plans for tonight?” he asked, quickly avoiding the subject.

  “Not much actually, I was going to head over to your place after work. Seeing as I ditched Sienna for lunch, she’s asked me to come over for dinner. Are you going to be around or are you heading to band practice?”

  “I actually have the night off tonight. As I mentioned before, we had an early morning rehearsal session today, so I’m free tonight, I’ll be home. Can we please keep this conversation to ourselves, I don’t want Sienna to know anything about this meeting.”

  “My lips are sealed, as far as I’m concerned, it never happened.” Ivy was actually relieved, she didn’t want Sienna finding out about this conversation either.

  They went to the counter to pay for their meals, before Ivy had the chance to pull any money out of her purse, Jake grabbed her hand, “It’s on me,” he said.

  “Jake, that’s not necessary.”

  “Please, I insist.”

  She nodded in acknowledgement, and Jake finalized the bill.

  “I’ll walk you back to the office, if you like.”

  “Jake, really, you don’t need to do that. You paid for lunch and that was more than enough.”

  “Really, it’s no trouble at all. I have nothing on for the rest of the afternoon, I was actually just going to head to the gym and do some training.”

  The two of them walked back to Ivy’s office, Jake gave Ivy a gentle kiss on the cheek before waving goodbye and heading home.

  Jake sat on his bed, his guitar around his neck as it rested on his knees. He strummed the strings while softly humming a tune to himself. He stopped suddenly and looked at the poster of himself on the wall.

  “If she ever knew the truth about how I felt about her, I’d lose her.” He began strumming the strings again, this time softly singing the lyrics to the band’s song One Road. He stopped suddenly and stood up in frustration.

  “This is fucking crazy. Why can’t I just tell her how I feel? She’d understand, who knows, maybe we could even be together?” Pulling off his shirt and changing into a black Tee, he walked into the bathroom and found himself staring into the mirror again.

  “She’s not in love with you, you’re not the man she wants,” he could hear his inner conscious talking to him, “Lukas Dark! The man that every guy wants to be and all the women want. What the hell does that guy have that I don’t anyway? We’re both singers, and personally, I think I’m better looking than him anyway.”

  He walked over to Sienna’s bedroom and walked inside, shutting the door behind him. He noticed the poster of Lukas on the wall, she had a lot of photos of Lukas on his own, more so than that of the actual band themselves. Lukas had golden blonde hair, the type that most girls usually paid money for. Although not long, it was still easily spiked. He sported a decent six pack abs and was in great physical shape. His eyes were brown, but nowhere near as mesmerizing as Jake’s blue ones.

  He sorted through Sienna’s CD collection, true to her word, she had all three of their albums and every single they released. They were all sitting neatly in their cases and Jake was afraid to touch them in case he did the slightest damage. He had been in her bedroom many times, but this was perhaps the first time he could analyze everything for a long period of time. He knew that she was obsessed with Lukas, but looking around, he didn’t quite expect this sort of an infatuation. Posters, t-shirts, CD’s, DVD’s, bags, bracelets, she had them all.

  ####FRIENDSHIP####

  It was after seven by the time Sienna and Ivy got home. Carrying a pepperoni pizza and some ice cream, Sienna threw her handbag on the benchtop and walked into the kitchen. Jake was standing at the stove, preparing some rice and steamed veggies.

  “Sorry, Jake I should have told you that Ivy was coming over for dinner. I didn’t realize we were going to be so late though, the traffic was a bitch.”

  “It’s okay, there’s enough here for everyone, so if you guys want to have the pizza and feel like more, then help yourselves.”

  The three of them sat down at the table, eating their meals when Sienna looked up at Ivy.

  “Who is he?” she asked.

  “Excuse me?” Ivy replied, totally confused.

  “Well, you ditched me at lunch, surely there’s a guy involved,” she said.

  Ivy and Jake quickly exchanged eye contact before turning back and looking at Sienna, “Um...No one, just a client from work.”

  “I thought you never mixed business with pleasure, Ivy.”

  “I didn’t, it was a business meeting.”

  “A business meeting? Is that what they call it these days?” Sienna smirked and bit into her pizza.

  “I’m serious, there’s no one. If there was, you and I both know that you would be the first to know about it. Do you honestly think I could ever keep something that big from you?” Ivy said.

  “Yeah that’s true. So how was band practice, Jake?” she asked.

  “Yeah great. Since our show at the charity benefit the other week, the band and I are getting a lot of offers now to perform at other gigs.”

  “That’s great, right?” Ivy asked, trying to ease the tension that she felt again with Jake.

  “It’s fantastic, it just means that we have to work harder than ever to make sure that we are the best that we can possibly be. We’ve started writing some new material, so we can head into the studio soon and record them.”

  “Let me guess, nothing that we can listen to, just yet?”

  “Of course not, you know me better than that,” Jake replied.

  They finished dinner and packed up their plates and then sat down on the sofa.

  “What about you, Jake?” S
ienna asked, getting comfortable.

  “Huh?” Jake asked, confused.

  “Anyone special in your life? I mean, with all these gigs that you and the band are doing, surely there’s someone around.”

  “Are you suggesting that I just fuck the first chick that comes onto me at a club, Sienna?”

  “Sienna did,” Ivy laughed.

  “Bitch,” Sienna replied, giving Ivy the finger.

  “Love you too, babe.”

  “I’m not like you Sienna, I don’t just pick up some random chick at a club. Besides, I don’t have time for a relationship right now.”

  “You know, that’s exactly what she said,” Ivy replied.

  “Ivy!”

  “What? It’s true.”

  “That’s beside the point,” Sienna said.

  “Come on Jake, you’re amongst friends, why is it that you don’t have anyone in your life? Tell the truth.”

  Jake sighed, this was not really a conversation that he wanted to have right now, least of all in front of Sienna.

  “I’d rather not to be honest,” he said.

  “Ah ha, see there is someone. I knew it.”

  “Sienna, seriously! You know me, we live together, don’t you think if I had anyone special in my life, you’d know about it.”

  “He kind of has a point,” Ivy replied.

  “Shut up.”

  “Well, there is this one girl-”

  “I knew it,” Sienna whispered.

  “It’s nothing. The truth is, I can’t be with her anyway.”

  “Why not? Doesn’t she find you attractive?”

  “No, it’s nothing like that. The truth is, she doesn’t actually know how I feel about her.”

  “You haven’t told her?” Ivy asked, slightly intrigued.

  “No! I can’t. You see…well, it’s kind of complicated.”

  Jake suddenly felt very uncomfortable, he stood up; “And where are you going now?” Sienna asked.

  “To the bathroom if you really must know.” He walked away hastily, Sienna looked at Ivy; “Did you know about this?”

  “Me? How the hell would I know? You live with him.”

  “I know but I thought maybe he would have come to you or something. I know sometimes when things are on my mind, I like to talk to others about it.”

  Jake came back into the room and the two of them stopped talking. “You know you two don’t make it only half obvious that you were just talking about me.”

  “Who? Us?” Sienna asked.

  Ivy remained quiet, although, she couldn’t help but smile.

  “Look, Jake, I think you need to tell this chick exactly how you feel about her. If you don’t, it’ll just eat you up inside and it’ll eventually kill you.”

  “Like I said, it’s complicated, she…” he hesitated, “She’s in love with someone else.”

  Sienna pulled back and stopped biting into the chocolate bar she had been eating for the past five minutes. Ivy looked at Jake, trying to act surprised.

  “And does this guy know how she feels about him?” Sienna asked.

  “No, well I don’t think so anyway.”

  “So you might still have a chance then?”

  Jake was starting to get really frustrated now, he didn’t want to continue this conversation anymore. Running his fingers through his hair, he sighed and looked at the two of them; “To be perfectly honest, I don’t think she even knows that I exist. I pretty much throw myself at her and it all goes unnoticed. I just don’t know what else I can do to make her get the message.”

  “Jake, don’t let it get to you. I can tell that you obviously dig this girl, a lot and this chick, whoever she is, clearly doesn’t know what or who she wants. Girls can be bitches, seriously, we can, but the bottom line is, don’t give up on something if you want it that badly. On that note, I’m going to have a shower, Ivy do you want to stick around until I get out?”

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll keep Jake company.”

  Sienna smiled and headed for the bathroom, she closed the door behind her, locking it while Jake sat in the living room with Ivy.

  “She really means something to you, doesn’t she?”

  “Who? Sienna?”

  “No! This chick that you like, she really means the world to you.”

  “Yeah she does, but it’s no use, Ivy, we’ll never be together.” He stood up and headed for his room.

  “Never say never, Jake. I believe in fate, and I believe things will work out for you, one way or another.”

  “Thanks, Ivy. I’m just going to change, I’ll be back in a second.”

  “Yeah, I need to use the bathroom anyway,” she said, getting up off the sofa.

  Jake removed his shirt and changed into his boxers, he walked back out into the living room, sat down on the sofa and switched on the television.

  Ivy returned a few seconds later and sat down beside him as the two of them flicked through the channels, trying to decide what to watch. At that moment, the water to the shower stopped running and Jake could hear Sienna humming the tune to Dark Falkon’s Way Back Home. The door opened and Sienna appeared in nothing but a towel, her hair was wet and dripping down her back. She walked through the living room and into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. As she walked past again, Jake couldn’t help but look up, his eyes widening as she walked past him, dripping wet. Ivy looked up and noticed Jake, his gaze fixed on Sienna the entire time, and then it hit her.

  “Oh my god,” she said, as Sienna’s bedroom door closed.

  “What?” Jake asked, turning and looking at her.

  “It’s Sienna!”

  “What?” Jake asked.

  “It all makes sense now, I can’t believe I didn’t realize it before,” Ivy said, standing up.

  “What are you talking about, Ivy?” Jake asked, slightly nervous.

  “Sienna! She’s the girl that you want. The one that you’re in love with.”

  “Ivy, please-”

  “Don’t try and deny it, Jake, I could see the way you were looking at her just now.”

  Jake took a deep breath as Ivy stood up. Sienna’s bedroom door opened and she walked out, her hair was wrapped in a towel and she was wearing her negligee and a night gown.

  “Everything alright in here?” She asked, noticing the tension between Jake and Ivy.

  “Yep, fine. Um…Babe I have to go, see you at lunch tomorrow?”

  “Yeah…Sure, are you alright?” Sienna asked.

  “Yep, fine. Just something I have to do. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll walk you out,” Jake said, walking her to the door.

  As he opened the door, Jake looked over at Sienna, making sure she was out of earshot. “Ivy please, I’m begging you, you can’t say anything. Sienna can never know how I feel about her,” he swallowed.

  “Goodnight, Jake,” she turned and headed for her car.

  The growing pile of paperwork on Sienna's desk was never ending. She could barely see the end of her table anymore. She had been working late every night this week, and she missed spending time with Ivy. Even Jake had been coming home earlier from band practice. She sat there, typing away rapidly, responding to her emails.

  “Sienna there's someone else who wants to look at that apartment on Fourth Street. I've advised them that you'll be there around five thirty p.m.,” the receptionist called through the intercom.

  “Thanks Deb,” Sienna replied, she was exhausted, it was a Friday afternoon and all she wanted to do was go home, put her feet up and have some wine. She didn't want to spend the night dealing with clients.

  Everyone started to go home for the day, it was almost five p.m. and Sienna decided to head off for her appointment. After closing down her computer, she put on her jacket, grabbed her purse and headed out into reception.

  “Hey, Deb I'm heading to that appointment. What was the client's name?”

  Deb sorted through the paperwork on her desk, trying to find the sticky note she had w
ritten his name on.

  “Sorry, Sienna I can't seem to find where I put his details. I think his name was John, James...god I don't know, sorry.”

  “Never mind. I'm heading off, I guess I'll see you on Monday.”

  “Yep, have a good weekend.”

  “You too,” Sienna replied and headed out the door.

  The peak hour traffic through Manhattan was horrendous. Sienna was already running late and she really didn't want to stay any longer than she had to.

  By the time she arrived at the apartment it was just after five thirty pm. she grabbed her file and headed up the stairs. As she approached the apartment, she looked ahead at the person standing outside the door.

  She recognized him immediately.

  “Jesse?” She asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Sienna?”

  Immediately, she got very awkward standing there and she suddenly regretted the fact that she was in heels, limiting her chances for a quick getaway.

  “You're the one who's looking at the apartment?” She asked.

  “Yeah! You never told me you were a real estate agent.”

  Sienna remained silent, she was at a loss for words. All she wanted to do, was run.

  “You never asked me. Anyway, I'm in a bit of a hurry so shall we take a look inside?”

  “Yes,” Jesse replied following behind her.

  “So, is it just yourself moving in, or will you be sharing with someone?”

  “Um...well that all depends, for the moment it'll just be me moving in. But who knows, maybe later down the track I might find someone to share it with.”

  His comment was sarcastic and he looked at Sienna with the biggest, cheesiest grin on his face.

  “Ok, great, so one tenant,” Sienna made some notes on her paperwork.

  “How come you never returned my calls?” Jesse asked.

  “Oh! Sorry, I've been...super busy with work. Lots to do.” She kept her head down while she made some more notes.

  “So, what are you doing after work?” Jesse asked.

  “Ah, well...I'm not actually sure yet. I might just head home, have some wine and chill out on the sofa with a chick flick. So, did you want me to process your application now, or did you want to think about it?” She looked up from her paperwork, Jesse was standing inches away from him.