Capture the Moment (Moments #1)

17. Blake

seventeen

Blake

Cleo is dying of laughter on the couch beside me, still repeating the name Jake over and over. I’ve been called a lot of things in my lifetime by girls but Jake, is not one of them.

I’ll take ‘asshole’ over some other dude’s name any day.

“Something funny?” I cock my neck to the side as she wipes an absent tear, awfully tickled with the fact that her pink-haired friend called me a different guy.

“ Everything about that was funny!” she exclaims, sighs, and then laughs even harder.

“Oh, shut up…” I chuckle as she snorts.

She’s about to voice her retort when the door slams open once again, and the chime of the alarm goes off.

“Why the fuck are you here?!” an all too familiar loud voice yells over Cleo’s obnoxious laughter.

The both of us freeze momentarily at the sight of the two angry blondes in the doorway. Jace stands with his hands on his hips like a hardware store dad, while Georgia rolls her eyes, stepping around him.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I cough, sobering up as I sit up on the couch, resting my elbows on my knees.

Cleo scoots in closer to me as Jace strides into the living room with an annoying smile on his face .

“Because you said you had a project! I checked your location, and this doesn’t look like a project,” he says in a matter of fact tone as if he’s caught me in a dirty little secret.

I frown as he squeezes in between Cleo and I on the couch, looking me over like I'm some sort of pest before smiling sweetly at the woman beside him.

“You’re interrupting, you idiot,” Georgia croaks from the loveseat across the room, looking down at her tablet.

“And you’re fucking annoying,” he responds instantly.

“ Hey! Be nice to each other. Why are you two arguing now?” Cleo asks, cutting the two of them with a look as sharp as a blade.

I watch Georgia for a reaction; Jace is always overreacting but I’ve never been around her too long to understand her. Georgia’s eyes widened for a second before darting to Jace. She shakes her head subtly, but I catch it.

“Oh…you know, just Peach being annoying once again.” Jace coughs.

Weird.

He’s underreacting .

“Well, both of you cut the shit. Si Si’s having a bad night and I highly doubt she wants to hear you two go back and forth about who’s more annoying.” Cleo’s tone is stern, but I can hear the faint smile she’s trying so hard to mask.

Jace doesn’t say anything and neither does Georgia, the two just go silent and listen, watching the rest of the movie with Cleo and me.

We sit around, wasting away in complete silence with occasional small laughs. With Jace sitting in between us like a barrier I can’t bother Cleo like I usually do. But I do manage to sneak some looks at her as she watches the movie.

Cleo laughs at the smallest things on the screen like if a character says something that no one else finds funny, she’ll chuckle at it or smile. She’s an expressive girl and it’s hard to understand how the girl who was so vibrant and bubbly on her YouTube channel, not even a year ago, is suddenly this shy and reclusive person who’s afraid of ‘monsters behind cameras’ or whatever that means.

From what I’ve noticed, Cleo is strong and doesn’t want someone to save her. What she seems to want is someone who will back her up. And I’d gladly blast some monsters for her .

The girls and Jace fall asleep halfway through the third movie, and seeing him laying with his head in Cleo’s lap makes my jaw tick, though I can’t explain why. I haven’t liked a girl since elementary and middle school.

In high school, my true love was hockey. Of course I’ve hooked up and had flings, I mean what D1 athlete hasn’t? But I’ve never felt this way about a girl like how I do with Cleo. So, as I sit on the edge of her too small couch, watching my best friend sleep peacefully on the lap of the girl that I may or may not be crushing on, I can’t help but kick him.

Jace jumps dramatically out of his slumber as if something bad happened.

“Where’s the bloody rabbit?!” he startles awake speaking in a shitty British accent. He jumps from Cleo’s lap causing her to stir; I shush him and point to both girls as he visibly becomes calmer.

“She looks so peaceful,” he says, his tone soft and though, I’m watching Cleo, thinking the exact same thing, I startle as I track my eyes to where he's looking.

What the hell happened between Georgia and him? And why does he look less murderous than earlier?

I watch him in silence as he gets up from the couch, quietly trekking to the blonde who slept peacefully on the loveseat. He smiles softly as she mutters something under her breath before throwing her over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. It happens in slow motion, Georgia’s eyes widening before the kick . I guess being friends for over ten years makes you know a person's ass because as soon as her eyes encountered Jace’s butt, her foot came in contact with his dick.

I sniff a laugh as he slowly goes down wordlessly holding his crotch and take Georgia’s scolding him as a sign to get Cleo to bed. My mouth curves as I look down at the sleeping woman, Cleo sleeps like an angel throughout all the chaos around her as Jace and Georgia argue quietly.

I’m gentle as I scoop her into my arms bridal style; friends help each other get to their own beds and I’m just trying to do my good old friend a favor.

The only time I took a girl to bed without the intention of fucking her senseless was two years ago the night of Jule’s 23rd birthday. We roamed the streets of New York and ended up drunk outside of a trendy nightclub. I had to haul my sister from a cab to the penthouse level of a skyscraper. It was indeed the first, and what I assumed to be the last time, I carried a woman to a bed I wouldn’t be sleeping in.

Cleo doesn’t stir as I tuck her in, she just lays there motionless as if nothing has changed and for a second, I think she’s dead.

I lift one of her arms and jump back as it falls wobbly. I scoot closer to her face just as someone coughs. I jump back, away from the sleeping beauty.

“Is she the girl?” Jace asks, leaning in the doorway with his arms folded.

I choose to ignore him and continue to tuck Cleo into bed, placing one of the large plushies I saw earlier beside her. He watches me with raised brows as I turn back around with a small faltering smile.

“Jones is going to kill you–don’t tuck her in. She gets claustrophobic.” He sighs, going back over to undo my work. Jace untucks her and then proceeds to lay a soft kiss on her temple. I squint at the action but don't say anything as he and I stalk towards the bedroom door.

I should kill that motherfucker for even thinking about kissing her—

Too much?

Way too much…

Anyways…

“There’s nothing for him to kill me about, we’re just partners.”

“Partners or partners? ” The idiot zeros in on me as if I’m a threat. Like he’s her protector or something. I don’t like the way he’s trying to size me up either, like I’m an opponent on the ice or something. I step closer to my best friend and look him directly in the eye.

“We’re partners. Now get out, she needs to sleep and I for one don’t want to still be here when she or Georgia wakes up.”