your never truly free

“I don’t look at him like anything, I only see him as a friend.” She shook her head, wiping her eyes before any tears could actually roll down her cheeks. “At risk of sounding really conceited, you’re gonna have an extremely lonely life if you turn away all friendships with guys that want me.” She stated before turning away from him and walking back over to the door. “Maybe you should just go.” Mona spoke facing the door, lifting her hand to push it open. “I don’t want you here anymore, you can tell him to leave, too.”

Mona felt her face getting a bit warm, her breathing becoming more shallow, as she listened to him speaking. Her confused expression turned to one that described pain instead. “So, basically what you’re saying is you don’t trust me. You don’t trust that something won’t happen between us, you don’t trust my loyalty? I get that I don’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to this, I’ve slept with pretty much every guy that’s shown me attention like he has but… I wouldn’t sleep with him. I wouldn’t cheat on you. And it really does hurt that you think I would.” She only began to explain. “You are the first and only friend that I’ve ever slept with and there’s a reason for that. You never treated me like I was some object, like I was a toy to play with. You always were on my side, always defended me, made me feel like an actual person.” Mona didn’t want to cry, she wasn’t sure why her eyes were starting to sting since she’d never actually been in this situation before. She literally felt like her heart was falling apart inside her chest. “I love you, I’ve always loved you. I’ve never been open to loving anyone else. Just because he has a thing for me doesn’t mean that I’m going to instantly jump into bed with him. I haven’t thought about sleeping with him since– since– I don’t even know, it’s been that long. Since I met him? I wouldn’t cheat on you. I wish you would just trust me, why can’t you trust me?”

Mona hesitated a moment, really not understanding why. She shook her head, raising a brow, “because he likes me?” She questioned, refusing to leave him.

Mona laughed quietly when Coby spoke, putting him down on the ground to let him wander as he pleased before moving towards Jackson. “No,” she shook her head. “I don’t get it. Why are you so angry at Jonah, why do you get like this whenever he’s around, what has he done to you?”

Mona huffed as Jackson began walking away, rolling her eyes and dropping her head back. She groaned as her eyes closed before mumbling, “I don’t get why he has to be like this.” Looking at Jonah, she shrugged her shoulders. “You two could be such great friends if he’d stop being so childish.” She stated before looking down at the smaller blond below her. A small smile appeared as she watched him walk after Jackson, “I’ll be right back. Make yourself at home.” She instructed before walking after Coby, swooping him up into her arms, and following after his brother. 

Of course she didn’t want him to go and not come back, she didn’t want things to end like that. “I don’t know, Jackson, are we? Does your hatred for him overpower whatever you feel for me? Are you willing to throw away what we have just so you don’t have to be in the same room as him? I just don’t understand why you get so angry being around him. He hasn’t done anything to you,” she stated, throwing her arm out towards Jonah. “I mean, I’m not even like this when Sophia is around and you know how much I don’t like her. I don’t avoid you when she’s around, I don’t suspect that something is going on between you two when I’m not around.”

“Why can’t you just be friends with him? Nothing is going to happen between us, I’m not interested in him. We’re just friends.” Though her feelings differed early, she didn’t want him to go. In a last chance effort, she was going to give him a choice. “If you leave, I don’t want you coming back.” She tried to be confident in her words but a part of her knew that he’d end up walking out the front door no matter what she said.

Mona scoffed, brows slowly furrowing. “You don’t have a reason to be threatened. We’ve known each other our entire conscious lives, you have been my best friend for years. I’m honestly a bit offended that you think I’d sleep with someone who wasn’t you.” She explained, moving towards him. “Have we slept together, Jonah?” Mona asked, though her eyes remained on Jackson. “Have I offered or brought up sleeping with you or-or blowing you or anything since we first met?” She asked again, expecting his answer to be ‘no’.

Oh, so now you want to leave?” She questioned, putting her hands on her hips. “Are you really that insecure that-that threatened by him that you can’t even be around him?”

Mona looked back over to him, confused. “No?” She shook her head, following him over to the door but still keeping her distance. “I invited him after you invited yourself over.” She mumbled before standing on the tips of her toes to look over Jackson’s shoulder at Jonah. “Let him in.”

The thought of telling him about the times she and Jonah had fooled around that Jax didn’t know about crossed her mind but she knew that would more than likely end their relationship. Just because she didn’t want to be around him didn’t mean she wanted out of their relationship so she kept her mouth shut about the topic. “Silly me for thinking you’d actually respect my wishes.”

“I meant what I said, Jackson.” She mumbled before turning away from him. 

Mona only let his arms wrap around her for a couple seconds before she began pulling away from him; bringing her hands up between him to separate their bodies. “Why did you come here?”