My name is Cathryn (or Cat) and I’m so happy you’re here! I’m a lover of writing, books, sports, and romcoms! My favorite sports are baseball and hockey so feel free to yap about those with me! I’m not super strict here so, just be kind and we’ll be cool. My request are currently open and so is my inbox if you just want to chat!
this blog contains nsfw content! 18+ only MDNI
𝑴𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕 જ⁀➴
𝑱𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒏 𝑫𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒏
Written In Ink || nsfw 18+
summary: Jarren’s already obsessed with his girl, but then she gets his initial tatted on her. now, he’s even more obsessed.
Holy Chemistry || nsfw 18+
summary: nothing could prepare her for this. she woke up that morning ready to simply ask for an autograph and picture at the game. she didn’t expect there to be such…chemistry.
The Right One || sfw
summary: rule one: never marry someone you don’t truly know just because you think you’re out of time. that was her new motto. she honestly would be okay if she never dated again. she swears she’s better off alone. then, he happens.
Crime Scene || nsfw 18+
summary: after years and years of pining over her and her brother’s best friend, she’s had enough. she’s at the point where if he mentions one more girl, she’s going to end up in jail.
For The Record || nsfw 18+
summary: golfing with her boyfriend should’ve been innocent fun. however, seeing the attention she keeps getting from others who were there makes this fun little date hell for Jarren.
Revenge So Sweet || nsfw 18+ || part one • part two
summary: getting dumped was one thing. getting dumped by the man who spent a month making her feel special before going ghost the second she gave him her virginity? that’s another. angry, embarrassed, and determined, she’s making it her life’s mission to get him back. one tipsy night with her friends leads her to the worst idea ever: getting with an mlb player. not just any though, the player her ex hated. one petty dm later…and her life took a turn…possibly for the best.
Walk It Off || nsfw 18+
summary: her man just walked off a game. it’s only right that she shows him how proud she is of him.
System Failure || nsfw 18+
summary: all she wanted to do was just focus on work. she got her dream job as a social media admin for her favorite team. nothing could get in her way…until one of the players starts bugging her. she hated how annoying and cocky he was. what she failed to realize…is this was the classic “boy teases girl because he thinks she’s pretty” act. just with a little more sexual tension.
Eyes Off || nsfw 18+
summary: she knew how loyal her boyfriend was to her. still, that doesn’t stop her from wanting to drag a bitch for getting too close to her man.
Sent, Read, Shit! || nsfw 18+
summary: all she wanted was to send her group chat some cute set options. too bad her tired ass sent it to the wrong person…or the right one…
Save A Horse…|| nsfw 18+
summary: her boyfriend had never been to a rodeo before. she was happy to take him. then, he learned about the cowboy hat rule. and boy, was he happy when she stole his hat off of his head.
The Relapse || smau || part one • part two • part three • part four • part five • part six • part seven • part eight • part nine • part ten
summary: no one could ever seem to connect the dots in her lyrics. it was always a mystery who some of her songs were about. that’s all until a certain somebody decides to drop that she was his celebrity crush. a few scrolls, likes, posts, and comments later, and the whole world finally connects the dots. he’s her mystery fling. and it seems to be relapsing…
Since When? || nsfw 18+
summary: catching up with her old friends led her to a shocking realization. the short awkward boy from high school —who used to have a crush on her— is no longer short or awkward. he’s actually really hot.
Gentle Hands || nsfw 18+
summary: being a virgin was all fine and dandy until she started dating a very experienced man. jarren wasn’t the type to force sex on his girlfriend, but he often wondered why she never let him take it that far. when she finally tells him why, he’s determined to make her first time the best experience of her life.
He’s Only My Friend! || sfw
summary: whoever said guys and girls can’t be friends is an idiot. jarren is the perfect friend to her! he plays bodyguard for her, they hang out all the time, he carries her when her feet hurt, he kisses her…oh, wait.
Watch & Learn || nsfw 18+ || part one • part two • part three • part four • part five • part six
summary: she thought she had everything figured out. senior year, a leadership position in her sorority, a bright future, and a perfect boyfriend. just a perfect little life. until her perfect boyfriend decided to dump her out of the blue. her perfect little life now had a crack, and her entire winter break was spent heartbroken. by spring semester, she’s determined to move on. then, she unexpectedly runs into her ex one night. he swore she was still hung up on him. panicked, embarrassed, and desperate to save her ass, she blurts out that she has a boyfriend. the problem? she doesn’t. the bigger problem? the arm she grabs belongs to one of the most recognizable athletes in Boston…and her ex’s favorite baseball player.
𝑴𝒊𝒔𝒄. (𝑱𝒐𝒉𝒏𝒏𝒚 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒎, 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑪𝒂𝒔𝒑𝒊𝒂𝒏, 𝑩𝒆𝒏 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒔)
Fire Hazard || nsfw 18+
summary: There’s one thing that the Human Torch hates most in this world…and that’s a reporter who drags his name through the mud. It’s not your fault you think he’s a narcissistic piece of shit who rides his family’s coat tail. When an article comes out about how much of a bad “hero” he is, he can’t help but want to absolutely blow up at you. He hated…no despised you…but if he hated you so much, then why was he constantly thinking about how absolutely sexy you are?
Kisses, Kisses || sfw
summary: apparently, every man you work with has this obsession with kissing your cheek. it never bothered you…unless it was the man who you were in love with.
Rewrite The Wreckage || sfw
summary: Caspian never would have thought that the woman he loved would run from him. You never thought that you could love someone as much as you did him, that’s why you couldn’t bare the thought of gaining someone you could loose. So you ran. You never would have thought you would run into him on your own little voyage.
Kiss & Make Up? || nsfw 18+
summary: your jealousy causes a massive fight between you and your boyfriend, ending with the two of you calling it quits. but, despite all of the hate you had for him, you also loved him. after all, two things can always be true.
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summary: she thought she had everything figured out. senior year, a leadership position in her sorority, a bright future, and a perfect boyfriend. just a perfect little life. until her perfect boyfriend decided to dump her out of the blue. her perfect little life now had a crack, and her entire winter break was spent heartbroken. by spring semester, she’s determined to move on. then, she unexpectedly runs into her ex one night. he swore she was still hung up on him. panicked, embarrassed, and desperate to save her ass, she blurts out that she has a boyfriend. the problem? she doesn’t. the bigger problem? the arm she grabs belongs to one of the most recognizable athletes in Boston…and her ex’s favorite baseball player.
warnings: mentions of vomit, tooth-rotting sweetness, no use of y/n
a/n: this is possibly the cutest thing i’ve ever written omg. my favorite chapter by far. MY BABIESSSSS.
MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE PLAYLIST FOR UPDATES!
The deal was getting more and more complicated as the weeks rolled by.
Jarren wanted to take back everything he said about no feelings. Mainly because he was absolutely gone for her. After the almost kiss, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about her all day every day. She was so close yet so far. He knew that she would never go for a guy like him, which is what hurt the most. He didn’t fit into her perfect little life.
Still, he couldn’t stop himself from going the extra mile for her. Throughout these past couple weeks, he was over at her place helping her prep for her interview. He still didn’t know what magazine company this was for, he just knew he was willing to help her in any way that he could. Even if that did include skipping out on post game dinners just to take her home and ask her practice questions. Jarren was never one to prepare for something like that. However, he thought she was absolutely adorable for doing so.
The media had started to lighten up towards Jarren. The deal was apparently working very well. People started to notice how calm he was starting to act. Fans would heckle him per usual, but Jarren was slower to react now. Sure, he could pass it off and say it was just an act for the deal. But in reality, he said fuck the deal around three weeks ago. Three weeks ago she kissed his cheek. And three weeks ago, he realized that she was everything he was needing and more.
She truly has calmed him down a lot. Something about knowing that she was near him has given him so much peace. Especially at games. He would often find himself looking up to where her seat was. He just wanted to make sure she was still there. And she always was. He honestly thought he was starting to play better because of it.
Of course, she hadn’t noticed Jarren’s change in behavior. Mainly because she was so focused on her own. After the almost kiss, she was spiraling. She kept overthinking every interaction leading up to that. This was all so confusing to her. He was the one who said no feelings. Yet, he was also the one who almost kissed her.
He was also the one to actually kiss her. Granted, it was part of the deal since it was in front of Brady. Still, she kept thinking back to it. The way his lips felt against hers. The way his hands gently held her face. The look in his eyes as he pulled away from her. The whole thing gave her butterflies just thinking about it.
Now, she has to think about how the hell she managed to let him have that effect on her. He always had a knack for making her stomach do a weird flip. She never understood why that was. She just knew that this feeling was far different from anything she felt before. She wasn’t used to a man making her feel like this. She was so used to men like her Dad and Brady. Men who were passive yet somehow still angry.
Jarren was the opposite, to her surprise. Despite how he presented himself on the field and to the media, he was actually a really sweet, really gentle guy. He never raised his voice at her. He never talked down to her. And when she needed help, he was there by her side in an instant. She figured this is just how he treated his friends. So, she just suppressed whatever she was feeling to focus on her interview.
Which, speaking of, was today. She was so nervous that she could throw up. Actually, she might throw up. She was feeling a little extra warm today. She thought it was just nerves. So, she sucked it up and paced around her room as she prepped for her call. Since the job was based in London, she had to have her interview via skype.
It made her feel better and worse in some ways. She felt better because they would only see from her waist up. She felt worse because she always had her best interviews in person. How could they see how put together she was if they were only seeing from her waist up? To say she was a wreck was an understatement. She was practicing her answers to some practice questions when her phone lit up in her hand. She looks down to see who it was from and can’t help the giddy smile she gets.
You got this, baby! Call me after your interview is over ❤️
Jarren had texted her. She couldn’t help the butterflies she got from his words. Also the usage of that pet name. She can’t remember the last time he actually said her name. “Baby” had officially become her name to him. She wasn’t complaining. It was way better than “Bee” in her eyes.
She simply loves the message before locking back into her practice questions.
Around an hour and a half later, her interview had just ended. She should be excited. It actually went pretty good. However, her stomach felt a little off. She couldn’t remember the last time it felt like that. She just knew that that feeling probably wasn’t good. She quickly ran to her bathroom.
Nausea takes over and she barely makes it to the toilet before she’s puking her guts out. This was way too much to be from nerves. She’s never gotten nervous enough to throw up. Especially not after an interview. That was how she knew that this was probably some form of sickness. She groans when she finally lifts her head from the toilet. She slowly gets back up before walking to her kitchen.
She goes to one of her cabinets to try and find her thermometer. When she finds it, she immediately turns it on and puts it to her temple. After about ten seconds, she hears the beep. She pulls it away and groans again when she sees the number on the thermometer. She was running a fever. She was certainly glad the interview wasn’t in person now. Because, holy shit, she probably would’ve gotten everyone sick.
The plus side to finding out she was sick, is she at least found out while she was at home. The down side was, she was supposed to go to a game tonight. Not only that, she was supposed to go with Jarren to a team dinner. She honestly wanted to cry when she realized she would have to tell him she couldn’t go. She knew he would be upset since he was looking forward to this dinner. She slowly walks back to her room and plops on her bed.
She grabbed her phone and called Jarren. She was honestly dreading for when he answered. She hated the thought of telling him she couldn’t be there tonight. Sure, this was another part of the deal. However, she was growing to love going to games. Especially when she got to spend most of her time with Devin. That was another person she was dreading to tell she was sick.
Not only was it a team dinner night. It was also a major game. They were playing the Yankees tonight. She wanted to kick herself even more when she remembered. Sure, it wasn’t her fault she got sick. She honestly doesn’t even know how. She just knew that she was going to miss a very big night for her boyfriend. Well, fake boyfriend.
The call connects and she can immediately hear the big smile in Jarren’s voice.
“There’s my girl. How was your interview, baby?” He asks. She can’t help but smile. She could hear how excited he was for her. All the more reason to dread telling him that she was sick.
“It went great!” She told him.
“That’s awesome, baby! I’m sure you have it in the bag.” He tells her.
“Yeah…” She says, a little sadder. Jarren immediately notices her tone change.
“What’s wrong?” He asked. Damn it. How is it that he’s only known her for a couple months and he already knows her this well? She sighs and just decides to rip the band aid off.
“I’m sick.” She tells him. The line goes silent for a second before he speaks up again.
“Sick? What happened?” He asks, concern lacing his tone.
“I threw up after my interview. I checked my temperature and I’m running a fever.” She was waiting for Jarren to get upset. To tell her that tonight was a big night. To ask her how the hell she was going to miss a night like this. However, that never came.
“What do you need from me, baby?” He asks. She was honestly shocked at his lack of anger. She didn’t understand why he was so calm about this.
“Nothing…I’m good…aren’t you mad though?” She asks.
“Mad? Why would I be mad? It’s not your fault you got sick.” Jarren says. Her heart melts as she hears this. God, he was too good to her.
“I know. But, tonight’s a big night. And I’m probably missing it.” She replies.
“Baby…I would rather you feel better than feel miserable just to watch me play.” She could hear the sincerity in his voice. Which didn’t help the feelings she was trying so damn hard to suppress.
“What about the dinner? Aren’t you upset I’ll miss that?” Jarren lets out a soft laugh on the other side of the call.
“I would love it if you could be there, but like I said, I want you to feel better. So, stay home. You deserve a night of relaxation anyways. You know, since you’re a future PR assistant.” He jokes. She laughs and lays back on the bed.
“Are you sure you’re okay with this?” She asks again.
“Yes, baby. I’m sure.” He tells her.
“Okay…but I’m watching the live stream of the game!” She tells him. Jarren laughs again.
“No, you’re going to get some rest. You can watch the highlights later. Don’t worry about me, baby. Just take care of yourself tonight.” He says. She sighs.
“Fine.” She groans.
“Good.” He says.
“Look who’s bossy now.” She teases him. Jarren laughs again.
“Only because I care.” And that right there was exactly why she was in trouble. He would say things like that when this was all supposed to be fake.
How the hell was she not supposed to catch feelings?
As he prepped for the game, Jarren couldn’t help but think about her. He was concerned about her being sick obviously. However, he was also thinking about how she was so sure he would be mad at her for it. He couldn’t believe that she thought he would blow up over her being sick. His mind goes back to their conversation a few weeks ago. She told him about her hatred for bees. The reasoning behind it was because of her Dad blowing up at her simply for getting stung by a bee.
Not only that, but her ex called her bee. The same ex who blew up at her simply for rejecting him after he broke her heart. Jarren wishes he could murder both men for treating her like that. Or at least, make them watch and learn how to treat a girl like her. However, he knew that wouldn't do anything for her. He wishes she didn’t have such a bad memory of bees. Sure, they sting you.
However, they’re typically harmless unless provoked. She didn’t mean to provoke the bee as a kid. She was just a kid who was curious. She was also a kid who would get yelled at for simply being a kid. It was still hard for Jarren to think about that. His perfect girl being treated like shit her whole life. Oh how he wants to change that.
His mind went back to something she said in that same conversation.
Now, I have two reasons to hate bees. My Dad and Brady.
He wishes he could erase all of it from her memory. Or at least, give bees a new reputation. Mainly since bees were her point of memory for both assholes. Jarren knew that this wasn’t his job. He knew that he shouldn’t be thinking so hard about her. However, he couldn’t help that she had him under some sort of spell. He thought more and more about her and bees as he wrapped tape around his wrist.
Jarren was in the midst of his usual pre game routine as he thought about her. He grabbed his sharpie to start writing his usual “Still Alive” and “Fuck Em” on his wrist tape. As he wrote, he suddenly got an idea. Sure, it was a cheesy and somewhat stupid idea. However, he knew that he wanted to do something for her. Especially since she was sick. He smiled as he turned his left arm over.
The top of his wrist is now facing him and he can’t help the giddy smile on his face as he starts drawing a small honeybee on his tape.
A few hours later, she was waking up from her nap. She turned to look at the time and realized that the game was pretty much over. She mentally scolds herself as she runs to get her laptop. She meant to wake up earlier so that she could still watch the game. She knew Jarren would probably get on to her, but she didn’t care. Though, it didn’t really matter now since it was over. She sighed as she scrolled through twitter on her laptop.
A big smile made its way onto her lips as she saw that Jarren had walked off the game. She clicked on a video of a couple guys dumping water on him and laughed. When she scrolled down a few more posts, she spotted a post game interview. She clicks on it and watches as Jarren talks about his mentality at the plate. She was in complete awe of him as he expressed his thoughts and emotions. Though, her eyes ended up catching something. She has to pause and rewind the video to make sure she saw it correctly.
When Jarren had reached his left hand up to run it through his hair, his wrist tape came into view. Her eyes widen slightly as she sees the little drawing on the top of his tape. A bee. Her stomach does the weird flip thing again and her face heats up. He didn’t tell her he was doing that. He also never mentioned it in the post game interviews. This was something meant just for her.
This was something that only she would get. Maybe it was the sickness, maybe it was her feelings finally catching up. However, she couldn’t stop herself from letting a few tears slip. Jarren had drawn a bee on his tape. Then, he proceeded to walk off a game for his team. She knew exactly why he did that. She remembered telling him about her bad memory of bees.
She was pulled from her thoughts by a knock at her door. She looks at the time and realizes it’s almost midnight. Who would be at her apartment this late at night? She slowly gets up and walks to the door. She opens the door and her eyes widen when she sees who it was.
“Jarren?” She says. Jarren smiles and holds up a bag from a grocery store.
“I heard someone wasn’t feeling well.” He teases. She laughs and steps aside to let him in. He walks into her apartment and places the bag on her counter. She shuts the door and follows him.
“What are you doing here? I thought you still had the team dinner.” Jarren just smiles and starts pulling things out of the bag. He had brought her gatorade, crackers, and plenty of medicine. Her heart almost leaps out of her chest at the sight.
“I couldn’t let you just rot her all night by yourself.” He jokes. She can’t fight the flustered smile that makes its way onto her face. He finally turns back to her and looks her over. He could tell she was still tired. Jarren nods towards the hallway that leads to her room. “Come on, let's go lie down.” He tells her. She doesn’t argue, she just lets him lead her.
“I need to ask you something” She says as they make it into her room. Jarren hums.
“What’s up?” She doesn’t know how to put it into words. So, she just walks over to her bed and opens her laptop. The screen still showed the paused video from twitter. It was Jarren’s turn to give a flustered smile as his eyes caught the bee on his wrist tape. “You drew a bee on your tape?”
“I did” Jarren says.
“Why?” She asks softly, an amused smile on her lips. Jarren takes a step closer.
“I figured bees deserved a better rep.” He reaches forward to tuck some of her hair behind her ear. “Plus, I walked off a game after drawing it, so I think it’s now a part of my brand.” He jokes. She laughs and shakes her head in disbelief.
“You did that for me?” She asks. Jarren offers a soft smile as his hand rests on the side of her face.
“Of course.” He lets his voice drop to a softer tone. “I’d do anything for you.” Her breath hitches at his words and her eyes search his face. She finds nothing but sincerity in the look he was giving her. God, she loved the way he looked at her. If she wasn’t sick as a dog, she would’ve leaned forward and kissed him. “That includes making you go to bed because you’re sick,” Jarren adds.
She snaps out of her trance and laughs looking down at her feet.
“Right…of course.” She says. Jarren hums before dropping his hand and motioning towards her bed.
“Come on. I’ll lie with you.” He tells her. She smiles up at him before pulling back her covers and lying in bed. Jarren slides in next to her and opens his arms to let her lay on his chest. She gladly accepts the offer and snuggles close to him. Jarren rests his chin on top of her head as she closes her eyes to try and get some sleep. As she dozed off, she realized something.
Holy fuck, she was falling for him.
A little while later, after she finally fell asleep, Jarren sighed and realized he should probably let her rest by herself. He slowly removes himself from under her and gently guides her to rest on her pillows. He pulls the overs up to her chin and steps back. He steps back and looks down at her. The sight of her sound asleep has his heart melting. She even looked perfect while she was sick. He couldn’t help himself.
Jarren leaned down and brushed his fingers over her face. He tucks more hair behind her ear as he looks her face over. He sighs as he starts feeling the adoration bubble over.
“God damn it, baby…what are you doing to me?” He whispers. Obviously, she didn’t hear him since she was in a deep sleep. That was all the more reason he said it. Jarren watches her for a second longer before pressing a lingering kiss to her temple. He finally stands back up straight and starts slowly walking out of her room. Jarren looks back at her sleeping form one more time before he walks out.
As he leaves her apartment, he couldn’t help but think back to her reaction to the bee. She looked so amazed that he would do something as simple as that. She looked at him like he was the sweetest, most perfect thing in the world. Lord, she was going to get him in trouble. The look she gave him made him want to do more things like that for her. More small, sentimental, statements of his feelings towards her.
summary: she thought she had everything figured out. senior year, a leadership position in her sorority, a bright future, and a perfect boyfriend. just a perfect little life. until her perfect boyfriend decided to dump her out of the blue. her perfect little life now had a crack, and her entire winter break was spent heartbroken. by spring semester, she’s determined to move on. then, she unexpectedly runs into her ex one night. he swore she was still hung up on him. panicked, embarrassed, and desperate to save her ass, she blurts out that she has a boyfriend. the problem? she doesn’t. the bigger problem? the arm she grabs belongs to one of the most recognizable athletes in Boston…and her ex’s favorite baseball player.
warnings: mentions of verbal abuse, mentions of heart attacks, reader has daddy issues, age gap, no use of y/n.
a/n: over 6k words…someone tell me to stfu. anywho…enjoy the beginning of the yearning journey.
MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE PLAYLIST FOR UPDATES!
She loved Devin so much…but why the fuck would she tell him that?
After she had told him, Jarren gave Devin a quick goodbye before tugging his “girlfriend” away. She could feel the anger radiating off of him.
“What was she talking about?” Jarren questions as he pulls her towards his car. She lets out a sigh.
“It wasn’t that big of a deal, Jarren. He just came up and talked to me.” Jarren lets out a humourless laugh.
“Not a big deal? Baby, Devin just said he was harassing you.” He shakes his head as he continues looking forward. “What did he say to you?” He asks. She heard his tone. It was deathly. She knew that telling him what the conversation subject was was only going to add fuel to his fire. She refused to let him blow up.
“It’s not important…” She says. When they finally make it to his car, he turns her to face him.
“It is important.” He says. She could see that same look in his eyes. She realized exactly what it was. It was his version of being territorial. “If this is going to work, I can’t let people think some random ass hockey player is getting close to my girlfriend. So, what did he say to you?”
“He was just saying he missed me.” She says through another sigh. Jarren’s jaw clenched and he stood up a little straighter.
“Of course.” He scoffs. “Can this guy not take a fucking hint?” She rolls her eyes.
“Jarren, please don’t make this a big deal.” Jarren looks shocked at her calmness.
“It is a big deal!” He lets out another scoff.
“No it’s not!” She finally snaps at him. “I don’t want it to be a big deal, Jarren!”
“That’s too fucking bad.” He argues, stepping closer. “I told you, I won’t let anyone try anything with you. That includes him.”
“Okay, but blowing up at this isn’t going to help.” She crosses her arms.
“What will then? Standing around and acting like it’s completely fine that he tried to make a move on you?” Jarren looks like he was ready to kill someone. She huffs.
“It’s not fine, Jarren. But, causing a scene is only going to prove Brady and everyone else right!” Jarren inhales sharply.
“Right. It’ll prove that I’m this big crash out.” Jarren pokes the inside of his cheek with his tongue. “Well, when it comes to you, I think it’s pretty justified.” His words were almost sweet, but she also knew that she was still right. He shouldn’t blow up at this. She had already sort of handled it. Well, not really. Her “handling” is what made Brady talk down to her.
“It’s not.” She says. “I did exactly that today. I gave him shit right back. And you know what? It only made the situation worse! I should’ve just walked away like I normally do in situations like that.” Jarren’s eyebrows knit together.
“Walk away? Then that would’ve shown him that he’s allowed to act like that.” She rolls her eyes.
“No, then that would’ve shown that I have enough respect for myself that I’m not going to stand around and entertain immaturity!” She lets out a humourless laugh. “I mean God, maybe if I walked away he wouldn’t have said that shit about my-...” She cut herself off before she could bring it up. It was always tough for her when she had to think about her past. If she had it her way, she would erase it from her mind completely. Maybe then she would actually be perfect. Jarren’s face scrunches up in confusion.
“About your what?” He asks. She just shakes your head.
“Nothing. Don’t worry about it.” She averts her eyes. Jarren’s frustration grows and he shakes his head.
“No, tell me what he said to you.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes it does.”
“It was about my Dad!” She finally snapped. Her voice was raised and her composure was cracked. Jarren had finally pushed her over the edge. “He was using my Dad to make a point! There, is that what you needed to hear?!” Jarren was silent. He just stared at her. For once, she wasn’t the perfect and put together girl that he had met. He never saw her blow up like this. And he certainly never would have guessed that one of her parents could be used against her.
“Your Dad?” She huffs.
“Yes, my Dad.” Silence falls between them for a moment before she finally speaks up again. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore. So, can you please just take me home?” She looks down at her shoes. Jarren wanted so badly to argue with her. He wanted so bad to tell her that this was all the more reason for him to kill Brady. However, he wasn’t going to. He could see that she was upset and tired. So he just nods and opens the passenger door for her.
She climbs in without another word and buckles up. Jarren shut her door and walked over to the driver’s side. He didn’t mean to make her upset. God, if he could take it back, he would. However, he now had to battle with some new thoughts. How was it that Brady was able to use her Dad against her? She seemed so perfect, there was no way she had issues at home.
Jarren wanted to ask, but he knew better than to do that right now.
After a few more weeks, the two have finally gotten into the rhythm of this fake relationship. She kept showing up to his games, and he had gone to a couple more of her philanthropy events. Jarren was a lot more careful with her now. Now that he knew what could trigger her version of a crash out, he kept his mouth shut. Though, he still had the nagging feeling of curiosity. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to know why she was such a perfectionist.
Would he dare ask her? No, absolutely not. He didn’t want to make her any more upset than he already had. She was over the situation already. She really didn’t care to dwell on things like that. She just went right back to bossing Jarren around. He honestly loved how bossy she was.
Over the past few weeks, they slipped into a sort of friendship. Their drives from the games were spent talking about the most random things. When he was over at her apartment waiting for her to get ready, he would lie on her bed and talk to her about his thoughts on the game he was about to play. When he would come to her sorority events, she would rant about the things that were slightly off from her perfect plans. He would just listen with a supportive smile. Jarren started to notice something though. Under all her perfect-ness, she was tired.
He could tell that she was putting herself through the ringer to maintain her perfect persona. He honestly was starting to get concerned, but he didn’t want to say anything to upset her. She had started to notice something too. Under all of that frustration and anger, he was actually a pretty sweet guy. She could tell that he was just hard on himself and still had some trigger points. She still thinks that he should think before he speaks, but she knew that it was a work in progress. Both of their realizations made the friendship run a lot smoother.
She was currently sitting on her apartment floor, staring at the plans for tomorrow’s “Steal-A-Heart Carnival.” She was adding some last minute details to a few things. To say she was stressed was an understatement. This was possibly the biggest philanthropy event of the year. It was a carnival that they always hosted at Nickerson Field. She had everything perfectly in place. From the baseball themed games, to the steal-a-heart booth.
Everything was perfect. Until one of her volunteers told her something came up. Of course, it was also the volunteer for one of the biggest games. It was the “Pitch For a Plush” game. Everyone always loved that game since it was at the center of the carnival. They would stand on the pitcher's mound and throw a baseball to try and knock down a bunch of bottles. The prize was a bear wearing a small Alpha Phi shirt.
The majority of this carnival was baseball themed. Mainly because the baseball field was the only place the campus would allow them to host an event like that. Which was weird to her given that it was mid baseball season. On the plus side, a lot of the baseball team had volunteered to help her out. Unfortunately, she didn’t have enough to cover someone canceling on her. This put her in an extreme bind. She was thinking of ways she could move it around so that someone could volunteer for two games.
However, given that this game was hosted on the pitcher’s mound, there wasn’t much she could do to fix this. She was supposed to be at the ticket table. However, she may just have to host this stupid ass game. She was currently looking at the carnival map, still trying to find a solution to this. She hears a knock at her door and groans. She stands up to walk over and open it. She opens it to see Jarren standing there.
“What’s with the groaning?" He asks with a grin before walking inside. She shuts the door behind him and motions to her living room floor. Jarren turns to see the mess of flyers, maps, and plans sprawled out on her floor. His eyes almost shoot out of his head, “Shit” He says.
“Yeah, shit.” She groans again before sinking back down into her spot on the floor. She covers her face with her hands in frustration. “This whole event is fucked.”
“Hey.” Jarren says as he sinks down next to her. He places a hand on her knee and bumps her shoulder with his. “Talk to me, what’s going on?” He asks. She sighs and uncovers her face.
“One of my volunteers canceled on me.” She says. Jarren just shrugs.
“Okay, then find another one.” He says as if it were that simple of a solution. She groans again.
“You think I didn’t already try to? Nobody wants to help! And I’ve tried to figure out a way to move things around so maybe another volunteer can run that plus their game, but it’s no use. It’s so fucked up.” She rants.
“So? It’s one minor thing, baby. It’s not the end of the world if it’s not perfect.” He tries to calm her down. However, this only makes her more upset.
“It’s not just that!” She turns to face him more. “Jarren, this is the biggest philanthropy event of the year. This is the one that raises the most money. Do you not understand what this means to me? I want it to be the best. I want to raise enough money to give to a cause that actually means something to me.” She tells him. Jarren looks at her, his cafe painted with curiosity.
“What’s the cause again?” He asks. He never really knew what all the fundraisers were for. He just knew that she planned them. And that she did a damn good job at planning. She sighs.
“Women’s heart health. Our foundation funds cardiac aid, research, and education.” She thinks for a moment before huffing again. “My mom…she had a heart attack my senior year of high school. She was under so much stress with different things. Mainly with my Dad. The doctors also said something about her past problems with her blood pressure. Thankfully, the doctors knew enough about Women’s hearts to know exactly how to help her.” Jarren listens to her, his face softening as he takes in the information. She looks down at her hands and sighs. “That’s why this philanthropy means so much to me.”
He nods slowly, still processing what she just told him. He knew now why she wanted every fundraiser to be perfect. Why she would put so much pressure on herself to get things exactly right. Jarren looks down at the papers on her floor. He notices a red star on the pitcher's mound. That was the one that she had circled and drawn a bunch of arrows from.
“Is it the Pitch-For-A-Plush?” He asks, picking up her map. She nods.
“Yep, that damn game.” He snickers at her words. He picks up another paper and reads the description of the game. He thinks for a second before sighing.
“I can run it.” He offers. Her eyes snap over to him.
“What?” She asks. Jarren shrugs and sits both papers back down.
“I’ll be there anyway, remember? It’ll probably be more fun than just standing around like an idiot for hours.” He says.
“Are you sure? You don’t have to do that.” She says. Jarren smiles before resting his hand on her knee again.
“I know I don’t have to.” He says. His thumb starts rubbing slow circles on the side of her knee. “But, I want to.” Her face softens at his words and she can’t help the heat that makes its way onto her face.
“Really?” She asks. Jarren nods.
“Really.” She could almost cry from how grateful she was. “You deserve to have your perfect carnival.” He smiles. There was a hint of teasing in his sentence, but she could tell that he actually meant it. Her heart leaps in her chest and she can’t stop herself from lunging forward and wrapping her arms around his shoulders. The hug nearly knocks the breath out of Jarren, but he catches her with a small laugh. He wraps his arms around her and rests his chin on her shoulder.
“Thank you so much.” She mumbles near his ear. Jarren hums.
“Anytime.” He tells her. She holds the hug for a moment longer before pulling back. When she looks at Jarren, she can’t help but smile so big. He basically just saved her event from losing its best game. She knew that it was probably the effect of her trauma dump, but she didn’t care. All she knew was that she was so, extremely, grateful for him. She also saw another glimpse of the man underneath the tough exterior.
His gentleness with her was starting to peek out, and she didn’t know what to do with it. She never would have thought he would want to help her with something like this. She realized right then that he wasn’t what she thought. That he was possibly the sweetest guy she ever met. Brady never would’ve done this for her. He would’ve just brushed it off and said she would figure it out because of how perfect she was. Jarren didn’t hesitate to step up and help her.
Which is exactly why she was starting to really like him.
The carnival was going great so far. She was in charge of selling tickets at the entrance. She would occasionally look back to the pitcher’s mound to make sure Jarren was doing okay. But, every time she would look over, she would see him fully engaged. He was taking his job extremely serious as he watched people throw balls at a stack of bottles. He would cheer them on and commentate the entire time before handing them their prize. He was probably also the reason the carnival was doing so well.
Their ticket sale number skyrocketed when they said a Red Sox player was going to be volunteering at the event. She couldn’t thank Jarren enough for helping her out. Her smile was different as she gazed at him from the ticket table. She’d noticed just how pretty his smile actually was. He looked so different when he was being his true self. Far different from the man she would see in all of those posts about his attitude. He was gentler here.
“Helloooooo” Anna said, snapping her from her trance. She looked over to her little–who was helping her with the ticketing table–with a wide-eyed look of guilt.
“Hm?” She says. Anna just laughs at her.
“Quit ogling at your boyfriend and help me count the money box.” She rolls her eyes and takes a stack of cash from Anna.
“I wasn’t ogling…I was just making sure he was doing his job.” She defends as she starts to count her stack. Anna snickers as she also counts her stack.
“Oh, babe, he’s doing just fine.” Anna laughs. Her teasing laugh softens into a genuine smile, though. “I’m happy for you, though. You seem different.” She says. Her big just looks at her in confusion.
“You know it’s still fake, right?” She had told Anna and Kayla about the whole plan since she knew she could trust them. Anna just gives her a knowing look.
“I know that, but I still mean it. You seem different…happier, freer.” Anna starts counting again. She just shakes her head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She says as she finishes up her stack. “Two-fifty” She says, handing Anna the stack back. Anna takes it and puts it back in the box.
“Come on. You’re telling me you haven’t noticed your attitude change these past few weeks?” Anna scoffs as her big shakes her head again. “You’re way more relaxed. It’s almost like you’ve put all your stress into something else.” She thinks for a second. She thinks back to all of her talks with Jarren where she would rant about how stressful her life was. Between classes, her sorority, job applications, and graduation, she was extremely stressed. Jarren had been there to listen to her troubles.
“He just…listens to me..” She tells Anna. Anna smiles.
“And that’s exactly what you’ve been needing.” She lets out a laugh.
“Oh my god, we’re just friends. Friends who are pretending to date to help each other out.” She argues. Anna just rolls her eyes.
“Don’t shoot the messenger.” Anna says, holding her hands up in mock surrender. “I’m just saying, you never looked at Brady the way you were just looking at Jarren.” Anna offers a smile before packing up the money box. She sighs and thinks about what Anna just told her. She knew what the rules were. She wasn’t allowed to have feelings for him. However, what was she supposed to do if they just randomly creeped up on her? It’s not like she could actually admit to them. That would ruin the whole thing they had going on.
Plus, maybe it wasn’t actual feelings. Maybe it was just a new understanding she had. There was no way she would ever fall for someone like him. He was the complete opposite of her. He was reckless, didn’t stick to plans, and didn’t really want a future with anyone. That wasn’t for her. So, despite whatever she may have felt for him, it could never happen.
She was snapped out of her thoughts when a few dollars were thrown down in front of her. She looked up to see the face she had hoped to never see again.
“Can I get a ticket?” Brady asked with a smile. She rolls her eyes.
“You can go to hell” She says with an innocent smile. Brady just lets out a laugh.
“Come on, bee. You know you can’t deny me a ticket to a school event.” Anna looks between the two with a nervous look. The tension was so thick, it was suffocating.
“Yeah…my school event.” She crosses her arms. “We’re sold out, sorry.” She lies with a mock sympathetic smile. Brady points to the box between her and Anna’s chairs.
“There’s like, five rolls left in there.” Before she could snap back at him, a pair of hands landed on her shoulders.
“Hey, baby” Jarren greeted. She was about to respond, but his hand was lifting her chin before she could get a word out. He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers without so much as a thought. She froze for a second before just letting it happen. Anna’s eyes widened and she had to turn away to stifle her laugh. Brady just rolled his eyes.
Jarren pulled back with a little smirk. He steals one more peck before standing back straight and smiling at Brady.
“Hey, man. How have you been?” He greets Brady as if he were a long lost friend. She couldn’t even hide her flustered state. Jarren had never kissed her before. She should be mad that he didn’t at least ask her first. However, it was in the rules that he was allowed to kiss her around Brady. She just thought he would’ve communicated that better.
“Fine. Until two people decided to make out in front of me.” Brady fires back. Jarren just laughs and starts gently rubbing her shoulders.
“What, I can’t kiss my girlfriend?” Jarren asked. Brady looked like he was ready to vomit at the thought. Brady looked down to his ex.
“Didn’t take you for the pda type, bee.” He says. She shrugs.
“Well Brady, when you find someone you’re obsessed with, you can’t really keep your hands to yourself.” She grins. Jarren doesn’t even hide the cocky little smile he gets at her words. Brady actually almost gagged at her words. He picks his money back up from the table before shoving it in his pocket.
“Fuck you two” He says before walking off. When he’s out of earshot, both her and Jarren burst into laughter. Anna turns back and joins in on the laughter.
“You two are so funny.” Anna says to them. Jarren just shrugs. He looks back down to her and smiles.
“Sorry…I probably should’ve asked before…you know…” She could see how nervous he was. She thought it was extremely cute. She just shakes her head with a smile.
“Just go back to your post” She told him. Jarren’s smile turns into a grin as she bosses him around. He leans down to press a kiss to her forehead before finally walking back.
“Yes ma’am” He tells her, teasingly.
A couple hours later and everyone was starting to file out. They had made over two thousand dollars in ticket sales. To the sorority, that was amazing. To Jarren, he thought they could do better. He knew that this cause was something important to her, so he knew he had to do something to help her out. He slipped away earlier to go grab something from his car. When he came back, she was starting to pack up the Pitch For A Plush prizes.
“You don’t want to give it a try?” He jokes as he walks up to her. She looks over her shoulder as she continues packing a box and smiles.
“I’m horrible at this game.” She says. Jarren just waves her off.
“Who cares, just give it a try.” He tells her. He stands back in his spot by the mound as he waits for her to agree. She rolls her eyes before putting the last bear in the box and walking to the mound. She steps onto it and holds her hand out. Jarren smiles and gives her the baseball before running over to sit the bottles up. “Okay, give it a go, baby.” He tells her as he runs back up to his spot.
She laughs before tossing the ball in her hand a few times. She does a very poor wind up before throwing the ball. She knocks over the top three, making Jarren smile big. She jumps up and smiles big.
“Oh my god!” She says. Jarren beams at her as he holds both of his hands up for high fives.
“Look at you go. That’s my girl!” It slips out before he could stop himself. She tries not to think much of it as she gives him the high fives. She smiles and calms down from her excitement.
“Do you think that was enough to win a prize?” She asks teasingly. Jarren feigns thinking.
“Hm…I guess.” He says. She laughs and shakes her head.
“I already have one of those in my room.” She points to the box of bears. Jarren shrugs.
“I figured…so I got you a different prize.” He tells her. Her face scrunches in confusion as he steps closer.
“Really? What’s my prize?” She asks with a little grin. He smiles before pulling a slip of paper from his back pocket. He holds it out to her with a proud smile. She cautiously takes the paper from him.
“Go on, open it.” He tells her. She sighs before unfolded the paper. Her eyes immediately catch the handwriting on it. When she realizes what the paper was, her eyes widen. She was currently holding a check made out to the sorority. The number in the corner of the check had her gasping. She looked up to Jarren with confusion painted all over her face.
“What is this?” She asks. Jarren smiles.
“What do you think it is?” He tells her. She lets out a surprised scoff.
“Jarren…why would you do this?” She asks. He shrugs.
“It’s for a good cause.” He says as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. She shakes her head and pushes the check towards him.
“I-...I can’t accept this.” She lets out a laugh. Jarren gently takes her wrist and pushes the check back towards her.
“Yes you can.” He says. She just looks up at him in shock. No one has ever done something like this for her. Granted, it wasn’t for her. However, the thought still counted. He did this because of her. She shakes her head in disbelief.
“I can’t believe you’d do this for me.” She says softly. He shrugs again.
“Of course I would.” He tells her. Jarren takes another step forward. “You said this was the biggest event of the year. So, I wanted to make it count. I watched you put yourself through hell to make today happen. You deserve this plus so much more. No one sees how hard you work, but I do. And, I wanted you to know that. So, I wanted to give to a cause that meant something to you.” Butterflies filled her stomach at his confession. This was probably the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for her. She smiles big.
“Look at you…you borrowed my halo.” She jokes, poking his chest. He laughs and shakes his head.
“Yeah well…you borrowed my boyfriend privileges.” He jokes back. She just shakes her head in disbelief before stepping forward and pulling him into a tight hug. Jarren gladly reciprocates, wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face into her neck.
“Ugh, thank you so much!” She squeezes him. He laughs. They pull back from the hug, but keep holding each other. Jarren just looks her face over. He takes in how beautiful her features were. She was absolutely breathtaking when she was this close to him. Holding her just felt so right in the moment. She gasps. “I need to go tell our president! Oh my god, this is so exciting!” Jarren laughs.
“I’m glad you’re excited.” He tells her. She jumps a little in excitement before leaning forward and kissing his cheek. Jarren’s breath hitches at her actions, but before he could blush too hard, she pulled away.
“I’ll be right back, I need to go show her!” She says, as she starts jogging to another booth. Jarren finally registered that she was moving.
“Wait, are we still getting dinner?” He yells at her. She yells back over her shoulder.
“Yes! I’ll be quick!” He laughs and shakes his head as he watches her run off. Jarren feels his heart beating out of his chest. He replays the kiss in his mind. It wasn’t calculated and it wasn’t for show. It was her genuine reaction to something he did for her. Jarren was honestly starting to kick himself for the no feelings rule.
Mainly because he was sure he was catching some.
About an hour later, the two found themselves in the back booth of a burger place. They had just finished eating and were now just talking about the day. Jarren had made a few jokes about some of the people who came up to the Pitch For a Plush. He had her laughing harder than she had ever laughed. It was honestly so refreshing. Jarren loved her laugh. Making jokes just so he could hear it again.
There was something that he had been wondering though. Something he had been thinking about from the moment they met at the bar.
“Can I ask you something?” Jarren says as she calms down from laughter. She looks over at him with a smile.
“Of course.” She tells him. He thinks for a minute before sitting up a little straighter.
“Why does your ex call you Bee?” He asks. Her breath hitches a little. Jarren noticed. “Feel free to tell me it’s none of my business, but…I just thought that was interesting.” He lets out an awkward laugh. She sighs before laughing softly and shaking her head.
“No, It’s fine, um…” She thinks of what she should tell him. “I’m scared of bees.” Jarren lets out a little laugh.
“You’re scared of bees?” She rolls her eyes.
“Yes.” She lets out a sigh. “When Brady and I first started dating, I told him that. He thought it was cute, so he started calling me Bee. Then, it just stuck.” Jarren’s eyes narrow as he analyzes her.
“Is that all?” He asks. She laughs.
“Yes? Why wouldn’t it be?” Jarren leans forward.
“I can tell that there’s something else to it.” He says. She stares for a second before letting out a huff. Damn him, he read her so well.
“Okay um…” She takes a deep breath. She couldn’t believe she was about to tell him this. “When I was about…five, I was outside playing with my Dad. I saw a bee and didn’t really think it would hurt me. When I got too close to try and look at it, it stung me. My Dad wasn’t watching me, so he didn’t understand why I was crying. He just thought I was being a brat. He yelled at me then took me inside. It was my Mom who found the stinger. That whole thing caused a huge fight between them.” Jarren hums.
“So…your Dad is why you hate bees?” She nods.
“Yep. Now, I have two reasons to hate bees. My Dad and Brady.” Jarren couldn’t help himself anymore, he had to ask.
“What was he like…your Dad…” He asks carefully. She inhales sharply.
“Wow…” She laughs. Jarren holds his hands up.
“Completely optional to answer that too.” He says. She smiles before leaning forward.
“Not great…he loved to play the part of Dad in front of others. However, when it came to actually being one…he kind of sucked at it.” She laughs a little. “He treated my mom and I like a novelty. Something he could show off and brag about. Then, when we got home, he treated us like an annoyance. He never really spent time with me. Never really got to know me. When he disciplined…it wasn’t out of love. It was because he was annoyed by me. My mom said that it was verbal abuse. I guess that I didn’t realize it was until I got older and realized he would talk down to me when getting on to me.”
Jarren listened intently. He couldn’t believe that this perfect girl went through that. He never would’ve guessed.
“My parents divorced my senior year of high school. Hence why my Mom had the heart attack. She was so stressed from the divorce that it impacted her health.” She noticed the look Jarren was giving her. She couldn’t quite put her finger on what that look was. She just knew that he didn’t look scared off.
“Brady knew all of that…and still used it against you?” He asked. She sighs and nods. Jarren’s jaw clenches. “God damn it…now I really want to kill him.” He says. She rolls her eyes.
“It’s really not a big deal.” Jarren was about to argue, but she interrupted him. “Seriously, Jarren. Just drop it.” She laughs. He huffs before doing just that. He lets his eyes rake over her face.
“Is that why you try your best to be perfect?” He asked.
“Damn.” She said.
“Just wondering.” Jarren laughs. She smiles and shrugs.
“Yeah…sort of.” She hesitates for a moment before deciding on what to say. “After my Dad left, I swore that I wouldn’t be anything like him. I wanted to be someone who had their life together. Who didn’t react when hard things were thrown her way. I figured I could do that by planning everything and making sure I do everything right. If I do everything right, nothing bad will happen. If I dress perfectly, no one can say I’m not put together. If I’m perfect, my life will be too.” Jarren’s face softens at her confession. He finally saw the real her. The vulnerability behind little miss perfect.
“That’s no way to live, baby.” He says. He lets out a small laugh. She shrugs.
“It’s how I lived for the past four years. It’s what’s kept me at peace. Well, up until my perfect boyfriend dumped me.” She says. Jarren rolls his eyes.
“That guy is far from perfect.” She laughs.
“I know…but, I just wanted to get married.” She looks down at her hands that were resting on the table.
“No offense…but how could you still want to get married after the life you lived?” He asked. She looks back up at him.
“Because…I don’t want my childhood to define me. Like I said, I don’t want to be anything like my Dad. I want to actually be in love. So in love that I’m willing to spend the rest of my life with that person. So in love that even when trials come, we still choose forever.” She admits. Jarren takes in what she was saying. When she put it that way, he realized that marriage was way more than just pens on paper. He realized that it actually meant something to her.
“That makes sense.” He says. “But…you know that perfection is tiring you out, right?” He says. She sighs.
“I know…but, I’m almost done with school. Once I’m done, then I can relax.” Jarren shakes his head.
“Baby, you’re going to burn yourself out if you keep this up.” He reaches across the table and takes her hands in his. “It’s okay to be imperfect sometimes. You don’t always have to do everything right.” He tells her as he begins to rub slow circles on the backs of her hands. She lets out a breath as she takes in his words. He was right, being perfect all the time was starting to drain her. She probably should relax a little. Graduation was only two months away now.
“What about you…what’s with the short fuse?” She asks. It was Jarren’s turn to sigh.
“I’m not just going to stand there and let people talk shit to my face.” He says.
“You don’t have to. You can just say fuck this immaturity and walk away.” Jarren shakes his head.
“Then I’d look like a pussy.” She rolls her eyes.
“And blowing up at people makes you look more manly?” She asks. Jarren lets out a low whistle.
“Damn, baby. Pulling out the masculinity card.” She just laughs.
“I’m just saying…maybe you should think before speaking. Take a breath before losing your shit with people.” Jarren rolled his eyes. She squeezed his hands. “Hey, none of that. All I’m saying is you should show people this side of you. The side that I see.” Jarren’s brows knit.
“What side do you see?" He asks. She shrugs with a small smile.
“I see the version of you that gives a shit ton of money to his fake girlfriend’s sorority.” He laughs at her words. “I see someone who is extremely caring and thoughtful. Someone who didn’t even think twice when I needed help. He just stepped up.” Jarren feels his face heat up as she talks about him.
“I just figured you’d be less of a pain in my ass if you weren’t as stressed.” He teased her. She shakes her head and laughs. They just stare at each other for a second, still holding hands. There was now this mutual understanding. Both of them finally see the person under the persona. They understand each other now. Sure, they were still complete and total opposites. However, they didn’t seem to mind it anymore.
The silence was interrupted by the buzz of her phone. She sighs and lets one of his hands go to pick it up. When she turns it on she sees an email notification. Her eyes widen as she opens it. Jarren’s face scrunches in confusion.
“What’s wrong?” She looked like she was ready to explode. She turns to him with a smile that was laced with excitement.
“I have an interview.” She tells him. He raises his eyebrows.
“An interview?” He says. She immediately jumps up in excitement.
“An interview! It’s with this major magazine company! Oh my god! It’s my dream job!” A few people who were sitting around them looked at her like she was crazy. Not Jarren, though. He just jumped up with her.
“Holy shit, baby. That’s amazing!” He immediately grabs her and pulls her into a tight hug. He lifted her off the ground to spin her a couple times before sitting her back on her feet. She laughs as she pulls back just enough to look at him. When she meets his gaze, she sees another unreadable look in his eyes. His eyes looked between hers and her lips. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought he wanted to kiss her.
For Jarren, that’s exactly what he wanted to do. He gazed at her with pure adoration. She was something so special. He couldn’t help but let his eyes linger on her perfect lips. The distance is almost closed as they lean in. Before their lips could touch, the bell above the door rings, pulling them from their moment. The reality of where they were came back and they pulled away from each other.
“I should uh…I should probably get you home.” Jarren says as he clears his throat. She nods.
“Yeah uh…you should.” She says as she looks down at her shoes. Jarren nods before throwing some money on the table and leading her out of the restaurant. As they walk back to the car, they keep a respectful distance and stay silent. Both of them were thinking about how they almost kissed. And, even though they were in public, it wasn’t for show. It was because they genuinely wanted to.
For her, this was all one big confusing mess.
For Jarren, this was just the last piece of confirmation that he was, in fact, falling for her.
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summary: she thought she had everything figured out. senior year, a leadership position in her sorority, a bright future, and a perfect boyfriend. just a perfect little life. until her perfect boyfriend decided to dump her out of the blue. her perfect little life now had a crack, and her entire winter break was spent heartbroken. by spring semester, she’s determined to move on. then, she unexpectedly runs into her ex one night. he swore she was still hung up on him. panicked, embarrassed, and desperate to save her ass, she blurts out that she has a boyfriend. the problem? she doesn’t. the bigger problem? the arm she grabs belongs to one of the most recognizable athletes in Boston…and her ex’s favorite baseball player.
warnings: low key verbal harassment, age gap, no use of y/n
a/n: this took way too damn long for only 3k words…anyways, i apologize for how slow this is going. the good shit starts happening in the next few chapters 👀
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She should’ve known things would blow up overnight.
It didn’t take long for the rumors to get out. Everyone was speculating Jarren had a girlfriend. Or well…another fling. The internet was very hesitant to believe that he was actually in a committed relationship. It probably didn’t help that he had treated it like he did with all his hook ups. They basically snuck out the back door at the game.
Nothing came out about Jarren being at the Heartthrob event though. Which she found a little crazy. Maybe it was just because he had sat in the back. Still, she would’ve thought him being there would get out. What had gotten out was her identity. A bunch of people threw her name out there when the initial rumor of Jarren having a girlfriend came out. Her follower count skyrocketed after that.
Their problem was that no one believed this was anything more than a hook up. Which was fair given Jarren’s past. However, this wasn’t doing anything to help his reputation. Both of them knew that they needed to somehow step it up. Despite the circumstances, her morning mainly consisted of perfecting her job application. She was applying for a major Magazine in London; or, she was applying for her dream job. Her dream was to become a journalist for a major magazine.
Her odds of landing this job were slim to none. She would be applying as someone fresh out of college. She understood what her chances looked like. However, she had racked up some internships over the last four years to put on her resume. Hopefully, that would be enough to land her at least a small job. London was her dream. She desperately wanted to get away from the states for a little while.
For right now though, her focus was just graduating and getting this fake relationship over with. Sure, she wanted to keep her future plans perfect and in line. However, she also needed this deal to work out. She saw a few posts while she was in the middle of her cover letter. She huffed and immediately went to Jarren’s contact. She presses the facetime button before propping her phone up. She knew he was probably getting ready to come pick her up soon.
She was supposed to go to another game tonight. She felt absolutely horrible because she still hadn’t picked out anything to wear yet. She had been too caught up in her job application. Luckily for her, she was almost done and hopefully had enough time to pick one out. The call connected and she didn’t really spare it a glance as Jarren’s face popped up.
“What do you need, boss?” Jarren asks teasingly as he props his phone up in his bathroom. Just as she had thought, he was getting ready to go pick her up. She still hadn’t looked at her phone as she continued typing on her laptop.
“We need to figure out how to make this more believable.” She tells him. Jarren just hums as he tugs his shirt off and walks out of frame.
“I know. I just don’t know how.” He shouts from wherever he was out of frame. She finally finishes her cover letter and leans back in her desk chair with a sigh.
“Finally” She mumbles. She finally looks over to the phone and notices that Jarren wasn’t in the camera. She doesn’t pay any mind to it. “Well, treating me like your hook ups probably isn’t helping our case.” She teases. Jarren walks back into frame, still shirtless, and rolling his eyes. Her face immediately flushes at the sight and she averts her eyes. Of course, he noticed this. And, of course, he has to be an asshole about it.
“See something you like, baby?” He asks. She groans.
“Damn it, Jarren. Just put a shirt on!” She scolds, bringing her hands up to cover her eyes. He laughs at her, finding her flustered state adorable. He slowly starts tugging his new shirt on.
“Have you never seen a shirtless man before?” He jokes, finally getting his shirt on. She slowly lowers her hands and gives him a look through the camera.
“I have, asshole. I just think there needs to be a certain level of modesty between us.” She crosses her arms. Jarren lets out a loud laugh.
“Aren’t we supposed to be dating? You need to be able to tell all your sorority friends that you’ve seen me shirtless.” Jarren has a shit eating grin on his face as he grabs his phone and walks out of his bathroom.
“Okay one, they’re my sorority sisters. And two, can we please get back to the point?!” She huffs. Jarren can’t help but laugh at how easy she is to annoy. He was just so obsessed with pushing her buttons.
“Fine. We were talking about making this more believable…” He says. She hums and nods, trying to think of a solution. Before she could come up with a plan, she gets a text notification from her group chat with Anna and Kayla. She picks up her phone and taps the notification. Jarren’s brows knit in confusion as her camera pauses for a second.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me” She groans. Jarren’s face scrunches in even more confusion.
“What?” She doesn’t respond, she just screenshots her groupchat thread and sends it to him. He gets the notification a second later and taps on it. Anna had sent her a screenshot of Brady’s instagram feed. He had unarchived all of his posts with her in it. Basically, making it out to look like they were still together. That, or he probably just wanted to see if he could piss her and Jarren off. And boy, did it work.
Jarren’s casual demeanor drops instantly as he stares at the picture. Something stirred in him that he had never really felt before. Seeing this made him feel nothing but burning hot rage. Who did Brady think he was? He hid all of those posts just to bring them back when she was taken. Jarren was absolutely livid. Why? Well, that he didn’t really know.
He shouldn’t feel as mad as he did. This was all supposed to mean nothing to him. This was fake, and this was just a consequence to their lie. Still, seeing so many photos of her and him in front of his face made him want to vomit. Even if it wasn’t real, she was his. He had won. And he was going to show it.
“I’ll be there in five” Is all he tells her before ending the call.
“Wait Jarren-” But she was already cut off by the sound of the call disconnecting.
As promised, five minutes later, she heard a knock on her door. It was a rather impatient knock. She ran over to answer it. Jarren didn’t even think twice before brushing past her into her apartment.
“Sure, you can come in.” She says, sarcastically as she closes the door. Jarren doesn’t really care about her sarcasm now. She finally gets a good look at his face as he sits down on her couch. The same look he had at the Heartthrob event was currently plastered on his face. She felt her face heat up at the sight. Something about this look had her thinking things that she never usually thought. She wasn’t usually one to have dirty thoughts about someone, but he was currently making her have them.
She quickly snaps out of it. What the hell? This was the same man who would blow up at fans. The same man who gave her the no feelings rule. He was her fake boyfriend. She can’t think these thoughts. She won’t think these thoughts.
“Come here.” He says. Her eyes nearly shoot out of her head.
“Excuse me?” She asks. He rolls his eyes and motions for her to come towards him.
“Come here, I need you to do something.” Her face is painted in pure fear. Jarren could sense her hesitation and let out a snicker. “It’s nothing bad, relax. Just come here.” He tells her. She hesitates for another moment before slowly crossing the room towards him. She stops a couple steps away from him, still nervous as to what he was going to do. In a flash, he was reaching out and pulling her down onto his lap.
“Jarren!” She scolds. He just laughs and grabs his phone from his pocket.
“Relax, baby. You’ll only be sitting here for a moment.” She glares at him, crossing her arms.
“You could’ve just asked.” He lets out another snicker as he opens his camera app.
“You’re right, because you totally would’ve said yes if I asked you to sit on my lap.” She rolls her eyes and tries to say something else. He interrupts her. “Stop telling me off and act like you love me.” Jarren says as he holds up his phone. She wants to argue, but she had a feeling she knew where he was going with this. She just huffs before wrapping her arms around his shoulders. Jarren pulls her closer and kisses her cheek. She smiles as he snaps the photo.
Jarren pulls away and looks down at his phone to see the results. He looks at it for a second.
“Ehh, we can do better.” She tilts her head and gives him an annoyed look.
“Seriously?” He grins a little.
“I could kiss you for real…” He suggested.
“Absolutely not.” She tells him. Jarren groans dramatically.
“Come on, baby. It would sell this.” She shakes her head.
“Nope. The rule still stands. How about I kiss your cheek?” She suggested. Jarren sighs dramatically.
“Fine.” He says, his grin coming back. She shakes her head in amusement as she brings a hand up to cup the opposite side of his face. She pulls his face closer and kisses his cheek. Jarren smiles and takes another picture. She pulls away and tries to look at his phone.
“How was that one?” Without looking, Jarren shakes his head.
“Terrible, we need to do it again.” She narrows her eyes at him skeptically.
“Okay…” She says hesitantly. He grins triumphantly before holding his phone up again. She does the same thing again. She pulls away again, but before she could get too far, Jarren stops her. “Wait, I think my eyes were closed.” She saw the little smile on his face and immediately understood what he was doing. She smacks his chest and pushes him back so she could stand up.
“You’re so annoying.” She tells him. Jarren just laughs as he leans back on the couch.
“God forbid, I like your attention.” He teases. Though, he was still unsure if it was actually a joke or not. She tries not to let his words make her flustered, so she just rolls her eyes at him and starts walking towards her bedroom.
“I’m going to change.” Jarren grins.
“Can I watch?” Though, his comment gets ignored by the slam of her door. He shakes his head as he laughs. Jarren finally looked back down at his phone. He scrolled through their pictures with a small smile on his face. The sight of her kissing his cheek did something to his chest. The feeling of her kissing his cheek did something to his chest. He doesn’t really understand why that was.
He just knows that he was more than delighted to post one of them to his story.
She was already getting looks and the first pitch hadn’t even been thrown yet. Good Lord, how did she let him do what he did? Jarren posted their picture right before they got to the field. No caption, he just tagged her with a heart. She was fine…up until the point where she had to actually walk into Fenway. She had been getting stared at all night so far. She knew exactly why.
Jarren told her to walk down to the netting by the dugout before the game so he could “talk to her”. Really, it was just their way of making it even more believable. She was currently standing there like an idiot waiting for Jarren. She felt so odd standing there alone. She doesn't understand why this part was even necessary. After pretending to scroll on her phone for what felt like an hour, Jarren finally starts jogging over to her. There were a couple of other fans beside her, but he just went straight to her.
“Hey, baby” He greets with a big smile. He looked just like the doting boyfriend he was supposed to be. She smiles big.
“Hi” He chuckles at her voice. She looks around a little shyly before slipping back into her role. “Good luck tonight.” Jarren’s smile reaches at her words.
“Thank you, beautiful.” He tells her softly. The net between them prevented some of the more couple-ly physical contact. However, Jarren still lifted his fist for a fist bump. She just laughs and shakes her head before giving him one. “See you later, baby.” He tells her.
“See you.” She gives him a small wave before starting to walk back up the steps. She was sure a few people got that on video. There were plenty of phones out. They weren’t exactly discreet with what they were doing. Still, she just walked back up the steps as if this was her normal routine. She decided she wanted to stop at one of the concessions to get some water before going back to her seat. As she stands there, she feels someone walk up behind her.
“How’s the majors treating you, bee?” She tenses as she hears the voice. She wondered if she could just run away. Unfortunately, Brady stepped forward so she could see his face. She sighs and crosses her arms.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” She asks. Brady just shrugs with an innocent smile.
“Just enjoying a good baseball game. Why else would I be here?” He asks. She huffs.
“I mean why are you talking to me?” Brady’s smile drops to a serious expression.
“Can I be honest?” He says, stepping closer. She takes a small step back and looks around. She had hoped people would be watching this. However, just her luck, no one was paying attention to her now that she was talking to Brady. “I’ve really missed you, bee. I was an idiot for letting you go.” He tells her.
“Aw, I’m so glad that you realized you’re fucking stupid.” She mocks, placing a hand over her heart. Brady ignores her sarcasm and just keeps going.
“I’m serious.” He sighs. “Look…I know you’re just with him to make me jealous. And you know what? It worked. Okay, so please, just quit with all this crap and just come back to me, babe” He tries to reach forward to grab her hands, but she pulls them behind her back before he can.
“Get fucked, Brady. I don’t want you anymore.” Brady flinched as if she had slapped him.
“What do you mean?” He asks. She rolls her eyes.
“How stupid are you? Holy shit.” She lets out a disbelieving laugh. “I’m dating someone else, Brady. Not only that, you had your shot and you blew it. I don’t do that whole “on again, off again” bullshit. Once I’m done, I’m done. So, as I said before, go get fucked.” She smiles in mock politeness. Brady’s jaw clenches at her words.
“Why him? Out of everyone you could’ve dated. Him.” She lets out another laugh before grinning at him.
“You mad that I stole your man crush? Aw, so sorry babe, but he doesn’t swing that way.” She teases. Brady shakes his head in disbelief. This is completely opposite to the girl he knew before. He scoffs.
“You think that he could fit into your perfect little life?” Brady asks. She shrugs.
“Fits better than you did.” Brady laughs and shakes his head.
“You’re so full of shit, bee. He’s just going to treat you how every man does.” Brady gets a little smirk before taking a step closer. “He’ll treat you like a novelty. Something to make himself look good. Then, he’ll kick you to the curb.” He chuckles a little. She clenches her jaw at his words. She knew exactly where he was going with this, and if looks could kill, Brady would be dead. “Sound familiar?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about…” She tries to act clueless.
“Don’t be stupid.” She flinches at his words. Brady had never talked to her like this. His true colors are finally starting to show, and she is so glad that she didn’t end up marrying this man. “That’s exactly how you grew up being treated, wasn’t it? Jarren will do the same. He’s just like your Da-” Before Brady could finish his sentence, her name was getting called out.
“Oh my god, we were looking everywhere for you!” Devin walked up beside her and linked arms with her. She didn’t know that Devin had been looking for her. She looks at her in confusion. Devin just gives her a knowing look before beginning to pull her away from Brady. “Come on, we need to get a group picture!” She says. Devin pulls her towards where they were sitting.
They walk for a moment in silence. When they’re out of earshot, Devin lets out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“Oh my god, girl. What the hell was that?” She asks. It finally registered in her brain that Devin had just saved her from the verbal harassment she was receiving. She lets out a sigh.
“It’s a long story.” She says. Devin just smiles and shrugs.
“We’ve got nine innings.” They both just giggle before walking towards their seats.
After the game, the two women waited outside for the guys to get done. She decided to use that time to finish up telling Devin her stories about Brady.
“Holy shit, babe. Eight years and no ring?” She huffs and rolls her eyes.
“I know. Trust me, I know.” Devin offers a sympathetic smile.
“Did he always talk to you like that?” Devin asks softly. She just shakes her head.
“No…he used to be sweet…then passive…now, he’s…whatever the hell that was.” She leaned her head back against the wall and stared straight ahead. “I never thought he would use my-...nevermind.” She stops herself with an awkward laugh. Devin wraps an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into a side hug.
“He seems like a real piece of work.” She laughs at Devin’s words.
“That’s putting it nicely.” Devin laughs this time.
“Well, hey, at least you have Jarren now.” Devin says. She tenses up a little, but plays it off. She nods.
“Yeah…I do.” She smiles a little as she thinks about it. If it weren’t for Jarren, she doesn’t know if she would’ve had the guts to say what she said to Brady. The old her would’ve just tried to brush it off and walk away. This version of her, gave it right back to him. It was almost like she took a page out of Jarren’s book. It may have blown up in her face, but she was certainly happy for standing up for herself.
Just then, Jarren walks out and spots her. He walks up to her with the biggest smile possible.
“There’s my girl.” He says as he pulls her into a big hug. She laughs and reciprocates instantly. Devin just watches them with a big smile.
“I’m proud of you.” She mumbles into his chest. He rests his cheek on her head as he holds her.
“Could’ve been better.” He mumbles. She hits his back, eliciting a laugh from him.
“Be nice to yourself.” She warns as she pulls back from him. He laughs and presses a kiss to her forehead before pulling away. He doesn’t go far, though. He keeps his arm around her shoulders as he smiles at Devin.
“Thanks for keeping her out of trouble.” He jokes. She just rolls her eyes. Devin laughs and waves him off.
“No problem. I’m obsessed with your girlfriend.” Jarren laughs lightly.
“No way, me too.” He jokes again. The joke lands a little different to her though. Sure, he was probably just saying it to keep up the act. However, he played the part a little too well sometimes. She shook off the feeling though. No matter how well he played the part, it didn’t change the fact that it was just that, a part.
“Apparently everyone is obsessed with her.” Devin jokes. Jarren’s brows scrunch in confusion.
“What do you mean?” Immediately, she freezes. She knew that if Devin told him, he would probably blow up. However, it was too late, Devin was already talking.
“Her crazy ex decided he wanted to verbally harass her today.” She could feel Jarren tense up. His playful smile drops and he looks anything but pleased right now. He looks to her and raises his eyebrows in question.
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summary: she thought she had everything figured out. senior year, a leadership position in her sorority, a bright future, and a perfect boyfriend. just a perfect little life. until her perfect boyfriend decided to dump her out of the blue. her perfect little life now had a crack, and her entire winter break was spent heartbroken. by spring semester, she’s determined to move on. then, she unexpectedly runs into her ex one night. he swore she was still hung up on him. panicked, embarrassed, and desperate to save her ass, she blurts out that she has a boyfriend. the problem? she doesn’t. the bigger problem? the arm she grabs belongs to one of the most recognizable athletes in Boston…and her ex’s favorite baseball player.
warnings: frat guys 🤮, age gap, no use of y/n
a/n: HE IN LUV WITH AN ALPHA PHI (please tell me someone has been on rushtok and gets this) also, i’m dying over here. i got a love/hate relationship with writing slow burn.
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The plan was officially in place.
Their first two outings were already scheduled. She would show up to the home opener, and he would go to her philanthropy event the next day.
It’s not that she hated baseball. It just wasn’t her usual cup of tea. She was a hockey girl through and through. Hence, why she never minded attending all of Brady's games. She was definitely hesitant to attend all of Jarren’s. It wasn’t because she hated the sport, per se. She just knew how long baseball games were. They sometimes went late into the night.
Call her an old lady, but she didn’t want to stay out that late on school nights. She only agreed to the weekend games because she typically didn’t have much going on. Unless—like this Saturday—she had a philanthropy event. That was Jarren’s end of the deal this weekend. He was going to attend her “Heartthrob” event. Jarren knew absolutely nothing about sororities and their fundraisers. He honestly just thought sororities were a group of girls who would stand around and take pictures all the time.
Neither of them wanted to be doing these things. However, if they were going to sell this relationship, they had to. Truth be told, they could probably just post a few instagram pictures and call it a day. But, they knew better. She would get looked at sideways for not showing up to his games. Jarren would also get looked at weird if he let his “girlfriend” go to these events by herself. The reasons boyfriends usually came/participated in these things were to keep an eye on their girlfriends.
It’s not that the girls weren’t loyal. Most of them were. However, the frat guys loved participating in these events. Any excuse for them to try and flirt with the girls, they took. Obviously, Jarren could give two fucks if someone flirted with her. She wasn’t actually his, so he had no reign over that. However, since he was her “boyfriend”, he needed to at least look like he cared.
The same went for her. That’s exactly why she was standing in front of her mirror on a Friday night looking at outfit options. She was used to hockey games where she could dress in darker clothes and her favorite boots. The thing about her, she always dressed put together. Even at sporting events. She was ready to just put on the same outfit she always wore. Then, she hears a knock at her door.
She figured Jarren would show up to remind her of tonight. Not that she really needed him to. He had to be at the park in less than an hour, but luckily her apartment was on the way there. She opens the door to see Jarren in his pre-game clothes. She couldn’t lie, he looked good. Good in a very basic, very careless way. He was wearing a navy t-shirt and jeans.
Of course he had a hat on, but her eyes found his black boots. She thought it was a very interesting choice. She usually didn’t pair black and blue together. Though, she wasn’t going to make a comment on that. Jarren had looked her over. He snickers a little.
“As cute as you are, let's maybe find something else to wear.” He motioned to the blue set she was wearing. She rolls her eyes and steps aside to let him in.
“I was just about to change before you knocked.” She says as she closes the door. She walks all the way back to her room. Jarren followed her and laughed as he saw her outfit options perfectly laid out on the bed.
“These are seriously your only options?” He asks, crossing his arms. She shoots her head over to him and scrunches her brows in confusion.
“What’s wrong with them?” She asks, crossing her arms. Jarren laughs.
“It’s a baseball game, baby. Not an interview.” He teases. She rolls her eyes.
“I wore these to Brady’s games. And honestly, I wasn’t going to say anything, but I would rather not take fashion advice from someone who wears black and blue together.” Jarren wasn’t offended in the slightest. He didn’t think the same way she did about clothes. He wasn’t that much of a perfectionist. He just threw on what he thought looked good.
“We can circle back to my poor fashion choices later, baby.” He looks around her room. “Does little miss perfect own a pair of jeans?” He asks teasingly. She huffs and walks over to her dresses. She opens one of the bottom drawers to reveal a few pairs of folded jeans.
“I don’t like wearing these, but I guess I’ll bring them out just for you, boyfriend.” She mocks. Jarren just grins.
“Thank you for your sacrifice, beautiful.” He jokes right back. She rolls her eyes and pulls out a pair.
“Okay, now I have to find a top.” She says more to herself than to Jarren. She starts looking through her top drawers to try and find a more casual shirt. It’s times like these where she wished she wasn’t such a snob about her style. All of her shirts are on the nicer side. Jarren stands there watching her as she riffles through her drawer. He remembered the red top she had on the other day. It was the one that was a part of her matching set she lounged around in.
“What about that red shirt? The one you wore when we made the deal.” He mentioned. She looked at him like he had just told her something crazy.
“The one in my set? I can’t wear that.” She says. He snickers.
“Why not? Is it dirty or something?” He asks. She shakes her head and rolls her eyes.
“No. It’s a part of a set. Why would I wear it?” Jarren looks at her like she said something stupid. He huffs a bit.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think your matching clothes are adorable, but I need you to be serious right now. It’s not the end of the world if you break up your set for a night.” He says. She huffs and opens a different drawer, pulling the red top out. Jarren smiles like he had just won a game. She throws it down next to the jeans.
“I hate you.” She says.
“I’m sure you do.” He says with a smile. They stand there looking at each other for a second. She looks at him like she was waiting for something.
“So…are you going to get out so I can change or…” Jarren gets his little smirk before taking a step closer.
“Sure you don’t want to give me a show?” He teases. She has to fight back the urge to smack him. Instead, she shoos him off.
“Out. Now.” She says, her tone stern. Jarren just groans dramatically.
“You’re so mean to your boyfriend.” He says as he starts walking out. She rolls her eyes again before picking the clothes up. She waits until he shuts the door to start undressing and changing into the outfit. She hated wearing jeans, but she knew that this would look the most fitting for the setting she was going to be in. She looked in her mirror once she finished changing. She sighed as she saw herself.
She didn’t remember the last time she looked like this. She was dressed laid back and comfortable. Nothing inherently bad with that kind of style. However, ever since the beginning of college, she’s always made a point to dress her best. Not because she had obligations to. But, because that’s the standard she held herself to now. She had a box that she made for herself, and she usually never left it.
She walked back out into the living room where Jarren was sitting. She looked unsure of herself. Jarren had looked up from where he was scrolling on his phone. His eyes softened as he looked at her. It was a very simple outfit, but she wore it so well. He knew that this wasn’t something she usually wore, but she still looked perfect even in simple. He gave a nod of approval.
“Does it look good?” She asked, insecurity lacing her tone. “I’m not sure. I hate jeans.” She fidgets with the hem of the shirt. Jarren stands up and steps closer.
“You look great, baby.” He could tell she was feeling some type of way about it. There had to have been a deeper meaning as to why she didn’t like dressing like this, but he wasn’t going to press for it. He just lifted his hands to rest on her shoulders, trying to soothe her. “Hey…” He waits until she’s looking at him. “You still look perfect. You always do. You just look more comfortable now.” She lets out a soft laugh at his words.
“Thanks.” She says shyly. He smiles a real smile at her.
“Of course.” He tells her. He gives her shoulders a squeeze before dropping his hands. “Okay, you ready?” He asks. She nods.
“Let me get my shoes on and then we can go.”
A few hours later she finds herself waiting for Jarren to come out. The Red Sox had just won, so she knew he was going to be on a high. She couldn’t lie, she was pretty proud of him. She could see his smile all the way from her seat. It was pretty cute watching how happy he got. She’s been through the motions of post-game though. So, she knew it would be a minute while she waited.
“First game?” A woman said, walking up to stand beside her. Her head snapped over and she smiled immediately.
“Yeah.” She says. “Not my first baseball game, just my first game since all of…this” She motions around the room they were standing in. The woman smiled big.
“Ah yes, the first game as a girlfriend” The woman smiled like she was reminiscing. She laughs. “I’m Devin, by the way.” Devin reaches her hand out for her to shake. She smiles and happily takes it. She tells Devin her name as they shake hands. “So, how did you and Jarren meet?” Devin asks. She inhales deeply. Now was the time to shine, she now had to give their perfectly practiced story.
“We met at the bar. He said that he saw me across the room and just had to get my number.” It wasn’t too far off from the truth, but obviously they skipped over the Brady part. Devin smiles.
“How cute.” She laughs and nods. “I will say, I’m a bit shocked. From what I heard, he’s a hard man to tie down.” Devin points out. She just shrugs.
“Guess he must really like me” She lies. Devin nods and smiles.
“I can see why. You’re sweet and beautiful. He’s a lucky man.” Devin says. Before she could respond, she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her from behind.
“Hey, baby. Ready to go?” Jarren asks. She tries not to flush from the feeling of his arms around her, but she does anyway. She just plays it off as a doting girlfriend. She tilts her head back to look at him with a smile. She nods.
“Yep.” He offers a calculated, loving, smile before pressing his lips to her cheek. He lets her go enough to grab her hand and lead her towards the door. She waves to Devin before she’s through the door and out of sight. Jarren walks with her in silence for a second before they get to a place where they’re out of earshot.
“That was good.” Jarren tells her. She laughs.
“The kiss was a little much, don’t you think?” She says. He shakes his head and rolls his eyes.
“Would you rather I kiss you for real?” He asks teasingly. She shoots him a warning glare that elicits a laugh from him. “Okay then. Don’t complain about cheek kisses.” Jarren continues to lead her out to where his car was parked. A few people spot them–which was good for them to get this rumor going–but they just ignore them. They make it to his car and he opens the door for her. She combs in and he shuts the door before running over to the driver’s side.
“Okay…so what now? You just drive me home?” She asks. Jarren lets out a small laugh as he starts up the car.
“That was the plan.” He turns to give her a suggestive smirk. “Unless you want to help me celebrate.” She rolls her eyes and shoves his shoulder.
“Just shut up and drive me home.” He smiles at her when he sees the flustered look she got. Even though she wasn’t really his girlfriend, he couldn’t deny that she was extremely pretty. Especially when she was flustered. It made him want to flirt with her more. He quickly shook the thought away though. This was fake, he shouldn’t think that way.
“Yes ma’am.” Jarren teases as he shifts gears to start driving her home.
The next day was Jarren’s turn to hold his end of the deal. He was honestly dreading this. Who the hell wanted to go to an event hosted by a bunch of college girls? Well, he knows who would, but he definitely wasn’t them. He had another game tonight, but this event was happening in the morning, so he had no excuse as to why he couldn’t make it. He almost thought about texting her that he was sick, but he knew she would see right through his bullshit. It also didn’t help that she hadn’t really been texting him at all today.
He didn’t know this, but she had been running around the campus theatre like a chicken with its head cut off. Being Alpha Phi’s philanthropy chair had its pros and cons. Pros being, that she got to advocate for a cause that was near and dear to her heart. Cons, she had to plan out all these events basically by herself. So, when it came down to the day of the event, she had to make sure everything was perfect. If it wasn’t, she lost her shit.
Nothing had gone wrong (yet) today. So far, everything was set up the way she wanted it to be. Not to mention all of the people participating were in check…for the most part. Today was Alpha Phi’s “Heartthrob” event. It was basically a pageant/talent show to raise money for the Alpha Phi Foundation. Who were the participants, you may ask? A few of the campus fraternities.
At the end of the show, the sisters got to vote on who they thought should be Alpha Phi’s “Heartthrob”. They raised the money by selling tickets to students, teachers, or anyone really. They were able to come and watch the show. Jarren had willingly paid for a ticket. It wasn’t too big of a deal to him. Five dollars for this was barely anything to him. She was still grateful though.
Jarren had sent her a few texts as he was getting ready to head her way, but she never answered any of them. He wasn’t too worried. He knew she was probably busy. Still, he needed to know where he had to sit for this thing. He would prefer it if he didn’t draw too much attention to himself. Though, that might be what they need to get the rumour going.
When he arrived at the theatre he looked down to check if she responded to him. Of course, she didn’t. He just huffs and walks in anyway. He walks right up to the table where they were taking the tickets and he gives them his. He got a few looks as he walked in. It wasn’t shocking to him. He was a Red Sox player after all.
He looks around the theatre to see if he could find her. Only a few seconds of looking around and he spots her on stage talking to a couple of girls. Jarren stands there for a second. The way the stagelight was hitting her made him inhale sharply. She had on the same shirt as all the sisters did. However, she paired hers with a white skirt. Of course she did, she hated jeans.
She looked absolutely perfect. Everyone could see it. Everyone always saw it. Jarren just finally realized exactly who he was dealing with. His eyes rake over her body as he takes her in from the isle. He noticed she looked like she was bossing people around. God, that was hot.
Wait, no. He can’t think that. What the heck? This was the same girl who gave him hell for his shirt and shoe color combination. Not to mention, the girl he was fake dating. The girl he gave the no feelings rule to. Jarren just shakes his thoughts away and walks up to the edge of the stage.
“Hey” He calls out to get her attention. Her head snaps to him and she gets a relieved smile.
“Hey” She replies as she squats down at the edge of the stage. Jarren looks around and takes the set up in.
“So…this is what sororities do?” He asks playfully. She nods with a big smile.
“Yep…well, more like what this sorority does. Or, what I do.” She laughs. He laughs with her. He looks up at her with a new fondness that he can’t quit shake.
“You did this all by yourself?” He asks, genuinely interested. She shrugs.
“Sort of. I’m philanthropy chair, so I plan events like this. A few people help me execute them, but for the most part this is all me.” She shares, proudly. Jarren offers an equally proud smile.
“That’s awesome.” He smiles. There goes her flustered smile again. She stands back up straight, adjusting her skirt.
“Okay, I have to get ready to start this thing. Are you good?” She asks. He nods, clearing his throat.
“Yep, all good, baby.” He tells her. She nods before waving and walking to her post. He gives her a small wave back before walking to find a seat. Jarren sits closer to the back, but on the side where he would be able to see her the whole time. He felt odd honestly. He couldn’t shake the feelings he had when he walked in. Sure, he initially thought she was cute. However, that wasn’t “cute”
She was angelic.
The majority of the show had passed. She was the host and a few of her sisters were the judges. Jarren just smiled the entire time as he watched her. She was a natural up there. He could tell she really loved what she was doing. It was just adding to the nagging feeling he was having. He wanted to kick himself for thinking the way he was.
“Alright, we’re down to our last performance.” She says into the microphone. She looks down to her paper and when she reads it, she giggles. “Oh God, this is going to be funny.” She has to let out a few more giggles before finally composing herself enough to announce it. “We have, Kappa Sigma dancing to Touch The Sky!” She announced.
A few guys filled out onto the stage. They were undoubtedly frat guys. They each had that distinct look. Jarren wanted to roll his eyes so hard at them. However, he held back for the sake of his “girlfriend”. Her whole purpose was to “calm him down”. It would look pointless if he acted that way while he was at her event. So, he controlled his disgust.
The guys start dancing around the stage. Everyone knew they were trying to be clowns. It had the panel of sisters laughing as they goofed off. She immediately knew why they had picked that song. She knew what they were going to end up doing. They each had button ups on and sunglasses. Kappa Sigma never played when it came to these events.
When it gets to a certain part of the song, that’s when everything went crazy. Instead of the actual lyrics, they had somehow edited in a TikTok audio. She held the paper over her face as she waited for the stupidity to come. In unison, all of the guys shouted,
“I’M IN LOVE WITH AN ALPHA PHI” Before ripping their shirts open and tossing their sunglasses off. The theatre erupted in laughter as they finished up their dance. She walked back to center stage, slowly, as she came down from her laughter. Jarren smiled at the sight. Something about seeing her genuine laughter made him smile. She had the cutest laugh.
“Okay” She said into the mic as she wiped tears from her eyes. “That was…something…” Everyone laughed at that. “We’re now going to give the judges time to vote. Then, we’ll announce who our Heartthrob award goes to!” She said excitedly before running off stage and down to the table where her other sisters were. A few minutes later she was running back on stage. “Okay…we have our winner…”
The crowd falls silent and she has a little grin on her face. Jarren didn’t realize how entertaining this would be. He actually wanted to know who just won this shit show. She pauses for dramatic effect before smiling big.
“To the surprise of no one, this year’s Heartthrob award goes to Kappa Sigma!” She announces. The theatre fills with loud cheers from the guys as they run up on stage to claim their prize (literally roses and a sash). She laughs as she hands out awards to the guys.
After things begin to calm down, Jarren finds her sitting on the edge of the stage. She was talking to one of the Kappa Sigma guys. Immediately, Jarren walked up and caged her against the stage with his arms. He smiles and gives her a kiss on the cheek, not caring that he had just interrupted a conversation.
“You were amazing.” He tells her. She smiles.
“Thanks, babe” She says. She knew she had to play into it, even in front of the guys who weren't Brady. The guy she was talking to, Connor, looked between them with an annoyed expression. Before Jarren had walked up, he was trying to see if she would be interested in going out with him. He heard that her and Brady broke up and thought he should shoot his shot. He didn’t know she was in another “relationship”
“Do the winners not get a congrats?” He decides to take a jab at Jarren. Jarren’s jaw tightens, but he keeps his cool. He turns his head to look at Connor and shrugs.
“I couldn’t care less about the winners. I’m only here for my girl.” He says. Connor huffs and rolls his eyes.
“Damn, you move on fast.” He says to her. Jarren’s composed face cracks at the comment.
“You wanna run that by me again?” He says, standing up straight. She senses the tension and immediately places her hands on his shoulders.
“Okay! Um, let’s maybe not.” She turns to Connor. “Congrats on the win, but my love life isn’t your business.” She hops off the stage and takes Jarren’s hand. “Nice talking to you, Connor.” She offers one last, friendly, smile before tugging Jarren towards the exit. She leads him out until they’re rounding the corner to head to where she was parked. When they’re out of earshot, she finally speaks up.
“I thought the whole point of this was to make it seem like you calmed down?!” She scolds in a whisper shout. “What the fuck was that?!” Jarren rolls his eyes as he lets her tug him.
“He was being a piece of shit. What was I supposed to do? Let him talk to you like that?” He argues. She huffs as they get to her car and turns around to face him.
“I know he was being an ass, Jarren. But, you shouldn’t act out of emotion. You were two seconds away from causing a scene.” She crosses her arms. Jarren scoffs.
“You should’ve let me. He needed to be put in his place.” She groans.
“Jarren! It’s not that serious! I mean, this isn’t even real! You don’t need to act like that!” She argues. Jarren pokes the inside of his cheek with his tongue at her words. She was right. This was fake. He doesn’t know why he got so heated when he saw Connor talking to her.
“This may be fake, but real boyfriends don’t let other guys talk to their girl like that.” He says, taking a step closer. Her back hits the driver side door of her car as she steps back. He didn’t touch her, but his presence boxed her in. Her breath hitches at the proximity and, she doesn’t know why, but her heart starts beating rapidly. “So, I don’t give a fuck who’s feelings I hurt. If they try something with you, I’m going to say something.”
She stays silent, just staring up at him. The look in his eyes was something she’d never seen before. Even Brady never looked like that when a guy would flirt with her.
“I’ll see you tomorrow” Jarren’s voice softens before he presses a kiss to her forehead and walks back towards his car. She watches him walk away with a weird feeling. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why she was feeling the way she was. But, she just knew that she wasn’t actually upset at the way he acted.
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