Chapter Thirteen

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
                          
My mouth was dry. Like I had just swallowed flour or some stupid shit right now. I couldn't even think properly. Nothing was connecting because Jaylen's confession was the only thing blaring through my head. 
                          
Even when there were a million questions running through my mind. About him. About his friends. Whoever the fuck Gabriella was. I didn't give a single damn. Because as his green eyes pierced through my dark brown eyes, I knew those questions would be answered later on. Willingly or not, it didn't matter to me. 
                          
As I continued to be speechless, Jaylen did what he usually did whenever I rode his car. He unbuckled my seatbelt and opened the door for me. I followed him into the building and his apartment, still silent. Reeling in his confession until I found the right words to say. 
                          
"What do you mean?" I asked, looking down at my feet, placing themselves in the slippers he gave me earlier. 
                          
Safe to say tequila officially left the building. I wanted to be sober for this. Because I wanted to remember every word that leaves his luscious lips. Because I wanted to remember the way he looked at me saying them. Would it be filled with truth or covered with lies? 
                          
Once again, he didn't respond. Instead, he grabbed my hand and led me to his room. My sweater was still laying on his bed like I had left it earlier when I changed into his clothes. He left me alone, didn't even try to take a peek at my naked body when I changed. 
                          
"I heard everything Olivia said to you earlier," He confessed, making my eyes go wide, "I wanted to intervene. But Zane stopped me. He said that I needed to let you handle things on your own. To see if you're able to stand up for yourself." 
                          
We were in his bathroom. He had his own personal bathroom with a small walk-in closet attached. When I peed in here earlier, I couldn't stop myself from wandering and seeing what I could pick up on who Jaylen was. The only thing I found out was the amount of plain long-sleeved and short-sleeved t-shirts he had could probably dress in them for the whole year. 
                          
"You didn't fight with your words. You used your fists to talk for you," He chuckled as he lifted his clothes off of my body. And I was letting him. Because I wanted this connection with him. 
                          
"Then you handled Drake so well. I didn't need to step in and help you out. You just needed me there to help you calm down from the storm you unleashed," Here I was thinking I was the only one observing him. I was totally wrong. He studied and observed me like an experiment in a lab. 
                          
Jaylen wanted his own opinions and insights about who I was without having to ask questions. As much as words helped to explain every single little detail about who I was, my actions, my own little quirks, was more than enough for him to piece it all in his puzzle. 
                          
His puzzle of Lillianna Roselli. 
                          
He tugged his own shirt off before turning on the shower. Did he want to take a shower in the middle of a serious conversation? Seriously? He went and unbuttoned his pants but my hands stopped him.