Page 12 of Billionaires Don’t Date Cheerleaders (Texting the Boyband #2)
twelve
Sloane @its_sloane
Being sick sucks :((
The only benefits of being sick were getting to miss school and having your parents dote on you for the whole day, but I didn’t have either of those today. It was Saturday, and my parents had gone on a weekend trip with one of their couple friends. Initially, Grace and I were supposed to stay home together, but then she decided she wanted to spend the weekend at her friend’s cottage, leaving me entirely alone in the house until tomorrow afternoon. I guess it was nice not to have her around to annoy me, but still—it would have been nice to have someone here.
I’d managed to shuffle downstairs and collapse on the couch, but that was the extent of the energy I had for the day. I was stuck scrolling on Twitter and watching movies for the day, it seemed.
Call Me Jude @judeturner
Is your family home?
Sloane @its_sloane
Nah they’re gone for the weekend, why?
Sloane @its_sloane
Jude has gone silent for ten minutes… Which can never mean something good
Call Me Jude @judeturner
I have a surprise (a good one, I promise)
Sloane @its_sloane
Give me a hint?
Call Me Jude @judeturner
I’ll text you
Not even a minute passed before his contact appeared at the top of my screen. Seeing his name released a round of butterflies in my stomach for some reason, but I tried to push the feeling away as I opened his message.
Jude
I'm 5 minutes away
Sloane
Wait what
Also don't text and drive
Jude
Voice command
Sloane
Sorry I forgot you were fancy like that
Jude
Is that even fancy
Do you need me to pick anything up on the way over
Sloane
Nope I'm good
thank you
But why are you coming over??
Jude
Isn’t it obvious?
I’m going to keep you company
Sloane
You don’t have to waste your Saturday just because I’m sick
I’ll be okay
Jude
No time with you is time wasted
I’m pulling up to your street
Well, I guess it was already decided now. Unfortunately, the limited notice meant that I didn’t have any time to try to fix what I looked like—I would just have to hope that he liked the messy bun and ratty pajamas look. I groaned and forced myself to stand up. I was shivering, so I wrapped my comforter around myself and stumbled down the hall to the front door. I opened it just as Jude came up the front steps, carrying two duffel bags that looked like they were bursting at the seams.
“What—”
“We’re having a sleepover,” he said. He didn’t wait for me to invite him in before walking right inside and taking off his shoes. “What’s the best spot? Living room? Basement? Your room? I mean, that might send a certain message, but?—”
“Jude,” I interrupted, but there was no heat in my voice. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“You’re sick,” he said. “And home alone. It’s my duty as your friend to cheer you up, and the best way I know how to do that is by having a sleepover with you. So?”
“But…” I had about a thousand objections, from the fact that my parents were not going to be pleased if they found out that I had a boy over while they were out for the weekend to the fact that I would be awful company since I already felt like I was going to pass out if I stood there for much longer. In the end, though, I didn’t say any of it because Jude was looking at me with his big puppy dog eyes, and I didn’t have the heart to say no to him. Besides, nobody had ever gone to so much trouble just to make me happy before… and I didn’t want to turn it down. “The basement has more space and is easier to sneak out of in case my parents come home early.”
Because regardless of what he wanted to call it, he absolutely could not sleep here—there was basically no chance of me being able to hide him from my parents when they got home in the morning. Not to mention, he did not need to see me with bedhead yet.
Jude grinned, a mischievous glint showing in his eye. “Got it!” Then he practically ran to the stairs and down into the basement. I stared after him for a second and shook my head in shock. Whatever I’d been expecting after I tweeted him for the first time… it definitely wasn’t this.
Sloane @its_sloane
Help a boy has broken into my house and is forcing me to watch my favourite movies
Call Me Jude @judeturner
Oh noooo. What a shame
Why Are You Following Me @meganwhite0202
Ask him to order a pizza with you
“I can’t believe you brought an entire blow-up mattress,” I said as we “I can’t believe you brought an entire blow-up mattress,” I said as we settled in. It had taken an agonizingly long time for him to blow it up, but I had to admit it was more comfortable than sitting on the bean bag chairs we had down here.
“Well, I didn’t know what we’d be working with,” Jude said. “Here, I brought some pillows too.”
“You brought pillows ?”
“Of course.” He threw two pillows—big, soft pillows—at me. I tucked them behind my head and watched him as he grabbed a couple for himself, along with a comforter.
“Do I want to know why you had all of this lying around your house?”
“How do you know it was all in my house?”
“You did not have enough time between seeing my tweet and getting here to do a full shopping trip.”
“Okay, you’re right,” he said. He put his pillows next to mine and laid down. The mattress dipped, rolling me onto my side so I was facing him. “The truth is, we have all the guest rooms in our house fully stocked. I just raided one of them.”
I tucked an arm under my head. “I want to see your house sometime,” I said. “I really can’t imagine what it’s like.”
“It’s not that interesting,” he said. “I mean, it’s big, but it’s just a house.”
“That’s not how Megan described it to me.”
Megan had gone to the Take Five house last weekend, and her only description of the house had been, “It’s a mansion, and it’s magnificent.”
“Maybe it looks different when you’re seeing it for the first time,” Jude said.
“You’ve only lived there for a few weeks, right?”
“Yeah, but after being on The Next Great Boy Band and everything, I guess I’ve just gotten used to the big houses. It sounds awful, but it’s true—after a while, all this stuff that I spent my life dreaming of just stops being that mind-blowing.”
“I don’t think it sounds awful,” I said quietly.
“Really?”
“Not that I can relate to living in a mansion,” I said, “but I think I know how that feels. Like, before I got on the cheer team, it was all I wanted. I used to go to football and basketball games literally just to watch the cheerleaders because I thought they were so cool. And for the first little while that I was on the team, it was perfect. I loved everything about it. But then, slowly… it stopped being so great. I didn’t want to have to get up for early morning practices, and I was annoyed at having to give up every single Friday night and… well, you get it. When it’s something you don’t have, it looks perfect. And then when you get it, you realize that living your dream doesn’t automatically undo everything wrong in your life.”
Jude bit his lip and brushed his hand along the side of my face. “I always thought fame was everything I wanted. And then I joined Take Five and realized I really underestimated the bad sides of it.”
“Have you ever regretted it?” I asked. “Going on the show? Sticking with the band?”
“No. Not seriously.” He paused, but I didn’t try to fill the silence between us. I had a feeling this was something he needed to share with somebody but never had. Something he needed time to get the courage to say. “I mean, the thought popped up a couple of times, you know? When we spent hours at the studio because we couldn’t quite get the recording right or we had cabin fever from having to constantly see each other while on tour or…” He swallowed and blinked a few times. “Or when my sister got into a car accident, and I was on the other side of the country and couldn’t come home.”
“Oh, Jude…” I whispered. I’d never read that story, which made me think it wasn’t public knowledge. A story that big—that traumatic—would have spread like wildfire through the gossip sites.
“She’s okay now,” Jude said. He wiped away the stray tear that had fallen down his face. “But I think that was one time I really stopped to question what I was doing. If I could handle being that far away from my family. And I—at the time, I actually told my mom that. When she called me to tell me about the accident, I said that maybe I should come home, that maybe I should give up on all of this. And you know what she said to me?” He licked his lips. “She said that they all knew that chasing my dreams would take sacrifices. And that while it was my choice what I wanted to do, I had already made so many sacrifices to get there, and it seemed like a damn waste to throw them away now.”
“She sounds like a smart woman,” I murmured.
“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “Yeah, she is. And she was right. But I won’t pretend that it wasn’t—isn’t—hard.” He sighed and rolled on his back, wiping any remnants of his tears off his face. He chuckled, but there was no humour behind it. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring the mood down.”
“You didn’t.” Tell me everything about yourself. Every single detail of your life. I want to know it all.
“Let’s put on a movie,” Jude said. Just like that, he was back to his usual, happy self. Like a light switch flip. “Like I said, it’s your day, so let’s watch your favorites.”
“Me being sick qualifies this as my day?” I asked.
“Of course.” He grabbed the remote from where we’d left it on the ground earlier and turned on the TV. “Come on, whatever you want. What’s your favorite movie ever?”
“Well, I like romances,” I said.
Jude scrolled down to the rom-com section of the site, but instead of looking at the movies, I kept my eyes on him. I’d never seen him so up close before this, and I was noticing details of his face I’d never seen before. The way he had a little smattering of freckles over his nose, so faint that they were barely visible. The green flecks in his brown eyes. His soft brown hair that fell over his forehead. Was there anyone in the world who had a face so beautiful?
Jude turned his head to look at me. We were so close that our noses were nearly touching.
“Why are you staring at me?” he asked in a whisper.
“Because I want to.”
He turned onto his side fully, the remote forgotten at his side. “Why?”
“Because you’re beautiful,” I said before I could stop myself. Jude blinked, long and slow, and his lips turned up in a tiny grin.
“Not nearly as beautiful as you.”
I wasn’t sure which one of us closed the gap, whether I moved without realizing it or he leaned in. Maybe it was both of us. All I knew was that one second, I was looking deeply into his eyes, and the next, I was kissing him.
True to his nature, kissing Jude was soft and gentle, although euphoric at the same time. I let myself sink into it for a good few seconds before I forced myself to pull away.
“I’ll get you sick,” I murmured as we pulled away.
“It’ll be the best cold of my life.”
I giggled and shoved his shoulder. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I’m just a poor boy asking you to love me.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I think we both know you are not even remotely poor, Jude.”
“Okay, maybe not my best line,” Jude admitted. “But in my defense, you don’t seem like the kind of girl who would be convinced to kiss me by me reminding you that I’m technically a billionaire.”
My eyes widened. “What?”
Jude chuckled. “Did you not know that?”
“Well, I knew you were… but not that you were…” I rubbed at my face, suddenly feeling very drained of all my energy. “A billionaire? Really?”
“Mh-hm.”
“Man. That’s… a lot.” The response was stupid, and I knew it, but I couldn’t find the energy to say anything else. My eyes were starting to flutter shut. Jude chuckled and pulled my blanket up to cover my shoulders.
“Go to sleep, Sloane,” he whispered.
“No, I’m not tired,” I murmured. I tried to open my eyes again, but they were so heavy.
“Yes you are. Don’t worry, I’ll be here when you get up, okay?”
“M’kay.” I finally let myself fall into a deep sleep… and the entire time, I dreamt of my kiss with Jude and the possibility of it happening again.