JAY JAY POV
I was in my room, staring blankly at my laptop, when Jare walked in without knocking. Typical.
"What is it?" I asked, snapping my computer shut a little too quickly. I didn't need him seeing the replay of the vlog footage—specifically the parts where Keifer was practically glued to my side.
"Is there something going on between you and Keifer?" he asked, leaning against my doorframe. His voice wasn't teasing this time; it was serious, almost careful.
I looked at him, the sarcasm I usually used as a shield failing me. I needed a few seconds—maybe minutes—to find the right words. How was I supposed to explain the tent? The hickeys? The "wifey" comment?
"I don't know, Jare," I admitted, pulling my knees up to my chest. "It's so complicated with him."
"Why would you say that?" Jare asked, raising an eyebrow at me. He walked over and sat at the edge of my bed.
"Because he's hot and cold! One minute he acts like he actually likes me—you know, being all gentlemanly, helping me out, or acting like a human being. Then the next second, he gets mad at me for no reason or starts acting like a total jerk."
Jare stayed quiet for a moment, then let out a short, knowing huff. "I don't think he gets mad for no reason, Jay."
"Oh, really? Then why?"
"I think he gets mad every time other men come near you," Jare said plainly, looking me straight in the eye.
I froze. I thought back to earlier—how Keifer swatted Ben's hands away just for touching my shoulders. How he looked at the park employee. How he basically marked his territory in the haunted house.
"That's called being possessive, Jare. That's not a good thing," I argued, though my heart was doing that stupid fluttering thing again.
"I thought you liked guys being possessive over you," Jare said, his voice losing its teasing edge and becoming uncomfortably perceptive.
I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning. "We both know what happened last time that happened," I said quietly, the memories of London—the suffocating phone calls, the monitoring, the incident that finally made me snap—flickering behind my eyes like a bad movie.
Jare's expression softened immediately. The room went silent for a moment. He knew better than anyone why I'd left London with a chip on my shoulder and a reflex to push anyone away who tried to hold on too tight.
"Keifer isn't him, Jay," Jare said firmly.
"I know that," I snapped, picking at a loose thread on my duvet. "But the lines are blurry, Jare. One minute he's protecting me, and the next he's acting like I'm a piece of property he won in a bet. It's hard to tell the difference sometimes."
"Is it?" Jare asked. "Because I've seen you around him. You don't look scared. You look... challenged. Like you're actually enjoying the fight."
I bit my lip. He wasn't wrong. With Keifer, it didn't feel like I was being trapped in a cage; it felt like I was in a ring with a worthy opponent
"He's just an asshole," I whispered, though the word felt heavy.
"Yeah," Jare stood up, heading for the door. "He definitely is. But he's an asshole who would probably burn HVIS down if someone actually touched a hair on your head. Just... be careful, okay? If it gets to be too much, you tell me. I'm still the older twin."
"By three minutes!" I yelled after him as he stepped out.
"Three minutes of pure wisdom!" he called back before shutting the door.
I slumped back against my pillows, staring at the ceiling. I reached up and touched the spot on my earlobe where Keifer's lips had been. It still felt warm.
Maybe Jare is right, I thought. Maybe I do like it.
But as I closed my eyes, I could still hear Keifer's voice: "I'll be waiting for your next cuss."
He wasn't trying to control my life like the guy in London. He was trying to control me. And for some reason, that felt a thousand times more dangerous.
My mind involuntarily drifted back to Zane. He was my second boyfriend, and for two years, we'd been the best of friends. When he finally decided to court me at sixteen, I thought it was a fairy tale. Everything was perfect at first—the attention, the protection, the way he seemed to revolve around me.
But the thing with Zane was that it became so suffocatingly complicated. His possessiveness wasn't a slow burn; it was an escalating wildfire. It wasn't just that he wanted to be with me; he wanted to be the only one. He'd glare at any guy who breathed in my direction, but the breaking point was Ben.
Ben, who has been my brother's shadow and my best friend since we were toddlers. Zane had gotten so paranoid, so convinced that Ben was a threat, that he'd cornered him one afternoon. Ben ended up in the hospital with a concussion and a broken ribs.
I stared at the ceiling, my heart heavy. That was the day I realized that protection can easily turn into prison very quickly
The difference was, Keifer was already an asshole. He didn't need to isolate me to feel powerful; he was already powerful. When he swatted Ben's hands away today, it wasn't a desperate, paranoid lunging like Zane's—it was an arrogant, lazy assertion of territory.
But seeing the bruises on Ben's face back then had changed me. It made me sharp. It made me swear more, fight harder, and never let a man think he owned me.
Is that why I'm so loud with Keifer? I wondered. Because I'm terrified that if I stop fighting back, I'll end up back in that suffocating place?
I reached for my phone, scrolling through the comments on the video I'd posted of Keifer screaming in the haunted house.
User123: OMG, is that actually Keifer?! I've never seen him look that scared 💀
LondonGal: Keifer is totally whipped lol. He'd go anywhere she asks.
Roseapple: Finally you posted! The drought is over.
Jay Jay58: Pls post more, this is amazing! We need the uncut version.
SpookySzn: The way he clung to her arm... I'm screaming.
Trish_Trash: Can we talk about that high-pitched noise he made at the 0:12 mark? 😭
GhostHunter99: That jump scare got him GOOD.
Becca_Boo: I've watched this ten times and it gets funnier every time.
KingKiefer_Fan: Someone check on my man, he looks traumatized.
I sighed, tossing the phone onto the nightstand. Keifer was a different kind of animal than Zane. Zane was a jealous boy; Keifer was a predator. And while Zane had tried to break my spirit, Keifer seemed to want to match it.
"I'll be waiting for your next profanity," he'd said.
He wasn't asking me to be quiet and submissive. He was asking me to keep playing the game. But the problem with games is that someone eventually has to lose.
I touched my earlobe again, the ghost of his kiss still there. I wasn't the same girl I was at sixteen; I wasn't a victim anymore. But as I closed my eyes, I couldn't help but wonder if I was just trading one type of fire for another.
Keifer is different. I can see he's a jealous idiot, but for some reason, that doesn't make me want to run away this time. Instead, there's this twisted part of me that wants to spark that jealousy even more—to see that fire in his eyes and feel the way he reacts. Why do I want him to kiss me more? Or worse...
LALALALALA!
I physically shook my head, trying to rattle the thoughts out. Stop it, Jay! Bad thoughts are bad!
Remember, Jasper Jean, you definitely do not want to end up pregnant at seventeen or eighteen!
I groaned, burying my face in my pillow. My mind was going to places it had no business being. One minute I'm thinking about the my ex-boyfriend, and the next I'm wondering what it would feel like if Keifer didn't stop at just my earlobe.
"Get a grip," I hissed at myself.
I forced myself to think of something—anything—else. I thought about the math homework I was ignoring, the cold London drizzle that I actually kind of missed, and the way Jare looks when he eats spicy food.
But even then, the image of Keifer smirking in that tent kept flickering back. The way his hands felt on my waist. The way he looked when he whispered "wifey."
He was a menace. A possessive, arrogant, beautiful menace. And the worst part? I was the one who had invited him into my life by being just as stubborn as he was.
I sat up and grabbed my phone, deciding to distract myself by replying to a few comments on my vlog. If I couldn't stop thinking about the King of Assholes, at least I could focus on the fact that I had a video of him screaming like a girl.
Blackmail, I reminded myself firmly. That's all he is. Blackmail material.
I just hoped my heart would eventually get the memo. Unluckily for me, my heart and my brain haven't been on speaking terms since I moved to the Philippines.
Just as I was starting to convince myself that I could handle this, the door burst open. Sarah and Mia tumbled in, and before I could even sputter a protest, Sarah reached back and clicked the lock with a definitive thud.
The "Interrogation Committee" had arrived.
"Show us," Mia said, marching toward my bed with a look that said she wasn't leaving until she got the tea.
"Show what?" I asked, trying to keep my voice casual while my heart began to do a frantic tap-dance. I pulled my knees up closer to my chest, trying to look smaller, more innocent. It didn't work.
Sarah bypassed the pleasantries. She leaned over me, her eyes squinting as she inspected my face like a forensic scientist. She checked my cheeks, my jaw, and then—with the speed of a cobra—her hand went for my hair.
I backed away immediately, hitting the headboard. "Hey! Space! Personal space!"
"So, he gave you a hickey on your ear. Sweet. Let me see," Mia said, her lips curling into a knowing, devilish smirk.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied, my voice cracking slightly. I adjusted my hair, pressing it even flatter against my ear. "I told Jare, I have a cramp. It's a very serious muscular issue caused by high-speed g-forces."
"Jay-Jay, we saw the way you walked out of that tent," Sarah laughed, reaching out to swat my hand away. "You looked like you'd just been through a blender, and Keifer looked like he'd just conquered a kingdom."
"It's just an earlobe, Jay! It's not like we're asking for a full architectural map of your love life," Mia teased, lunging forward to grab my wrists.
"Get off me! You vultures!" I shrieked, half-laughing and half-horrified.
The struggle lasted all of ten seconds before they ganged up on me. Sarah pinned my hands down while Mia gently but firmly tucked my hair behind my ear.
The room went silent for a heartbeat.
"Oh. My. God," Sarah breathed, her eyes widening as she stared at the dark, blooming mark Keifer had left. "He really claimed you, didn't he? That's not just a kiss, that's a 'Property of Section E' stamp."
"The earlobe?" Mia whispered, sounding impressed. "That's so... intimate. And targeted. He knew exactly where you couldn't hide it easily."
I felt my entire face go nuclear. I wrenched my hands free and covered my ear, my dignity officially deceased. "He's an animal! I told you! He's an asshole who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'boundaries'!"
"Yeah, an asshole you were wrapping your legs around in a dark tent," Sarah pointed out, wiggling her eyebrows.
"I was... I was practicing my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu!" I countered desperately.
"Right. And the moaning we heard when we walked past the tent? Was that a specific martial arts vocalization?" Mia asked, falling back onto my pillows and cackling.
I grabbed the nearest object—a stuffed penguin—and hurled it at her head. "You heard?! How much did you hear?!"
"Enough to know that the London Ice Queen has officially melted," Sarah said, sitting on the edge of my bed and looking at me with a soft, teasing smile. "But seriously, Jay... are you okay? Like, for real? You know how Keifer is."
I looked at my two best friends, the heat in my face cooling down just slightly. I bit my lip, the swollen sensation a constant reminder of what had happened.
"I don't know," I admitted, my voice dropping. "He's intense. And he's possessive in a way that should scare me, but... it doesn't. It just makes me want to fight him more. Or kiss him more. I can't decide."
"Welcome to the Mariano curse, Jay-Jay," Mia said, patting my leg. "You don't fall for the easy ones. You fall for the ones that turn your life into a disaster movie."
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Hey lovies 🤍✨ I just heard something and I don't know if it's a rumor or not, but did Ate Lara publish the rest of the chapters? Or is she still working on them? 😭💗 Can someone please tell me, because when I checked Wattpad there was nothing new. Please clear this up before I die from either a heart attack or a happy attack 😭💕