And now I was wrapping Jake up into it. When we weren’t even anything other than good friends. He didn’t need to be doing this, opening the door to speak with the grim-faced officers or offering to go confront one of my psychotic exes.

So what did it say about him that he was ready and willing to do all of that and more?

And what did it say about me that I kind of loved it?

14. Jake Perez

14

JAKE PEREZ

I was right. The cops couldn’t do much, not without having a clear visual of Franky trying to get into my house. They said they would try and talk to him but couldn’t make any promises. All they could do was say to call them if anything else came up, which wasn’t at all the answer I was looking for.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands. I convinced Noah to give me Franky’s address under the condition that I take him with me. Confrontation wasn’t at all my thing, and I normally avoided it at all costs, but this was getting out of hand. We knew it was his car, we had video evidence of him being around the area whenever shit went down, so what else was there to do but confront him? Maybe if he realized we were onto him, then he’d stop whatever it was he was trying to do.

It wasn’t the best plan, but it was the only one I had, and I was quickly realizing that I’d do whatever I needed to so that I could see Noah smiling, worry-free. The way he smiled when it was just us, wrapped up together under the comforter, his warm eyes speaking volumes without any words being shared between us. It was dangerous—how quickly I was falling for him. Harder than I’d ever fallen for anyone before, and that scared the everlasting fuck out of me. I didn’t even know where his head was at, but I was ready to lock it all down after a single night with him.

Dangerous but exciting. A thrill that harkened back to being a high schooler about to ask my crush out to prom. When the stakes felt higher than the Empire State Building itself. It was the kind of buzz that scrambled my thoughts, made crazy ideas seem reasonable and wild fantasies seem like everyday realities.

That’s how I found myself sitting outside of a nondescript townhouse with a nervous Noah in the passenger seat, ready to puff up my chest and get this shit over with so we could move on with our lives and figure things out between us without stressing about some crazy ex.

“You sure you want to do this?” Noah asked as he nervously bit his fingernail.