february 28th, 2021

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IT WAS BAD. there were text messages and phone calls dating all the way back to august, which was not even a month after jack and celia had last seen each other. jack's camera roll was full of pictures of him and this girl, who just so happened to have the same name as her.

there were nudes, too. there weren't as many as she thought there would be, but there still were some. it turns out that cylia lived in los angeles too, so jack and cylia must've spent time together way more than once.

it hurt her to keep scrolling, but celia knew she had to. it took her an hour to go through everything, as she had gone through everything a few times to have it register in her brain. they were right, she thought, everyone was right. he was cheating on me.

at one point celia took a screenshot of cylia's number and sent it to herself, deleting the evidence right after. she scrolled through jack's instagram too, and she put two and two together that cylia had actually commented on her posts a couple of times.

celia knew better than to pin everything on cylia. it seemed all too innocent from her end, it was like jack had manipulated her into believing that him and celia had broken up. she didn't want to keep making up situations in her head, though. she wanted to know the truth.

eventually, celia put down the phone. she was shaking after everything she saw, and she knew she had to leave or else she was going to be sick. she walked out of the room quickly while clutching her sweatshirt to her body. it felt like the world was caving in, and there was nothing she could do about it besides talking to the one person she knew could help.

she walked over to the room and knocked timidly. she heard a bit of shuffling on the other end of the door before it opened slightly. she looked up from her legs for the first time since she got to the door and made eye contact with finn.

as soon as he saw the state she was in, he whipped the door open and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into the room and shut the door behind her.

"cee, what happened? why are you crying?" he asked as he rubbed her back and pulled her closer.

" i-i did what you said. i went through his phone, and there was so much. there were so many text messages, a-and phone calls, and god there were even nudes. he's been cheating on me since august, finn. since fucking august. it turns out that the girl's name is cylia, too. funny right?" she said, as she finally let herself burst into tears.

it felt like the tear in her heart had grown bigger, and it expanded until it became a hole. she felt like she was collapsing; falling through the floor. it felt like after she fell through the first floor, there were hundreds more to get through.

her heart was pounding and so was her head. her stomach was in knots, and she felt like she had the stomach flu. she kept her mouth shut to keep herself from vomiting. celia let the tears slip through her eyelashes and trickle down her cheeks, and to her each one felt like they were acid. the acid tears had left holes in her cheeks that were too big to pass off as freckles.

"oh, love. i am so sorry." he sighed, as celia searched for asylum in his arms. finn felt his heart break for her. he had been in a relationship before when he was sixteen, but the two had broken up after finn told the girl he loved her while she didn't love him back.

as finn pushed the memories away, he continued to run his hand along her back carefully whilst hugging her, as though he would break her. as he did so, an idea popped into his head. it probably wasn't the best he's ever had, but it would do what it needed to do.

if they went along with it, it could hurt so many people. it could hurt jack, it could hurt their friends, and it hurt them more than it would hurt anybody else. their friendship would never be the same. it would be like one switch was switched off, while entirely new one was switched on.

"celia, i have an idea. i don't know if you'll like it, and you're most definitely allowed to say no, i wouldn't be surprised if you did. but, what if we had sex?"

"what?" celia looked up at him as if he had two heads. she wouldn't lie, finn was attractive and it wasn't like they'd look terrible together, but she just never really thought about it. then again, she also never thought jack would cheat on her. today was full of surprises, though.

" you know, like revenge sex. you're a virgin right?"

celia nodded her head slowly trying to figure out where he was going with this.

"what if he found out that you lost your virginity to me? only if you're comfortable with it of course."

celia stopped and thought for a second. she could easily say no, and she knew that finn wouldn't be mad, but the fact that there was even a part of her that said yes made her want to do all the more. she fought with herself for a second but realized, why not? she trusted finn, she knew he cared for her, and she knew she wouldn't regret it.

"okay. let's do it. shit that was a bad choice of words." she said, as she shrugged her shoulders.

finn chuckled and looked at her. "are you sure? we could always just lie to him about it."

they both broke into a quiet laughter. celia was a really bad liar.

"no, i mean it. i think it's a good idea." celia said. she did think this was a good idea, but she just couldn't put her finger on why. it was on the tip of her tongue, about to be spit out and fall into her hand.

"are you 100% positive? i don't want you to feel pressured into this." finn said slowly, cupping her face in his hands.

"yes, finn. i've never been more certain about anything." celia said looking up at him. she never realized how smooth his hands were or how there was a slight glint in his brown eyes, or how his lips were the softest shade of pink.

"really? not even about jack?" finn asked with a slight smirk resting on his lips, inching closer to celia with every breath he took. celia could feel her heart rise into her throat, but she stayed frozen.

"hh shut up and kiss me you fool." celia said so quietly she didn't know if finn could hear her. finn closed the space between them meeting their lips. neither of them could lie, when their lips finally met, it was like heaven. celia felt something in her stomach that she hadn't felt with jack in a long time.

maybe this wouldn't be so bad.

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HEY GUYS! sorry for this chapter taking so long to get out. i wasn't able to get on wattpad and finish uploading this chapter. also, i didn't include anything sexual because of all of the recent stuff that has happened with wattpad and it being bought by some other company? i honestly don't know what really happened but i'm going to try to keep this story as clean as possible (even though i swear a lot LMAO). but thank you so so much to @-olafoleff for writing a majority of this chapter! you are such an amazing writer and you happen to be one of my best friends so that works out well HHAHHAHAHAH. anyways thank you all for your patience and love!! mwah!