She was unusually quiet, and opened and closed the door for him.

"So," Noelani started.

Jalen immediately zoomed on the fact that his phone was in her hands, "Um, what are you doing with that?"

Noelani's face held no emotion as she looked down at the device, "Jack called. Seemed surprised that I answered. Seemed surprised that we were still together at all actually and I wanted to figure out why so..." She held up his phone unabashedly.

"So you went through my phone. I thought you trusted me." Jalen said, looking down at her.

Noelani regarded him with dead eyes, the constant flow of warmth and love that she held whenever she looked at him was gone, "I did. I trust you but then I saw something about a bet in your phone. So I just... I really need you to tell me that this isn't the truth. That the that guy I'm in love with, who I brought here to meet my family, who I basically lived with for a couple weeks, I need you to tell me that you didn't place a bet on me. On us."

Jalen debated lying again, telling her that she misunderstood and that the bet wasn't about her.

But how could Jalen claim to be in love with someone he kept lying to?

"Jack and I made a bet to see how fast I could get you, it was harmless. I stopped once I knew I had real feelings for you. It started out that way but-." Jalen started to say.

"You... You're serious? All of this... These past couple of months... Everything we've done was because of a bet?" Noelani dropped his phone onto the bed.

"It was never supposed to get this serious. I didn't know that we would connect like this." Jalen explained, moving to grab her hands.

Noelani pushed him back with a huff.

"So what? You saw me and thought 'Oh, fresh blood. Let's see how much I can fuck her life up?' Why? Why would you do that to me, Jalen? What about me seems like I deserve that?" Noelani snapped.

"It was never supposed to go this far. I was supposed to dump you after homecoming."

"Wow. Just... I don't even fully know what to say right now. Part of me wants to just beat your ass for putting me through some dumb ass shit like this." Noelani forced her hands into her wet hair and began to laugh and massage her temples.

"Honestly, I'm not even mad at you," Noelani chuckled, "I'm mad at my damn self for thinking that you were different and that I could actually trust a guy my age. Or any guy outside of my family at all."

"So wait," Noelani took her hands out of her roots, "So every time you told me that you loved me, was that part of the bet too?"

"I stopped caring about the bet when I climbed onto your roof that first time in October. I never took the-."

"How am I supposed to believe you? Huh? How am I supposed to believe anything that you say? Our entire relationship was a lie!" Noelani yelled making Jalen blink a bit at her volume.

Jalen reached for her but Noelani moved away from him, "If you touch me again, I'm punching you. Stay where you're at."

"It wasn't a lie. Everything I've said or did was genuine. I have a lot of love for you. I love you, please-. I'm sorry."

"Stop lying to me! Just stop!" Noelani yelled, "When you said I could trust you, that was a lie! When you told me you loved me that was a lie! Tell me the truth for once!"

"No! Lani, you have to believe me."

"I don't have to believe anything you say. God! I was gonna stay in California for you! I made plans to stay! You made me want to stay! I told my mom that I thought you were the one! I brought you here to meet my family. I can't believe I wasted that on someone like you. You know how much falling for people terrifies me and you go and do this?"

"I didn't ask you to stay!" Jalen snapped.

"Didn't you? All you could do was talk about how much you love me and need me around and I was dumb enough to believe you!"

"All that stuff was true. I do lo-."

"Stop lying to me! God, enough with the lies! You're exactly who I thought you were when we first met. An arrogant, bigheaded, bratty one and done. Did you do all this because I rejected you that first time? J. Green couldn't handle rejection like a man?"

There was a short silence before Noelani scoffed and pushed her hair away from her face, "I should've chose Nimari. He would've never done no backstabbing, childish ass shit like this."

Jalen's stomach dropped at her words, "You don't... You can't mean that. You love me. You chose me not him for a reason."

Jalen sounded desperate, even to himself.

Noelani let out a guffaw, "I chose you because you acted like a decent guy and went after me. I was content! I was content to make a couple friends, coast through school, graduate and then come back here. You fucked my life up." As she said a word in her last sentence, Noelani stepped closer, "I want you to know that. I want you to know when you lay your head down at night with the next girl stupid enough to fall for you, that you went out of your way to ruin someone who just wanted to be left alone."

Wordlessly, Jalen reached for her again and made contact with her elbow but Noelani grabbed his wrist and flipped him over her shoulder.

Jalen slammed onto the wood floor with a groan while Noelani's mother and two of her uncles came into the room.

"What is going on? Kelani heard you guys yelling at each other." Anela asked, flicking her eyes back and forth between the two, "Noel, did you judo flip him?"

Noelani didn't answer her, choosing instead to turn her back to Jalen as he rose from the ground shakily.

The three must've saw something in Noelani's face that Jalen couldn't because Anela immediately hugged her, Kai comfortingly put a hand on her hair while Makani glared at Jalen.

"Did you hurt her? What happened?" Makani asked Jalen, his eyes narrowed.

"I... I.." Jalen muttered.

"Well? Speak!" Makani snapped.

"It doesn't matter," Noelani removed herself from her mother's grip, "None of it matters. Me and Jalen just broke up. Forget that you even met him." Noelani responded, walking to the door without so much as a backwards glance at Jalen.

Then she paused, her hand on the doorknob, "How much?"

"What?" Jalen blinked.

"How much did you bet on me?"

Anela let out a quiet gasp at the revelation.

Jalen hesitated, "A th-thousand dollars."

"Huh. Wow. You should probably start packing. I really hope that the money was worth it, Jalen." Noelani scoffed and then she was gone, closing the door with a slam.

"Baby-." Jalen tried but Kai stepped in front of him, shooting Jalen a harsh look, "If I was you, I would do like she said. If you think that her judo flip hurt, you couldn't handle mine."

Anela gave Jalen a deeply disappointed look but exited the room, her brothers on her tail.

Jalen's hands shook as he reached for the purple vase adjacent to the bed and threw it at the wall, watching it shatter.

It was over.

oop. welp🤷🏽‍♀️

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