Chapter 326 - What's The Score?

[This chapter is dedicated to brielle2. Thank you for picking up Noah and Jess's story. I hope you're having fun.] 

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"Should we lower the temperature of the room?" 

Jess slowly turned her head to Luke who was standing a table away from her. He was leaning against the steel table, arms crossed over his broad shoulder. She furrowed her eyebrows at him. "What's wrong with the room temperature?" 

"It's freezing like a morgue." He said, squinting his eyes at her. "Did Noah not love you thoroughly before flying to Berlin?" He smirked with his question that was full of malice. He cocked his head to the side in confusion because Jess didn't react to his teasing. Her poker face irked him. Especially when she turned her attention back to her task at hand, shutting his presence off completely. 

He scoffed, pushed his hips away from the steel table, and strode to her side. "Tell me, Aunt Jessie, what happened to your talk with Noah?" His tone of voice was gentle for he could read the pain in Jess's face as bright as day despite her keeping her expression neutral. He knew her enough that her actions spoke to him louder than the words that she was keeping from him. 

She sighed, giving up. "Let's just get to work." Luke's questioning gaze was disrupting her from her task. 

"Jess, you know I'm here for you, right?" He said when she finally spoke. 

She scoffed sarcastically. "I hope you would stop being 'here' because all you do was hover over my shoulder like an annoying mother hen," she snapped. 

Instead of getting annoyed or throwing another teasing remark, Luke unfolded his arms and reached the top of Jess's head. "Just holler if you need me, and crying is allowed in the lab." He messed up her hair and quickly stepped back before Jess could smack his hand away. 

Jess gritted her teeth in annoyance but couldn't do anything but exhaled a deep breath. She has no energy to match up Luke's. She just wanted to be left alone. Her brain and her heart were on a debate since her talk with Noah. And none of them were winning. That's why, she's tiring her brain—to stop it from thinking about the information she found out from Noah—but she can't do anything about her heart. It kept on throbbing painfully. It's not an exaggeration to say that every breath she takes hurts like a bitch. She wondered how could it be possible for breathing to be this painful. 

She knew it sounded so lame and cheesy but there's no way to describe how she's feeling right now but these loads of bullshit—ones that have been written by the lovestruck fool, before her. 

Falling in love is such a pain in the ass, she thought to herself, sighing. 

Luke escaped Jess's anger but he didn't really leave. He stood from a safe distance to keep his shoulder safe from her. He knew something was off. Jess was anxious before Noah came back from his trip to China but now Jess's looked like she was beaten and on the verge of giving up. 

And now, Noah is far away. He's worried that Jess and Noah would drift apart. However, with Jess keeping mum about everything, he couldn't do anything but watch from a safe distance. He, himself wasn't in a good place. He's mending his own broken heart and he won't be surprised if one of the reasons why Jess won't talk to him, was because she was thinking about him too. 

Jess can be bitchy but she's sensitive with other people's feelings, it's just that most of the time, she didn't give a shit about them—unless she likes the person, she won't care about other people's emotions, perceptions, or opinion about her. She lives in her own safe bubble. And now, she's matching Noah's, which with her characteristics wasn't something that was easy to do. 

Luke sighed. It's what he's been doing since he came into the lab. He went to work like an automated robot. The task he and Jess are currently doing are routinary. It's something that they can do without much thought. Their body was so attuned to it, it doesn't need thinking on their part. 

And just like that, the hours passed by with them working in silence that would be broken by deep and loud sighs every now and then, between the two of them. Lunchtime came but none of them leave their respective working station. 

Jess after checking the specimen, faced her computer to do some encoding and didn't leave her computer, except for the time she had to pee. 

The morgue feels like silence and gloominess inside the lab was broken when Oliver came. 

"Hey, does someone care for a sandwich?" 

When the smell of the sandwiches float in the air, Jess and Luke glanced at each other and laughed. Their stomachs growled simultaneously. 

"It seems like I don't really need an answer, do I?" Oliver said, grinning. He put down the plastic bag of sandwiches and headed to the coffee machine, stationed at the far end of the lab, near the entrance. 

Jess glanced at Luke with her brow crocked high. "What's the score between you two?" She mouthed to Luke when Oliver turned his back to make coffee. 

Luke stretched his arms over his head and stood up noisily from his chair. "I'll tell you the score between me and Oliver if you'll tell me what happened between you and Noah." He said, loudly. 

Jess's jaw dropped. She glared angrily at Luke, her eyes shifted to Oliver who still has his back turned back on them. She was expecting Oliver to at less flinch or say something but he didn't show any reaction to what Luke said. She returned her questioning gaze to Luke who was already pulling three stools next to the table. He was getting ready to eat the food Oliver brought them.. Her curiosity won her over. She got up from her chair and said, "deal!" 

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