Jaime had been having a real bad day. It all started off that morning when Milagro 'accidently' spilled her orange juice on his backpack; forcing him to shove whatever he could into an old, ratty backpack from the seventh grade. Once he got to school he found out his best friend had skipped and left him to pair up with the dumbest kid in their chemistry class. If getting a fifty on his assignment wasn't enough he just had to trip and fall while doing the mile run, making five other people fall down with him.
He was just heading home, glad that the school day was over, when he came upon an intersection. He kept driving at a reasonable speed – fiddling with the radio a little bit, but keeping his eyes on the road; he was driving his mom's car after all.
Apparently the other person wasn't as careful as he was and ran the stop sign just as he was passing by. They booth slammed down the brakes, but couldn't stop the front of their cars from colliding. Jaime thanked his mother for bothering him about seat belts as it stopped him from slamming into the steering wheel.
He stepped out of the car a moment later, glad to see no major damages. The hood of his car was just touching the hood of the red car that caused this. He estimated that it would mostly be a dent; something he could ask Paco to fix as a favor. His parents wouldn't punish him as long as he made sure to emphasize it wasn't his fault.
The true culprit was getting of the car right now. Jaime was ready to chew them out, take out all the frustration that had built up during the day on this person, but then he saw her. He first saw her blond hair shining in the sunlight, cascading over her shoulders and across her back. Her eyes focused on their connected cars as she lifted a hand to her white teeth – the whitest teeth Jaime has ever seen. She started chewing on her thumb and Jaime felt an urge to prevent her from inflicting herself harm.
"Are you okay?" He asked her after a while.
She dropped her hand, much to his relief, and nodded. "I'm sorry," she said, coming closer to him and wringing her hands. "This is all my fault. I just kinda zoned out and didn't see the stop sign in time."
"It's fine."
"No, it's not-"
"It's barely a scratch."
"But something could be damaged inside!"
"I doubt it."
She let out a stream of air, her cheeks puffing up as she brought back her reasonable thinking. She held out her hand towards him and he shook it, completely aware of how her skin felt against his.
"I'm Cassie by the way." She smiled at him; not even hiding the fact that she was checking him out.
Jaime smiled back and felt his ears prickle with heat. "Jaime."
They let go of each other's hands and looked back at their cars. Jaime realized that they should probably move them before someone else comes along with less patience than he magically had. Cassie seemed to be thinking the same thing, looking around for any other vehicles.
"We should exchange numbers." Cassie decided out loud just as Jaime was going to suggest moving. She didn't wait for answer before reaching into her pocket and producing her cellphone. She expectantly looked at Jaime to do the same.
"In case something inside really did break?" He asked as he pulled out his own phone. He quickly unlocked it and traded with her.
She quickly adapted to his phone, typing in her own number just as Jaime figured out how to do it on hers. "Sure." They gave each other's phones back and Jaime noticed she set her contact name as 'Cassie' with a less than three symbol next to it. "Or for any other reason that comes to mind."
Maybe this day wasn't so bad after all.