A/N: Very early update to get the ball rolling a bit
xxx
July: He wanted to be the guy she turned to smile at.
He didn't speak to Kim until two months after that, in fact he was pretty sure she never noticed he was even around until two months after that.
Jared was staying at Paul's house again, it was the summer holidays now and Jared would go days at a time before he'd go back to his own house. He liked staying at Paul's, not only because he had a better chance at catching a glimpse of Kim but Cathy, the mother of the two didn't mind having him around and often cooked for the lot of them. Jared wasn't stupid, he knew it was pity that made her allow him to be around all the time. Sympathy because his dad was never around and he was all Jared had. He saw them as his family, Cathy was definitely a mother figure to him, and Paul had been his brother for years now, but he definitely didn't see Kim as a sister. A wife maybe…
It was 4AM and Paul had passed out after playing COD for 13 hours straight. That's what they did when they weren't working. Jared couldn't sleep though. He felt like something was under his skin, like he was itching all over. He didn't feel right. He went downstairs to get a glass of water when he heard noises from outside.
His stomach dropped and he knew it was her. His Kim, she was outside. He waited a moment but could only hear more shuffling and mumbling at the door. He sighed, there was no way she was sober. The shuffling continued until he went and opened the door. Unfortunately she had been leaning on the door and as he pulled it open she fell onto him. He struggled a little with her weight.
"Oh. Hi" She hiccuped, beaming up at him. After a minute she gained a better idea of what she was doing and took less weight off of him. She smelt heavily of beer and other spirits and her eyes seemed to roll in her head but that didn't change the fact that he had her in his arms. Like really had her in his arms, her hands held onto the tops of his arms and her front was mashed up against his.
Don't think about it!
"You okay?" He asked guiding her into the kitchen.
"Yep" she hiccuped again.
"I'm really drunk" She giggled trying to climb onto one of the stools at the breakfast bar.
She wasn't doing very well so Jared moved to help her up.
"I'm fine!" She snapped but contradicted herself by accepting his help. He didn't care; he'd never touched her this much before.
"Jaaaared" She moaned at him and he couldn't help but wonder in what other ways he could have her say his name.
He turned to her again, she sat with her elbows on the counter her hands supporting her head. "Can I have some water please?"
He knew then that he'd never deny her anything. He didn't think twice about how he moved automatically to get what she wanted. He filled a glass of water and passed it to her, keeping a close watch on her as she swayed on the stool. She sipped the water and looked at him. Normally her eyes on him would make him nervous but for some reason he just smiled at her. She set the glass down and tipped back almost falling backwards. He reached out to steady her.
"Whoa, be careful" He admonished.
She giggled again and grinned at him. "You're Jared- you're really nice" She smiled.
He couldn't help the blush then, "Err thanks"
She nodded and moved off the stool a little less than gracefully.
"I have to go to bed!" She nodded again and moved to pick up her bag. He panicked a little, this was probably the most they'd ever spoken, and even though she might not remember, he would, probably for the rest of his life. He didn't want it to end yet.
"Did, um, did you have a good night?" He asked.
She looked up at him again and frowned.
"When did you get so, so tall?" She asked throwing her arms out a little. "You're supposed to be little Jared!" She exclaimed, "I can't call you little Jared anymore" She pouted.
"You can call me that if you want?" He assured in a motion to keep her happy.
She shook her head in an exaggerated gesture, "No, silly!"
He stared at her, what was he supposed to say? He didn't have a lot of experience talking with girls, especially not intoxicated girls.
"No" she said again
He blinked at her. "I didn't have a good night ac-actually!"
"Why not?" He asked. She moved out of the kitchen and he resigned himself to the fact that she wasn't up for talking as much as he was.
"People! People are annoying, like really annoying, especially guys! They are annoying" Jared felt his stomach drop again. He didn't want to think of her with other guys, but he still wanted to know what had her annoyed. "I can't wait to get away" She smiled and trudged toward the stairs with Jared following. "I can't wait" She mumbled again slowly moving up the steps with Jared at her back.
"Yeah. Oregon?" he knew she was going away, she was smart and she was going to college miles away, and he'd see her even less than he did now. He'd been avoiding thinking about it. But now it was so close. She would be gone in two weeks.
"It's gonna be so good! Parties and people and guys and stuff, it's gonna be good" She nodded to herself keeping a tight hold of the hand rail. Jared didn't say anything; he simply kept a hand on her waist when she teetered a little on the stairs. She eventually reached the top and made her way down the hall.
She opened the door and flung her bag on the bed, Jared stood in the doorway. He'd been in this house hundreds of times, but in her room maybe only twice. And that was a long time ago. It didn't look like he remembered it to be.
He watched as she stumbled into the room and kicked off her shoes. He stood dumbstruck as she reached for the hem of her dress and pulled it up, or tried to; it was tight and bunched up under her breasts. She fell to the carpet on her knees giggling.
"Ah! This dress!" She exclaimed, "Help please!" She turned her brown eyes to look up at him. They were bright and glassy. He moved into the room and sank down in front of her, ignoring her exposed legs and underwear and all of the smooth skin he longed to touch and tugged the dress above her head.
"Thank you" she said her eyes drooping.
"Come on." He said, "Bed" He stood up and she held her arms out knowing any attempt to get up on her own would be unsuccessful. He made sure to keep his eyes on hers for fear that they would travel down to where her boobs were encased in her black bra or even further down her slim body to the black lacy boy short panties she was wearing. He pulled her up and she moved to the bed.
But then she had flung her arms around his neck before he had noticed and moved to hug him.
"Thanks for putting up with me" She said into his neck and he couldn't control the shiver that travelled over him, thankfully she hadn't seemed to notice.
"You're so warm!" she mumbled pulling away and flopping onto the bed.
"Night Kim" He said and this time he couldn't stop himself from looking at her or the reaction from seeing so much of her skin.
"Night" She mumbled her eyes slipping shut.
He slept poorly that night, still feeling the itch under his skin and his mind replaying everything that had happened.
Eventually morning came and he couldn't lie still any longer. Jared got up to go downstairs leaving Paul still snoring in his bed.
He was surprised to see Kim sitting on the stool when he entered the kitchen flicking through a magazine with a coffee mug in front of her. Thankfully she was wearing more clothes, an over sized sweatshirt and a pair of holey leggings. She was still the sexiest thing he'd ever seen though.
"Oh hey" He managed. Her head snapped up.
"Hi" she said and turned back to her magazine. He frowned.
"How are you feeling?" She blinked at him,
"Oh, not great" She grimaced and kept her eyes on him as she waited for him to say something.
"Yeah you didn't- uh" He didn't know what to say. What a surprise.
"I guess you saw me last night then?" She asked "Oh yeah" She nodded as though it was coming back to her.
"Sorry about that." She gave him a half smile and looked back to her magazine. He wanted to talk more, about anything, last night was like finding out your favourite food ever and now he felt like he'd never get to taste it again.
"Oh" She said again, frowning at her coffee cup. Obviously thinking about the previous night,
"I don't remember much about last night" She sighed, "But thanks for helping me"
"Sure, I mean, you were ah. You seemed annoyed" He stuttered
"Annoyed?" She paused and seemed to be thinking.
"Uh yeah, about a guy?" He was getting personal here, and personal wasn't something that could have ever described anything between him and Kim. They weren't friends, not enemies either, he was simply her brother's friend, who was in her house sometimes, he could count on his fingers the number of conversations they'd had.
"Oh yeah" she laughed "Dan" She shook her head and flicked the page.
He wanted to know why she was annoyed, what had he done, were they together, were they broken up? But he didn't have any right to ask any of that.
"Are you okay?" There, that's what anyone would ask, right?
"Of course, just the standard story of a high school boy being a douche"
"Yeah Dan can be- I mean, I heard about him and Hayley" He said immediately regretting it. What if he upset her?
To his surprise she laughed again. "Who hasn't heard?"
"Oh, you um, you weren't mad?"
"No" She scoffed "Its high school, you'll see, when you get into girls you'll do it too"
He shook his head. "I'd never do that" he said with conviction. He was already into girls, and there was only one he wanted, and if he had her he'd never look anywhere else. He knew it.
She turned to smirk at him as she got down from the stool
"Oh Jared, you're too cute" She said and left the room.
For some reason as he stared after her Jared's hands began to shake.
