Chapter 2
As soon as the bell rang I quickly picked up all my stuff from the table and got up from my seat, Jared was still staring at me while he packed his bag. Without looking back, I threw myself out of my seat and make a run for the door without being too obvious. I was almost to the door when I heard Jared's voice beside me "Are you running from me?" I turned to see his face – he looked sad. I shook my head and lied "I don't want to be late for my next class" "You have your class with me right? Let's walk together" Jared offered with a grin as we stepped outside the class. I saw Lily standing on the opposite side on the door, her eyes were widened as she looked at me and it looked like she was going to pass out, I tried not to laugh. "Uh – actually my friend is waiting for me" I told Jared, he followed my gaze and saw Lily, I scowled under my breath. She waved her hand at Jared with smiled at her and waved his hand back, Lily walked to us carefully. "Hey" she breathed, Can she be more obvious? "Hello" Jared greeted back calmly. Paul walked up behind Jared and whispered to him which made Jared tear his gaze from me, Lily subtly squeezed my hand, I glared at her and she tried her best to hide her excitement.
Jared gave Paul a single nod and with that Paul took off, "I was uh – asking your friend if I could walk her to her class" Jared turned to Lily. I tried to tell Lily to say 'no' but rather she said "Yeah, of course, I will see you in the cafeteria Kim" Lily gave me a tell-me-everything-later look before bouncing off to her class. I was left alone with Jared, who looked at me like he was a drowning man and I was the oxygen he needed to stay alive – it was ridiculous. "Shall we?" he asked politely, I sighed and without replying started walking to my class, Jared was hot on my heels. "So, do you have any siblings?" Jared asked, "Yes" I said not looking at him, "Are they younger than you?" he asked curiously, "Yes" I replied in the same tone, "That makes you the oldest sibling" he stated, "Yes, Jared what do you want?" I asked frustrated. "Nothing" he looked at me in shock, "I just want to spend time with you" he flashed a million dollar smile, making my heart beat faster. "Why?" it sounded like I was pleading, "Because I want to be your friend" he told me blinking his eyes rapidly. "My friend?" I asked stopping dead in tracks, he stopped too and gave me a single nod. I eyed him suspiciously and then chuckled before walking away.
I walked faster than I could, which left me out of breathe by the time I had reached the class. The class was half filled already so I quickly took my seat. In a few minutes Jared entered the class and took his seat beside me. I turned around to see Lily staring at us again, and then behind her sat Paul who flashed me a smile, I quickly turned my head. Jared did not speak to me in the whole English class, but he just kept staring at me. Either he was just too good at acting out whatever part was given to him or by some miracle he finally noticed me! The second option was still too good to be true, so I kept my distance with Jared. People had started to notice that Jared was staring at me, and soon this news would be spread all around campus and maybe then Jared and Paul would have their fun. I kept listening to Mrs. Mills although it was very hard to concentrate since Jared was siting inches away, I could even feel his body heat which was ridiculous! I produced my diary from my bag when Mrs. Mills asked us to take notes and it opened to the last page which I shut immediately!
I looked at Jared from the corner of my eye to confirm he had not looked at the last page where I had scribbled my name and his last name together, he was busy searching for his notebook from his bag, I took a sigh of relief. I quickly opened a blank page and absentmindedly started taking notes, it was one thing to be made fun of and another to let everyone know who you crush was. I will have to tear this page from my diary once I get home and destroy it before anyone could lay their hand on it. I was too self-conscious for the rest of the class to concentrate and much to my relief Jared did not stare at me anymore, he was busy taking notes as well. When the bell rang for our lunch time, I shoved my diary at the very bottom of my bag and then kept all my books above it and then finally got out of my seat. "I will see you in the Biology class" Jared said hopefully, it was very hard for me to talk to rudely when he looked so innocent so I gave a weak smile and a single nod.
He looked at Paul who came to him in the next second and they both rushed out of the class. Lily walked stiffly at me and her expressions were bewildered, "What just happened?" she breathed, I could not help but laugh, "I will tell you everything, let's go" I pulled her out of the class. On our way to the cafeteria, I told Lily everything about our history class, I even asked her if she thinks Jared was somehow pulling a prank on me. She had replied "I don't think so, he seemed too genuine about his friendship – well it looks like more than friendship, and honestly people in the back were talking about how he would not stop looking at you for a minute, Paul shut them up and told them it was none of their business, they might not be bad at all" "Isn't it too good to be true?" I asked her as we entered the cafeteria, "I don't know, but at least give him a chance Kimmy, if all he wants is friendship then I don't see any harm" instinctively my eyes flickered to Jared, who was looking at me.
What was weirder was Paul was not sitting with rest of his friends, the two of them were sitting alone! Paul never used to hang out with Jared or Sam, and now he looked inseparable from Jared. He had also changed a lot! Just like Jared his hair was cropped cut and he had grown muscles too. Lily and I took our food – I just took a bottle of mango juice and we sat on our table. We both sat in such a way that Jared and Paul were on our left. "Have you done your English assignment?" I asked Lily, I felt that Jared was able to hear our conversation and so was Paul. "What?" she asked confused, "Have you?" I tried to gesture her that Jared was still looking and once she got me she got into her overacting "Oh… Yeah… I did it weeks ago" I rolled my eyes at her. Then I asked her about her weekend and she went on and on about how she watched this new movie and then went out for a lunch with family friends, the guy was so hot and I just zoned out after that. Actually Jarred was never taking his eyes off me which made it very hard to concentrate, but I would occasionally say "Hmm" and "Ohh" to encourage Lily to keep speaking.
When Lily asked me what I did for my weekend Jared slightly angled his body towards us which made me self-conscious again, it was really stupid he cannot hear us from that far. "My mom took me to shopping since Cami was out with Aunt, and she forced me into getting this haircut" I told her, keeping it short and simple. "But it really looks good on you, I envy your hair, it is the most beautiful shade of brown" Lily was speaking three octaves higher than her normal voice, obviously she wanted Jared to listen. I narrowed my eyes at her and stomped on her feet under the table. I could not be sure if Jared and Paul were laughing on us or were they laughing at their own jokes. "What are you doing?" I whisper shouted at Lily, "I need him to see how beautiful you are" she whispered back, "He doesn't need to see anything" I whisper shouted again, Lily huffed and we both straightened ourselves.
I really wished Jared hadn't heard anything that Lily had said, it would be too embarrassing. I decided to keep my eyes on our table, so I removed the bottle cap and drank my mango juice. Lily and I sat in silence and had our lunch until the bell rang for the fourth hour. I groaned and sank in my seat, "What happened?" Lily asked, "Biology" I groaned again, "And after than P.E and then finally we are going home" Lily joined in, "I need to sleep" I told Lily, "Me too, I know I get better sleep than you but still" Lily replied with a smirk. Jared and Paul had taken off before I even knew, so I stared at his vacant seat when Lily broke my trance "Honestly Kim, let him talk to you if he wants to in the class" "Fine" I sighed before getting up.
Lily dropped her tray and I dropped my bottle before we made our way to our class, Lily had taken Physics so I dropped her to her class and then continued to my class. The class was almost empty, Jared was there, with Paul sitting on his table casually. I walked to my table confidently and sat down, "Hey Kim" Paul greeted me, I blinked my eyes at first, was I dreaming? Paul Lahote was talking to me? "Hey Paul" I greeted back, Jared did not even look at me, it was like I was punched in the stomach. I dropped my gaze from them and pulled out my books, "Man, I just want to get out of the school already" Paul complaint, "We need to see Sam after the school remember?" Jared reminded him, they were talking in a whisper but they were too close to me, still I felt like I was eavesdropping. "Yeah" Paul replied happily, what was it with Sam? I sighed and tried to block them out.
In another two minutes Paul got off the table and went to sit behind us, "Kim" Jared said politely, my eyes lit up and I looked at him, "Yes?" I asked politely, his eyes lit up too, "Uh – can I – have the notes for biology please – I am lagging far behind?" Jared asked me, "Uh – sure I will give it to you after the class" I answered with a smile, and Jared smiled back. After that we did not talk at all for the rest of the class, he would glance at me ever so often but it would only be from the corner of his eye, and if by chance we glanced at each other at the same time, he would smile at me and I would smile back. I was satisfied with it, actually I was more than satisfied with it.
When the bell rang, I turned towards Jared who had his bag packed already, I stretched out my hand which held my notebook. He considered my hands for a minute and then grinned as he took my notebook, "Thank you so much Kim, you are a life saver" he said enthusiastically making me blush, "Anytime" I mumbled and turned my head away to pack my bag. Even though Paul had left the class and I packed like a sloth, Jared waited for me patiently. When I was done he smiled at me and asked "Can I walk you to P.E?" "Sure" I replied politely but my heart was beating like anything! I got out of my seat and we both walked out of the class together.
In the hallway people turned to look at us which again made me self-conscious but Jared couldn't care less about it. P.E. was in other building so it gave us a 3 minutes' walk time. "I am sorry, if I had offended you so how" Jared started again, "No, you haven't" I assured him, he had not offended me it was just that it was too sudden to accept that he wanted to be my friend all of a sudden. "What do you like to play?" he asked me curiously, "Uh – I can play anything really" I told him, "How about badminton? Would you like to play it with me?" Jared's eyes sparkled when he asked me the last question, my heart was running now, and there were butterflies in my stomach, badminton with Jared Cameron. I subtly pinched myself, it wasn't a dream at all! "Sure" I replied keeping my voice steady.
He dropped me outside the girl's locker room and disappeared behind the boy's locker room door. I rushed inside, all the girls there were eyeing me like I was an alien or I had a third eye. "So? How did it go?" Lily asked me enthusiastically, "Jared asked me to play badminton with him!" I squealed, although it seemed ridiculous to squeal at this, he had just asked me to play a game but Lily joined me too so it must mean something. "Oh my god" she kept squealing, I quickly changed my clothes once I noticed Lily had already changed her clothes. She had stuffed my bag in the locker by the time I came out and I stuffed my clothes inside too.
We both rushed out and I saw Jared standing near the entrance of the gym with Paul. Jared had worn without sleeves tan blue school jersey, which was tightly fitted around his abs, and black shorts with black sneakers. Can he stop looking that hot?! I thought I was going to pass out when Lily pulled me to them. "Are you ready to play?" Jared asked me excitedly, "Yeah" I replied trying not to stare at his muscular and perfect body. The four of us played together that day, it was Jared and me V/S Paul and Lily. Every time we earned a score Jared would look at me like I had done something to win a noble prize, only once did we gave each other a high five, Lily was shocked to say the least and I had turned crimson after that.
The P.E. looked like it lasted only 10 minutes or so, but when it was over I literally rushed to the girls' locker room and got dressed. Jared was standing outside the locker room when I walked out with Lily. She said "Bye, see you tomorrow" and ran off before hearing my reply. I walked up to Jared who offered me to let him walk me to my car to which I agreed. It was a comfortable silence as we walked through the parking lot. Jared opened my car door and closed it when I got in and said "See you tomorrow Kim" with hopeful eyes and a grin, "See you Jared" I said before driving out of the parking lot. My biggest dream had come true Jared Cameron had not only noticed me but had also talked to me for the whole day!
