Hii! Enjoy.
Nobody betas me, I make my own mistakes.
Kimberley Connweller
I walked between Joe -who was trying to roll Paul a cigarette without taking his arm off my shoulders- and Jared, to our next class.
"Kiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim" Joe whined.
"What?" I asked suspiciously.
"Roll this for me?" he held the limp, soggy cigarette an inch away from my face and pouted like a little girl. I huffed and took the near-destroyed paper from him, resurrecting his disastrous attempt and handing it back to him in seconds.
"Fucking idiot." I mumbled and he pecked my temple.
"Thank you Connie" I couldn't help but smile, glancing at Jared and noticing that his eyes were fixed on my mouth, a confused frown pinching his eyebrows together.
"Are you okay?" I practically whispered to him, thinking he might be offended by smoking or that I had tobacco stuck to my lip or something.
"I'm fine." He huffed. I wasn't surprised by his tone. I was pushing my luck today and I knew it. Twice I'd spoken to him now, within less than 12 hours.
"He's just pissed he has to host." Joe muttered right in my ear and I giggled, mainly because I'm ticklish to a ridiculous degree and his stubble was scratching my neck.
We took our usual seats, Joe turning slightly from my right to talk to Jared, who had the seat directly behind me. I could feel the slight rumble of his voice every time he responded to Joe's questions and it made me close my eyes, basking in being able to enjoy him without him seeing my stupid hormonal face.
"I'm not kidding man, you abandon me on clean up again and I will lose my shit. I'm not hosting again if I have to mop up another kid's sick all by myself!" I chuckled and looked at Joe.
"He has a point. You always make us help you clean up after a host."
"Okay. I can see I'm being outnumbered so let's make a deal." Joe said, holding up his hands and raising his eyebrows "Me, Connie and Paul will all stay for morning-afters IF breakfast is involved." He turned to Jared again, turning his palms upwards now as though offering a once in a lifetime, unmissable opportunity. I just smirked and turned to see what his reaction would be.
"Eugh! Fine. Deal."
Joe high-fived me and I just shook my head at the pair of them. "Fucking gigantic children."
Jared Cameron
"Okay guys, there's only a couple of weeks left before the holidays so make the most of it, there's nobody who needs you to pass more than you need you to pass." Mr. Cook had a way of phrasing things he thought would inspire us so that we were only confused.
I wasn't listening anyhow. I was too busy playing snippets of today on a loop in my head.
"Hey Jared."
Her tiny pink tongue, gliding along the paper, and then her thin, graceful fingers rolling the cigarette into shape.
"Are you okay?"
"He has a point. You always make us help you clean up after a host."
And that smell. That smell of butterscotch and cinnamon. That smell will be my undoing.
I sighed. Fucking lists.
Speaking of, I looked down at what should have been calculus and tried to decide if I was happy with my final decisions.
The idea was that we gave each person one half of a celebrity couple and then when they got to the party they had to find their other half. I quite liked it but Paul shrugged at me.
"I don't give a shit as long as my other half is single, hot, and barely dressed."
Kim and Kanye
Adam and Eve
Barbie and Ken
Peter and Lois
Fred and Wilma
Homer and Marge
Romeo and Juliet
Woody and Little Bo Peep
Tarzan and Jane
Robin Hood and Maid Marion
Mario and Luigi
Morticia and Gomez
Buffy and Angel
He glanced at my list and practically screamed: "Fred and Wilma! Dibs!"
I turned slowly to look at him and raised one eyebrow.
"What? I like me a redhead. Sue me."
Kim Connweller
"Hey!" Joe kissed my hair "so Jared finished the couples list. You just need to decide which one you want to be. Hint: Don't pick Wilma" I frowned and looked up in time to see his eyes widen and a small head shake "and don't think for one second that I'm gonna let you pick Luigi and wear Doc Martens and dungarees all night." I stuck my tongue out at him and blushed. Busted.
"Shit, none of them are particularly appealing." I said, scowling down at the paper."Uhm, maybe Morticia? Or Eve?"
"Well here's how we make this decision; Can you spend all night in the same room as Jared wearing nothing but three strategically placed fig leaves on your lady parts?"
I blanched.
"Ahh, just as I suspected!" He laughed. "C'mon, we have a lot of white makeup to buy."
It turns out a Morticia Addams outfit is not difficult to assemble. We bought me a full body underwear suit to hide my lumpy parts and emphasise my…lumpy parts, a floor length black dress with long sleeves and a split all the way to my hipbone on one side and a pair of sky-high black stiletto heels.
"Job done, now we just need white makeup, red lipstick and liquid eyeliner." I watched him trot into the makeup aisle and chuckled to myself. I was starting to believe that maybe he could manage to make me look desirable.
Maybe. Maybe Jared would notice me and bend me over backwards and kiss from my wrist to my shoulder like Gomez would. Maybe I'm delusional.
I was snapped back to reality by Joe "It's a shame you have bangs. But I don't suppose there's anything we can do about that now. I'll sew little loops to your dress sleeves for you to hook around your middle finger. And you'll need a locket for your neck. Not a real one obviously."
"It fucking baffles me that more people haven't figured out that you're gay." I said, watching his face light up.
"Hey!" He peered over his sunglasses at me "I am very well practiced when it comes to subtle crotch-watching"
I giggled at my best friend and followed him through the checkout, letting myself feel a little excited about what he had in store for me.
The next day when Jared pulled into the parking lot Joe stubbed out his cigarette quickly and went running towards him, tugging me behind him and calling out.
"Jared! Jareeeeed!"
He turned to look at us and a warm smile spread across his face before he remembered himself and looked down at his shoes, taking the opportunity to replace the scowl.
"Morning Joe" He said gruffly.
Joe and Jared were friends, had been for a long time, only this past few weeks had I allowed myself to be dragged into their little clique. Mainly because I had no choice, but also because since the start of the semester, I'd felt like my usual strategic long-distance staring wasn't enough any more. Like I'd give anything to just be closer to him, no longer content to just admire from afar.
I swallowed my fear, "morning Jared" I said, smiling up at him from down here at pectoral height.
He didn't smile, he didn't even seem to want to acknowledge that I was there but then his eyes closed briefly before he glanced at me. "Hi Kim."
That would do, I smiled warmly at him and left them to their conversation. Not concentrating or listening, just allowing myself a little time to melt.
"Oh! I'm not coming to class. I have an appointment with Mrs. Sanneg." Joe looked apologetically at me.
"Okay, I'll see you after?" I asked, and he nodded. I smiled, he kissed my hair and I made my way toward our lesson.
It wasn't until I'd gone about 8 strides that I realised Jared was walking beside me, the shock of it making me stop and stare at him.
"What?"
"Nothing" I mumbled. Of course he was walking with me; just because Joe wasn't coming doesn't mean we suddenly didn't share the class any more. I carried on, stopping at my locker on the way and dumping every book except the one I needed and turning to keep going when I saw that Jared had slowed right down. He was still walking but his steps were slow and he was watching me with his peripheral vision; once I'd caught up he fell in step with me.
All too quickly we arrived and I took my seat. Jared noisily slid Joe's usual seat out next to me, scaring the shit out of me. He sat down without a word and pulled out his textbook, glaring down at it with a highlighter and occasionally making notes.
I turned to my own book and followed suit, trying as hard as I could to make the letters put themselves in some kind of coherent order but they just seemed to be dancing around the page, pausing every now and then when they spelled 'Jared' Eugh. I'm so fucked.
And then something magnificent happened.
Jared had his arms crossed, his highlighter in his right hand and his left hand closest to me, his shoulders were hunched and his head was down, concentrating on his notes. Seemingly without meaning to, he slid his enormous hand across the two-inch gap that separated us and twirled a lock of my hair around his finger, he weaved it between his fingers, letting go only to turn the page of his book before returning his hand to my hair.
"Uh, Jared?"
"Hmm?" He asked, turning to face me, seeing his hand in my hair and jerking away as though I'd burned him, he stared at me wide eyed and starting muttering to himself.
The bell rang but he stayed where he was, staring at my face and muttering so quietly I couldn't make it out. I waited a few more minutes for him to move, to get up and leave, to speak to me, anything! He eventually just half-smiled and slid past me on his way to the cafeteria, running his free hand through his hair.
Cassie fluttered and I groaned quietly to myself, rubbing one hand over my face and gathering my things.
Jared Cameron
I sat down in Joe's usual seat. I was trying to be nice. I hadn't had a partner this semester so far anyway since Leon left last year so I didn't see the point in us both sitting alone at two separate desks.
I didn't want her to struggle with the work or feel lonely.
She kept huffing and when I looked over to her she looked like she was having trouble concentrating. It was bothering me.
I don't know how long I was playing with her hair, but I do know that I liked it. When I eventually realised what I was doing, I panicked – what if she thought I was some kind of hair-fetish pervert who couldn't keep his hands to himself?
I started murmuring things I could say to explain myself, listening to the words tumble around in the dead air between us, too quiet for her to decipher but loud enough that I could decide if any combination made sense.
"I'm sorry, I just wanted to help calm you" – Too intense.
"Actually I'm not sorry, I like your hair" – Creepy.
"I think your hair is really soft, what shampoo do you use? I want to buy some and smell it" – More creepy.
"I don't even regret it, in fact I hope my hand smells of your hair for the rest of the day and maybe later I'll lick my fingers and pretend I'm kissing behind your ear whilst I masturbate with whichever lotion I can find that smells most like butterscotch and cinnamon" – Hideously creepy. But the thought of it made me half-smile and I had to run my hand through my hair as I walked away to stop myself from grabbing her hand and tugging her into a supply closet.
Or my car. And then my bed.
What is happening to me?!
Please review! I really appreciate it.
