"Listen, bitch." Olivia snarled.
My eyes widened and I had no clue how to react. The only time I spoke to her was in Gym and from what I could recall, she was relatively nice, albeit the fact our conversations had been very few and about the lesson.
"Stay the fuck away from Jared." Well, she wasn't so nice now.
"Excuse me?" I replied, not containing my confusion.
"You heard me you slut! Stay away-"
"Wait! What?"
"Bitch, I saw you get in the car with Jared at the party!"
No. I was going to stay calm. I refuse to give someone my attention when they weren't worth it.
Although, I replied rather condescendingly but very truthfully, "Nothing is going on between Jared and I. It doesn't concern me whether he has a girlfriend or not."
She was surprised at my reaction but quickly regained her spite.
"Why the hell did you get into his car then?" She hissed.
I could not believe she was still thinking I had done the dirty with Jared. Ha.
"Frankly, that's none of your business but I was sick so he took me home."
"All the way from Port Angeles and with only you two? You're a lying whore! How does Jared even know you?" Olivia looked at me in disgust.
Her time was up. She officially pissed me off.
"Again, that's none of your fucking business. I'm not a lying whore, but it's pretty clear you're a bitch in denial. If you and Jared were still together, you'd be sucking face at the club but as you know, he chose to take a girl home who was sick instead of even looking at you. I've done nothing wrong and I think it's you who needs to stay away from me. I don't have time for silly little girls like you."
I walked away and I think Quil and Paul had been behind me for my whole speech judging from their stunned faces. They were the only people in the hallway aside from Olivia. I scowled at them both and they flinched. I almost laughed aloud.
I was starving and as I strode away from the cafeteria, my stomach cried. But for the sake of my pride, I kept walking.
I had never had this kind of confrontation before, simply because I kept to myself and my friends were not petty enough to make a scene in front of everyone. Now I was being a hypocrite, but I didn't know Quil and Paul were standing behind me. It's not like I was going to let Olivia accuse me and call me names.
But I realised she was right. I was going to stay away from Jared. Jared was nice but after that scene with Olivia, there was no way in hell I wanted to be "friends" with him.
Anyway, I still had the obvious question nagging me as to why he suddenly wanted to be buddies. Now, I had a reason to avoid him and he had a reason to stay away from me. I didn't want to know his sudden interest.
I didn't need this drama.
I was relieved to find that I hadn't seen Jared at all today. I headed for my locker feeling lighter from the thought that I wouldn't have to confront anyone else.
I headed for my car and swore inwardly. Surprise. Surprise. That bitch told on Jared. He was leaning against my car and as if he knew I was staring at him, he looked directly at me.
His face was emotionless. Oh crap. What was I going to say! I couldn't just go up to him and say: "Hey Jared, could you stop talking to me and leave me alone. I don't need your crazy groupies ganging up on me because I talk to you. I'm pretty sure I could live without you anyway." I probably wouldn't hold back on the whole groupie thing though, I might even give a more vivid description.
We walked towards each other and as we did, I felt as nervous as hell. I mean technically he hadn't done anything wrong but I think he'd understand... right?
"I'm sorry." He suddenly blurted. His face was no longer masked and his hazel eyes begged for forgiveness.
Surprised at his reaction I didn't reply straight away.
"Er, look Jared..."
"I'm so sorry about Olivia. She won't be doing it again."
I steeled myself mentally.
"Yes. She won't be doing it again. Jared..." I faltered. "We shouldn't be friends." Before he interrupted, I said quickly, "I'm not the kind of person who gets into gossip or drama of any kind. No offence, I don't want to get involved with stuff like that." I don't know why I said "no offence", since it probably did offend him.
He looked completely devastated and then it quickly turned into anger.
"No, this is stupid. Why do you care what everyone else thinks?" He replied in an almost desperate voice near the end.
"I don't."
"So why can't we be friends?"
"Because." Think, Kim! Think!
"Because, what?"
"I just don't want a random girl starting a fight with me because I'm talking to the Jared Thail." I said dryly.
"That's bullshit. I'm nothing special."
"Ha! If you were nothing special we wouldn't be having this conversation in the first place! What do you want from me?"
"I want us to be friends." He said it so sincerely, but how could I believe him?
I was going to be the biggest bitch on the history of the earth. I would give him the palpable truth. I looked at him steadily.
"Why do you even want to be friends with me? Oh, did you magically notice how fucking brilliant I was, after, oh I don't know give or take nine to ten years? Look, I don't want to know either if you've some kind bet going on. I never did anything to initiate any kind of friendship. I'm still grateful for what you did from the other day but that's it. I'm fine now and we can just go back to how we were."
He looked like I had killed him repeatedly. I felt horrible inside but he knew what I said was true.
And so, I walked away and he did nothing to stop me.
Thankfully, I had managed to avoid Jared all week but I was relieved to find he hadn't been in anyway as he hadn't been in some of our other lessons together.
Ever since I had confronted him, I was holding my breath for our English lesson on Thursday but he didn't come in at all and it was now Friday. For one crazy moment I thought he hadn't come in because of our argument but I quickly put that out of my head as I wasn't that self absorbed and I didn't think Jared wanted to be friends with me that badly.
When Jared came back the following week, he looked terrible. His exhaustion was clear: he had slumped shoulders, eyebags and there was stubble on his jaw. Well, I found his stubble extremely attractive but as he collapsed onto the seat next to me, all thoughts of his rugged beauty were quickly swept aside as I looked away from him and faced the teacher.
I had hoped that we wouldn't have to talk about Atticus Finch or which ever character we were analysing in pairs today. As always, Mrs. Kotoua never failed to disappoint.
The both of us did not speak for a few minutes. Mrs. Kotoua walked up to us.
"Come on, now. Keep discussing your thoughts on Atticus in Chapter 4."
"We have, ma'am. And the both of us have already read the book anyway, and we agree that he's the epitome of morality but he's also probably one of the most awesome and totally awe-inspiring fictional characters." I replied smoothly and smiled a little.
"Oh!" She grinned happily at my enthusiasm. "Do you have anything else to add to that Jared?"
He looked up at Mrs. Kotoua and smiled weakly. "Yeah, I do. My favourite quote from Atticus was when he said: 'You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Uh, yeah - something like that." I felt as if he aimed it at me but since he looked like he'd had a miserable week, it could've been about everyone and anyone.
Wow, I think he knew that quote word for word. I've always known Jared was a pretty smart guy, he seemed like the type with decent grades but never at their highest because he didn't care too much. I guess he really liked To Kill A Mockingbird though. Or he was a closet nerd, which I highly doubted.
Mrs. Kotoua was practically jumping. I was silent and glanced at Jared. He was looking at me. I looked away and Mrs. Kotoua was beaming at the both of us.
"You two are absolutely perfect for each other!" She cooed. Oh dear god.
"No, Miss. We're not together." Jared said placidly.
She patted both of our heads, looked at us with shining eyes and went back to surveying the other students.
It was piece of cake making that woman happy. Jared and I didn't speak again for the rest of the lesson.
I had stayed in the school library after final period for a few minutes to borrow some books for a project and I was now walking to the near empty parking lot. Jared and Paul were both talking; they were in deep discussion, facing away from me and conveniently stood near my car.
I froze and was still quite a distance away from them. I walked to one of the benches hidden by a tree. It was fine, I'll just sit here until they leave. I got out a book I was currently reading, when Jared began shouting.
"You're a fucking ass, Paul!"
"Well you should know that by now! Anyway, get a fucking grip. I'm not the one who beat the shit out of some guy just because he kissed some girl." Paul shouted back.
"She. Is. Not. Some. Girl. You know that." I could hear the ferocity in his voice. "I swear to god I'll kill you if you ever say anything like that ever again."
"Geez, you're so fucking whipped! It's not my fault she's not interested and it's annoying the crap out of me!"
There was a pause. "You know what? You can fuck off right now before I murder you and before anyone sees us!"
I heard a literal growl; I had no idea who did it. I didn't even know it was possible for real people to growl. It was quiet. I waited for another ten minutes and the coast was clear.
That was intense. Sounds like Jared was really into that girl.
A/N
Hi! I'll say it straight away and tell you guys that I know it seems off that Jared's quoting Harper Lee but there will be a perfectly reasonable explanation in a future chapter and I've always imagined Jared as someone who wasn't too enthusiastic with books... And I suppose being a beautiful, part-time mythical creature with a stubborn imprint also gives you less time to read...
So much angst in this chapter! I think I'll lighten the mood on the next one. But you got to see a feisty Kim, which I may bring out more often.
x
