3.
When I walked into English the next day Jared was already sat in his seat and staring intently at the door as I walked in. I looked straight at him, our eyes meeting, and it made me blush.
"Hey Kim" he said as soon as I put my bag down. "How are you?"
"You're back" I said and smiled at him. Way to sound super keen Kim.
He nodded and looked as if he was pleased that I'd noticed he hadn't been in. "Yeah" he replied, "Couldn't miss today, we have double English!" He laughed.
Thursdays are my favourite day of the week for precisely that reason. Two English classes, one just before lunch and one right at the end of the day. Two English classes, meaning double the amount of time I get to sit next to Jared and therefore, Thursdays are always my favourite day. Today, however, I have to leave school early for my therapy appointment in Forks so unfortunately I'm going to miss my double Jared dose. There's always next week I guess.
"How are things with the new worker?" I asked.
"Huh?" Jared said, looked at me confused.
"The new worker? Paul said you had been helping them the past two days…" I trailed off. Surely he remembered?
"Oh! Yeah! Yes.. things are good" he nodded, "all seems to be going okay. Sam had asked me to help him out". I nodded.
"Well that was nice of you" I said. He smiled back at me.
"You doing anything this weekend?" He asked me.
I was a bit taken aback at this to be honest. Jared's never so much as asked me what the time was and now he wants to know my weekend plans. I also didn't want to answer and reveal myself to be as boring as I'm sure he already thought I was.
"Not much," I replied casually, "might go for a walk at the beach or hike in the woods, just going to chill out. What about you?"
"You should go to the beach Kim, you shouldn't hike in the woods" he told me sternly, looking at me straight in the eyes. "There are lots of wild animals and stuff in the woods, people get lost all the time… it's just not safe" he continued but started to mumble as if he realised it was weird for him to be telling me what to do.
"Uh, okay" I agreed. I thought back to the wolves howling last night, he was probably right - wolf attack would be a nightmare way to go.
"Okay everyone! Let's open our books to chapter 7 and get started" Mr Wilson called from the front of the room. I turned to look at him and opened up my book.
I had put my things away in my locker after English and started to walk towards the school exit. It wasn't raining and was perfect weather for a walk to the beach.
Just as I got to the school exit a warm hand placed itself on my shoulder making me jump.
"No, no no Kimmy. You're eating with us today" Paul said, spinning me around with his hand.
"Umm…" I mumbled, not really sure what to say.
Jared stood behind Paul's left shoulder, "You don't have to if you don't want to Kim" he said, but he looked hopeful that I'd say yes.
"Oh yes she does!" exclaimed Paul, beginning to drag me with him.
Jared looked worried. "Paul…" he began, in a warning voice.
"It's okay", I smiled at Jared reassuringly. Lunch yesterday hadn't been too bad with Paul - it might be quite nice to do it again.
When Jared and Paul sat down in front of me I stared at their lunches with wide eyes.
Paul laughed, "You want some Kimmy?". He had again bought two sandwiches, an apple, two cookies and an oatmeal bar. Jared had a similar looking tray in front of him as well.
"Oh my god you guys! How are you that hungry?" I laughed.
"Growing men!" Jared exclaimed, rubbing his stomach.
I snorted in response.
I signed out at the school office after maths and made my way over to the health centre where my mum was. As she was working a late shift I was going to borrow her car and drive myself over to Forks.
"Oh hi Kim" Paul's mum Emma greeted me as I walked in. "You okay?" She asked.
"Hi Emma, good to see you. I'm okay thanks". Emma was always lovely whenever I saw her. I had never understood how Paul had turned out to be quite so angry to be honest. Emma radiated calm and love every time I saw her.
"Your mum is with a patient right now but she said you could just take her keys. She left them behind the counter." She smiled at me.
"Thanks Emma." I replied grabbing them.
I didn't really like driving my mum's car. I had only just learnt to drive last year and last winter I had skidded on the ice on the road coming back from Port Angeles and it had made me nervous. But I guess sometimes you just gotta suck it up.
After therapy, I drove home. I knew my mum wouldn't be back until later and my stomach was rumbling so I was already plotting to eat the cheese pizza I knew we had sitting in the freezer while watching re-runs of Law and Order.
I dropped the car at the health centre, leaving the keys behind the counter again - this time there was no sign of my mum or Emma - and then began to walk home.
Annoyingly I had left my headphones in my locker so I decided to run as much as I could (turns out it wasn't that much - I was so unfit) and then walked the rest.
When I got closer to my house I started to hear raised voices.
"But this is an emergency! I don't know how much more of an emergency this could be!" one voice shouted, but I couldn't hear the reply.
"Sam, she's missing!" the voice shouted again.
As I got to my house I realised that the voices were coming from the side of my house, where the drive led down to the garden at the back.
"She's not missing. Paul went to speak with his mum and said she had taken her mum's car. I'm sure she'll be back soon."
I both heard and saw the responder this time. It was Sam Uley, stood on my drive, and he was speaking with a rather stressed out looking Jared. Were they talking about me?
"She could be anywhere!" Jared wailed in response.
Sam suddenly flicked his gaze up to me. I must've been stood there with my mouth hanging open.
"Jared" he muttered.
Jared immediately spun around and let out a breath of air when he saw me. His shoulders seemed to visibly relax.
"Kim!" He said and rushed over to me, embracing me in a hug.
"I'll leave you to it" Sam called to Jared, before waving at me and then running off into the woods behind my house.
"I'm glad you're okay. Where have you been?" Jared asked me, pulling back to look at my face.
"Uh… I was just out in Forks… what are you doing here Jared?" I asked.
"Oh… um…" He stopped hugging me and stepped back a step - seeming to realise his behaviour was odd. "You weren't in English last period and I worried something had happened to you." He looked down at the ground as he spoke.
"I er, I had an appointment" I mumbled. A part of me felt like I needed to comfort him.
Get it together Kim.
I almost wanted to laugh to myself. I'd literally just spent half my therapy session telling my therapist that Jared was acting weird and had started paying attention to me (she was well aware of my crush). She had made me think I was over-thinking the whole thing - but this is literally a perfect example - this would never normally happen to me.
"I'm sorry. Of course you did" Jared said, as if the idea that was possible had only just occurred to him.
I scratched at my arm, feeling a bit awkward. Jared looked down at my hand and so I quickly stopped.
As if right on queue, a wolf howled from somewhere in the forest - soon followed by another one. Jared looked over his shoulder to the trees and then back to me.
"I'm glad your okay Kim" he said sincerely. I smiled back at him.
"I need to go" he said, "I'm sorry" he then added, scratching the back of his head.
"Okay, sure." I replied.
He stepped forward to hug me again but seemed to stop himself, as if having this internal battle if it was okay.
I bit the bullet (while internally screaming with simultaneous joy and panic) and stepped forward and gave him a hug goodbye. He was warm and he gave me a soft squeeze.
"See you tomorrow" I said.
"I honestly can't wait" he replied, and then jogged off the same way Sam went.
Flipping weird I thought, but I actually also didn't care - because I just got two hugs from Jared Cameron! I felt like I was gliding as I walked into my house.
