Chapter Eight

He was an idiot. The worst kind of idiot.

That wasn't at all what he'd wanted to ask Kim. Well, it was because he had been planning on seeing if she and Kylie wanted to get lunch to celebrate the last day of school. But he definitely hadn't meant to say all of that nonsense about being friends.

Because if there was one thing Jared wanted, it definitely wasn't just friendship with Kim.

But he chickened out at the last second and went back to the standard argument that it was still too soon for anything more. Kim was special, even if she didn't quite see it yet. She deserved for Jared to take things slowly. Well, that and he didn't want to scare her off with the soul mate talk just yet. That wouldn't come until much later.

And clearly he knew what he was talking about because for whatever reason she seemed to be under the impression he didn't even want to be friends with her. So yeah, that soul mate talk was definitely not happening anytime soon.

But Jared was okay with that, because he still got to spend time with Kim. And any time spent with Kim was definitely his favorite part of the day. Take right now, for example. All they were doing was sitting on a bench outside of the elementary school, but Jared was loving every minute of it.

Paul was definitely going to make fun of him for this later.

But it was so worth it.

"So…" Kim began slowly, breaking the comfortable silence they had fallen into after discussing how they thought they did on their finals—naturally, Jared had no one but Kim to thank for how well he thought he did on his, despite her embarrassed protests to the contrary. "What are your plans for the summer?"

Spending every possible moment with you.

"Working," Jared replied after a beat. "Mostly. But not always. Begging you to spend time with me, probably."

After spending as much time as possible with Kim over the past three weeks, if Jared had one guilty pleasure it was how easily he could make that blush spread across her cheeks. And, sure enough, that one sentence was enough to do it.

"Well I am very picky about who I spend my time with," Kim replied, "Especially during the summer."

"Oh, yeah?" Jared challenged her. "And what sort of plans do you have for the summer if your time is so precious?"

Kim gave him a sly grin, and Jared swore his heart skipped a beat.

"Nothing yet," She replied shortly.

"You mean Kylie hasn't already filled the daily itinerary with trips to the beach?" Jared questioned disbelievingly. If there was one thing he'd learned about the little girl over the past three weeks as he and Kim stayed inside studying their brains out, it was that her favorite place to spend her time was at the beach, rain or shine, and definitely not inside.

Kim merely shrugged. "I wouldn't know. Mom is sending Kylie to Grandma's for the summer."

"The whole summer?"

Kim nodded.

"At your grandma's?"

Another nod.

"By herself?"

Kim shrugged again. "Usually she'll send us both, but Mom said I deserve a break and the chance to do normal teenager things for a change."

Normal teenager things. Dating was a thing teenagers did.

If Jared could have slapped himself at that thought without looking completely ridiculous he would have. There was a time and a place for thoughts like that, and it was not the here and now. Hadn't he established that just moments earlier?

Except…

He really liked Kim. Spending time with Kim and her sister was great, but if there was the promise of uninterrupted time with just Kim for a whole summer, Jared would be an idiot not to take this opportunity. He wanted to take things slow, yes, but why waste time when they could potentially be in a relationship sooner rather than later. If she said yes, that was.

But it wouldn't be too difficult to find out. He just needed to ask her…just six little words. Jared could do this. He'd done it before, after all. Of course, it had never meant as much to him before as it did now. No one else mattered to him now except for Kim.

He could do this.

Jared took a deep breath.

"Hey Kim?" Jared asked hesitantly. He had never been this nervous before in his life. Until this moment, he hadn't even known it was possible to be this nervous.

"Yeah?" Kim replied, looking to him with a small smile.

"Um…well…I was thinking…" Breathe. Just breathe. In and out. "Do you think…maybe…will you go out with me?"

Kim simply stared at him, her expression frozen.

She wasn't answering. He had finally worked up the courage after all of these weeks to ask her out and she wasn't answering. Why wasn't she answering?

"I-you-what?" Kim stammered as her face turned red, and Jared's heart sank.

"Will you go out with me?" Jared repeated, trying not to let his dejection at her initial reaction show.

"On a date?" Kim questioned. And though she was still adorably bright red, Jared would have been pleased to note that she'd been able to get out something that actually sounded like a complete sentence that time if it wasn't for the fact it wasn't the sentence he was hoping to hear. Well, at least she hadn't outright turned him down…yet.

Jared nodded in response.

"With you?"

Jared could only nod again. This was so not going anything liked he'd hoped it would…

"So, as in, you and me, together, on a date, just the two of us?"

Jared nodded yet again.

"Why?"

Jared gave a little start at that. What did she mean 'why?' Why wouldn't he want to go on a date with her? She was amazing. And beyond the subtle tug of the imprint that never went away no matter how much time they spent in each others' presence, Jared had thought they had really connected with each other over the last few weeks as they got to know each other. She had to have felt it; she'd wanted to be his friend earlier, hadn't she? But maybe that feeling had just been him?

"Why wouldn't I want to go out with you?" Jared asked, genuinely confused and in desperate need of an answer. Dear god he hoped she didn't think he wasn't good enough for her…even though it was the truth, he was selfish enough to hope that she hadn't realized that yet.

But as soon as he spoke, Jared noted that Kim appeared to be just as confused as he felt.

"Well…" Kim trailed off, and Jared couldn't help but note in the small part of his mind that was desperately trying not to freak out that her deep blush was still going strong. Seriously, how adorable could she be? And when did he become the type of guy that called girls adorable? Well, when he finally noticed Kim, apparently, because he'd been doing that a lot lately. And speaking of Kim…

"I'm me and you're…you," She gestured vaguely first at herself and then at him. Jared was seriously at a loss; what on Earth was she going on about?

"I really don't know where you're going with this," Jared finally settled on admitting, at a loss for how else to respond.

"Jared," Kim said, and the slight uncharacteristic sharpness of her tone distracted him from thoughts of how nice his name sounded when she said it, though he definitely wasn't distracted from the look of embarrassment that had appeared on her face. "I know we're friends now, but this is different. People like you do not ask out people like me."

And suddenly everything made sense. Jared's initial reaction was to be angry, because how dare anyone—purposefully or otherwise—lead Kim to think that she wasn't good enough for someone, especially someone like him who definitely wasn't good enough for her. But he knew getting angry would only scare Kim, who was now steadfastly refusing to look at him and was instead focusing all of her attention on the fraying strap of her bag, and scaring Kim was the last thing he ever wanted to do. And so he settled on attempting to put to words how very wrong she was.

"Kim," Jared said softly, and he noted that she did jump in surprise, though that might have had more to do with the fact that he'd covered the hand fidgeting with her strap with one of his rather than the fact that he'd spoken. "I really don't know what 'people' you're talking about, but clearly it's not true because I did ask you out, and I really want you to say yes."

Kim seemed to hesitate before finally meeting Jared's eyes again. "Really?"

"Really," Jared affirmed. "I guess it probably would have helped if I had prefaced my questioned with a bit of an explanation, huh? I've really liked getting to know you the past few weeks, Kim, and I'm glad you agreed to be my study partner, even though I probably got a lot more out of it than you did." That got a smile out of Kim, albeit a small one. "And even though it's great that we've managed to become friendly, I really think we could have more than that and I don't want to scare you away before we can get the chance to at least try." Her smile got wider at that, and he could tell that she was holding back a giggle. "So, what do you say?"

Kim merely studied him for a moment before speaking.

"I've really liked spending time with you, too, Jared," Kim began, and Jared now allowed himself to inwardly swoon at the sound of his name on her lips while also inwardly cheering at her admission, and if those two thoughts alone didn't prove that he was completely whipped already, then he didn't know what would. "And…well, I guess I will go out with you."

"There's no need to sound so excited about it," Jared informed her and Kim really did giggle this time.

"I would love to go out with you, Jared," Kim said with a grin while the familiar blush quickly darkened her features.

Best. Day. Ever.