Chapter 2

The lunch room was loud, obnoxious and gave off an old potato smell. Yum! To those of you with no sense of humor that yum was sarcastic. Out of habit my eyes went to the left side of the cafeteria were Sam's table was. Usually I would fix my eyes on a certain persons back but today he was turned the other way staring at me. I quickly turned around a said,

"So Tim what did you get on that French report?" He turned to give me a quizzical stare.

"Why are you asking that, Kim? You know I get straight A's in French. C'est le vie!"

"Right," I mumbled. A look of understanding came to his face.

"Hey you're not still sad about that 99% you got last year are you?" I hadn't even thought about that but now that he mentioned it I did feel down.

"Nah, it wasn't so bad I just had to deal with my parents when I got home. That was bad." He reached over and gave me a comforting hug.

"Don't worry about it Kim getting a 100% is overrated."

"Thanks Timmy."

"Hey! Don't call me Timmy!" He said as I laughed.

Tim had been my best friend since, well, forever. He'd been there for every big occasion of my life. For as long as I could remember Tim had been there. Even though he wanted so much more than to just be friends I could not. The only explanation I had for this was because for as long as I could remember I'd been obsessed with Jared.

We sat down at our regular table. Our table was for people who didn't belong to a 'group'. I placed my tray down and took out my fork and knife placing them to the right of the napkin like I'd down ever since I started school.

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" I asked genuinely curious.

"You have an order for everything."

"I do not." I said looking around and blushing. He smiled and winked at me.

"Don't worry about it Kimmie. I think it's cute," he said while taking my hand.

"Tim…," I started to complain until I heard something.

"Jared!" Someone shouted from Sam's table. "Control yourself." By this time everyone was staring at him including me. I saw him look into my eyes for a few short seconds and then mumble,

"I have to get out of here."

Although I'd tried my best not to show it, I'd been wondering about Jared all day. Why did he need to 'control himself'? I pulled my hands into my pockets to keep them warm. I admired the autumn leaves as I walked to my house.

"Hey." A voice sounded behind me. I jumped and upon my landing slipped on the sidewalk. I caught myself before I hit my face but still ended up on my hands and knees.

"Are you okay? I'm so, so sorry." A pair of overly warm hands pulled me up. I turned around and looked into the face of Jared Morson.

"D-don't worry about it I'm fine. I'm usually tripping over things." I wiped my hands on my jeans and noticed a pain shoot up through my arm. At the same moment Jared and I looked down at my hands which were bleeding. He took a harsh intake breath and I looked up into his face. He eyes reflected a pain probably a hundred times worse than what I was feeling.

"We need to get you to a clinic or a hospital. Kim I am so sorry." Jared just said my name. I can die happy now. "Kim?"

"What? Oh, don't worry it'll stop in a few minutes."

"This," he motioned to my hands, "is not okay." Was he okay? You'd think I'd been hit by a car the way he was treating this injury.

"Well, if you're that worried about it I'll go to Tim's." The look on his face instantly darkened.

"What could Tim do to help this?" He said through clenched teeth.

"Well, his dad's a doctor." Maybe he had something against the Gully's. "But really Jared my house is just down the road and I think a band aid is enough to stop the bleeding."

"Okay." He said. We stood there for a few more seconds in an awkward silence.

"I guess I'll see you at school." If he wasn't standing there I probably would've been jumping up and down like a little girl screaming 'Jared just had a conversation with me' over and over again.

"Wait! What, I'm coming with you." I blanked out. Come with me to my house? Jared, come into my house?

"That's really unnecessary."

"How am I to know you won't collapse due to blood loss?"

My house wasn't much. I lived there with my older brother and one of his friends so most of the time the house wasn't organized. I silently praised myself for cleaning up yesterday. We walked in and I found the band aids in their usual place.

"Do your parents live here?"

"No, they don't," I replied. "I live here with my brother." My brother's friend Neal sprinted down the stairs in nothing but boxers.

"Hey, Kimmie have you seen my pants?"

"They're on your bed," I turned around, "Neal put something on!"

"I couldn't because I didn't know where my pants were."

"You could've taken my brother's." A light bulb clicked on inside his head.

"I guess so." Sometimes Neal was such an idiot. I couldn't believe he'd just come down in his boxers when Jared was here. Oh gosh, Jared was still here.

"Kim?" He questioned, hands shaking. "Who was that?"

"That was my brother's friend Neal. He lives with us as well."

"So you live with two guys?" Darn. The only person I'd ever told this to was Tim and he understood. People would obviously come to the conclusion that I was a slut.

"Yeah, I guess I do. But one's my brother and I am pretty sure he'd clobber Neal if he tried anything. Plus Neal isn't that kind of person."

"Well I'll see you at school tomorrow." Out of no where he ran out the door. That might of bothered me if Jared hadn't called me beautiful today. Best day of my life? I think so.