She rushed to her locker when the final bell rang for the day, hastily cramming her stuff in to her bookbag before closing her locker door. She lifted her bookbag up, slinging it over one shoulder as she walked through the long hallways.

A107 was upstairs, in the right side hallway. She made her way past the other students, who were descending down the stairs as they were leaving for the day. She reached the top of the stairs, looking down the long hallway where she could see Jack standing by his locker. She smiled slightly and made her way over to him.

"Hey."

"Oh, hi." He responded. He was leisurely placing things in to his bookbag. She looked at the inside of his locker, which was bare as opposed to being lined with pictures like everyone else. The halls were mostly vacant now, with only a handful of students straggling around their lockers still. Jack set down his bookbag, reaching in to his locker and pulling out an olive green military style jacket, with hand-sewn patches on the front and on the bicep of the sleeve. He slid it over his broad shoulders, looking down at her.

"So, do you like coffee?"

"Um, yeah." She smiled gently. "Coffee sounds nice."

He smiled slightly back, picking his bookbag back up and lifting it over his shoulder and shutting his locker. "I know this really nice place. Not too far from here, if you're up for a little walk."

"Okay." They headed out of the school together, walking side by side. Lily noticed some people staring at her while she was walking, but decided to ignore it. They were almost a block away from the school before Jack said anything.

"So, Lily."

She looked up at him inquisitively, watching as he stared down at the sidewalk. His curly blonde locks fell in front of his eyes as he kept his gaze averted.

"Why did you come up to me yesterday?"

Lily felt slightly despondent at his question. "I'm not sure. I guess I felt bad seeing you sitting alone, I just wanted to be nice."

"You…wanted to be nice?"

She looked down at her feet. "I didn't mean to offend you…" Her voice trailed off slightly.

He chuckled slightly. "Ah, Lily. You didn't offend me."

"I didn't?"

"Nah. I'm just not used to anyone being nice to me is all."

She looked back up at him. "Really? Why not?"

He inhaled slightly, exhaling in a quiet sigh. "Let's just say I didn't exactly have a picture perfect home life. And then once I started school people just…started to single me out."

"Oh…" She watched her feet again, unsure of how to respond. They walked in silence again for several minutes.

Jack glanced over at her, smiling slightly. "But not you, Lily."

She met her eyes with his, looking at his warm hazel eyes as they gazed at her. His lips curled in to a smile.

"You actually gave me a chance. I'm… grateful for that."

Lily smiled back at him, feeling her auburn hair swaying in the cool autumn breeze. Loose strands of hair rested around her eyes.

Jack halted his step, gently nudging her with his elbow. He nodded his head towards a small shop nestled in between two other buildings.

"That one, over there. It's a small, family owned shop. Really fucking good coffee and nice and quiet." He smiled at her slightly, continuing on again while she followed.

"Jack?"

He turned his head over his shoulder to glance at her. "Hm?"

"I'm glad I decided to give you a chance." Her cheeks flushed slightly and she tried to hide a smile.

He chuckled slightly, grabbing hold of her petite hand and leading her towards the shop.

Lily and Jack sat there in that small coffee shop, just talking to each other. Jack had opened himself up a little more to Lily, telling her about his hobbies and interests outside of reading. He loved listening to music, and played the acoustic guitar. She learned that he also like writing and drawing, even if he wasn't very good at it.

Lily talked a lot more than Jack, but she didn't mind. He listened to her intently, and he seemed interested in hearing whatever she had to say. She talked about her favorite books, her family, friends, school, and her hobbies. They had sat there, just talking about anything and everything for so long that they lost track of time, and the shop owner had to come over to their table to tell them they were closing in five minutes. Lily and Jack paid for their drinks, thanked the owners and then walked back outside again.

Lily looked up at the sky, which was a shade of deep blue. She giggled slightly.

"Wow…we were in there for a while."

"Yeah…sorry." Jack scratched his head awkwardly. "I didn't mean to keep you out so late, I should probably walk you home."

They started walking again. Lily's house wasn't too far away, only a few blocks. They were almost back when they walked up to a playground, empty this late at night. Lily playfully grabbed at Jack's arm, leading him towards the swingset.

"C'mon, let's take a detour." She giggled slightly.

They sat beside each other on the swings, Lily swung slightly while Jack sat and watched her. She glanced over at him, and then up at the sky.

There were no clouds to pollute the view, millions of tiny stars shone brightly in the night sky. "Look at the sky, Jack."

Jack obliged, leaning his head back and gazing at the sky.

"Isn't it so pretty? I wonder what it's like out there in space."

"Maybe there are spooky space monsters out there. OoOooo!"

Lily chuckled slightly. "Very funny, Jack."

They gazed at the sky together for a few minutes. Lily let out a dejected sigh when she stood up.

"I do need to get home soon though, before my parents kill me."

Jack stood up too, following after her as they began walking back to her house again. They got there in just a few minutes. Lily stopped and stood on the sidewalk in front of her house, turning back towards Jack, who stood a few feet away.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Yeah, sure." she replied. She stood there for a moment or two before she walked up to Jack, standing before him. He looked down at her with those soft, hazel eyes and she smiled. She closed her eyes, placing her head against his chest as she wrapped her arms around him gently.

Jack felt somewhat stunned by her notion at first, his body tensing up slightly. She hugged him a little bit tighter.

"Thank you, Jack."

He relaxed, letting his muscles loosen up. He smiled slightly, gently hugging her back.

She pulled away a moment later, smiling at him before walking up to her front door and going inside.

Jack stood there, staring at her front door for a few moments. He turned on his heels, walking back again with a grin plastered on his face.