here it be~ Review please. not mine. tis SM's. i want jacob. argh.

Just Kim

"Hi." Jared said stunned, not taking his eyes off of Kim's.

Kim stared back at him, stunned as well. Jared Cheveyo was acknowledging her. Sam Uley seemed to be looking back and forth from Jared to Kim, in realization and bewilderment. Timmy just rolled his eyes with exasperation at his dumbfounded friend.

"Hey, Kim," Timmy said with a vicious nudge, Kim stumbled and Jared lurched forward as if to catch her. She didn't fall, and ended up regaining her balance, so Jared ended up looking a bit stupid. He must have thought so too, because he turned a brilliant shade of red, as he took a step back.

Timmy continued, "I think I lost my candy bar in this vast amount of sand somewhere." He gave his best friend an amused look, "I'll be somewhere over there looking around for it. Take your time."

Kim looked quickly at Timmy. "I'llgowithyou." She said hurriedly, trying to latch onto him, much the way her hair and her clothes were doing to Kim, due to the water.

"Jared, I'm actually late for a meeting with Emily. Come over later." Sam Uley said putting a hand on Jared's shoulder. He leaned closer to his ear, and Timmy heard him whisper to Jared to put on a shirt.

Please do, Timmy thought in his head, Kim might not have minded, but seeing Jared Cheveyo's toned body made Timmy think of his. It was an ego bruiser.

"Hey, is that my candy bar?!" Jared threw Kim's hands off of his arm and ran away as quickly as he could.

Kim hated him at that moment more than she'd ever hated him. He just left her on the beach, drenched, in front of Jared who looked like some Quileute version of Michelangelo's David? She was going to retire his friendship. Immediately. Sam Uley slowly backed away from the two of them as well.

"Hi." Jared repeated again.

Heat rose to Kim's face in the blink of an eye, and she found her heart beating maybe half a thousand times a minute. This was not good for her blood pressure. What if one of her vessels popped and she died in front of Jared, looking the way she did. Well, she'd regret it for all eternity, obviously.

"Hi." Kim replied thickly. Eventually remembering how to talk again.

"Hey." He said, grinning slowly.

Six hundred beats per minute.

"Hey." She repeated.

Why wouldn't her brain think of something intelligent to say?!

Full blown grin now.

Seven hundred beats per minute. Kim felt faint. Why was Jared Cheveyo grinning at her like this?

"Go for a swim?"

She felt like one of those people in a Sudafed commercial, as she answered. Stuttering like an idiot. "T-Timmy pushed m-me in." Was she shivering cause of her drenched condition, or was she stuttering talking to Jared Cheveyo cause he actually looked interested in what she had to say. Maybe it was both.

"Cold?" He asked with another broad grin.

"U-um, sort of. It is Washington, a-and the Pacific ocean." Kim stutter shivered. She left the part out about how he made her nervous so that half of it was stuttering.

"That is very true." He said. "I should offer you my coat cause you could get sick, but it's M.I.A at the moment."

Kim had almost forgotten that he was shirtless and clad in only cut offs. She blushed and it was almost enough to warm her up. Wait, did he rhetorically offer her his jacket? Oh my God.

"Aren't you cold?" Kim asked.

He raked his long black hair back with a weird expression on his face. Was it bitterness? "I should be, huh. Not anymore." He said, muttering the last part with unmistakable bitterness .

A brief second of silence passed, and Kim found it as an excuse to get the hell away from Jared. As much as she loved being awknowledged, she needed to get away before she went into overload.

"Uh, I think Timmy found his candy bar." Kim said quickly, "Oh, look he's waving at me."

That was a blatant lie, Timmy was nowhere to even be seen. He'd probably gone to her house, and was probably on the couch munching on a Snickers bar. Waiting for her to walk through the door so he could bombard her with questions. To her horror, Jared turned around and scoped the area.

"I don't see anyone."

"H-he's a fast runner." That was a lame excuse.

"Apparently." Jared gave her an amused smile. "I can walk you."

"NO!" Kim shouted. He looked taken back, "T-that's okay. I live right over there anyways."

Jared looked over towards the direction of the houses a couple hundred meters away. "You live there? The one at the end?"

"The one next to that." Why was he so interested in her all of a sudden? They'd spoken more today than they had the past seven years combined. Why on Earth was God being so cruel? Kim was supposed to erase Jared Cheveyo from her brain, she was getting so close too! Sort of.

"Oh, uh, I think I hear Timmy." She said sliding away from him.

"Are you sure I can't walk you?" Jared shoved his large hands into his cutoffs and gave her a small smile.

What on Earth.

Kim stared at him. Would his feelings be hurt if she said 'no' a second time? She shivered as another breeze went by.

"I guess I can't stop you-"

"Great! I'll walk you."

Kim, hesitant, started forward, looking behind her to see if Jared was following. He was. A satisfied expression on his face. Kim turned forward again, willing herself not to look back again. She didn't need to however, a couple seconds after walking in a line, Jared took a couple large steps and caught up with Kim. She was surprised at how warm he seemed to be. Heat radiated off of him.

They walked in silence for the most part, Kim in silence trying not to think about the boy she'd been dreaming about since she was eleven, who at that moment, was standing almost uncomfortably close to her. Not saying anything and seeming to be extremely satisfied with the current atmosphere. Apparently, he couldn't sense her uneasiness, her nervousness, her skepticism, her giddiness. Kim figured Jared Cheveyo was no good at channeling emotions.

She snuck a peek at him, only to find him looking down at her. He smiled when their eyes met, and she quickly looked away blushing deeply. She opened her mouth before she could stop herself.

"Do you always walk random girls from school home after you meet them at the beach?" She was horrified with her question.

Jared gave her an easy smile, "only girls from school named Kim."

He knew her name. Oh my God, Jared Cheveyo knew her name.

Then that little voice of doubt spoke out. Timmy did say it in front of him loudly before he left. Yeah, that was probably it.

"So you've walked Kim Hart back home too then." Kim said. Had she just made a joke?

"I've never seen Kim Hart at a beach though. So you are the only Kim I've walked home after the beach."

They were on her driveway.

Kim didn't say anything to respond, she only felt butterflies.

"Plus, I rather like walking Kims with two 'N's home."

She couldn't help but think public education was failing him if he thought her name was spelled with two Ns.

"C-O-double N-Weller. Right?"

The past seven years Kim had been in Like with Jared Cheveyo, and in the past seven minutes, that Like was definitely Love.

...Or something close to Love, like extreme Like. Or maybe it was giddiness, or an adrenaline rush? Oxytocin, or whatever hormone it was that controlled elated whateverness. Epinepherine? Serotonin? Kim didn't know. Kim didn't care. All Kim knew was that she definately wasn't going to be able to forget him any time soon.