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Chapter 3: Inner debates

Kim's POV.

"He called you beautiful?!"

I glared at her. "Could you shout that any louder? I don't think some people in England heard you properly."

She sent me an apologetic look. "Sorry, but what? Jared looked at you like you were the Mona Lisa and then called you beautiful? What the hell is going on with him?" she questioned, leaning in like she was telling me a huge secret. "He comes back looking like he's on steroids and then acts like he's been hit over the head with a sledge hammer? There's definitely something fishy going on, Kim."

"Like what?"

"Maybe he was abducted by aliens," her lips tugged in the corners. "And they probed him so much he's gone slightly insane," she giggled when I snorted. "It's just weird that it took him all this time to notice you, isn't it? I mean you've been crushing on his for, what, five years? And it's took him till now to realize you? In my opinion he should have noticed you were beautiful sooner than now, Kimmy."

I smiled at my best friend. "Maybe you were right about the alien thing," I shrugged, ignoring the sinking of my heart. "It's probably just a fluke. He'll never speak to me again now."

"He doesn't deserve you anyway, Kim."

My shoulder slumped and I smiled slightly at her, though I thought she was wrong. She beamed widely back at me and started to plan the sleepover we had been talking about having for the past two weeks. We ate lunch on the bench outside the Art/Drama room as Erin didn't want to run into Kristy, a girl she had apparently splashed with a dirty puddle this-morning, indulging in some crappy vending machine food that cost way more than what it was worth.

The rest of the day I spent daydreaming about Jared and rerunning his deep voice calling me beautiful over and over again in my head. The more I thought about it, my mind came to the conclusion that he was definitely on some type of delusional drugs. I didn't get to see Jared, which disheartened and relieved me, and I raced through the light rain to get to my car.

"Kim?!"

I turned and squinted through the thin droplets only for Jared to suddenly pop into my view. My heart skipped a beat and I unconsciously tightened my jacket.

"I—is there something wrong?" I breathed, breath catching in my throat.

"No, of course not," he chirped—yes, chirped. His plump lips were stretched into a wide, knee-wobbling grin. "Just—how are you?"

What?

Jared, a.k.a. the guy I had fancied since I was ten-years-old and yet I had only spoken to a handful of times, is asking me how I am? He had never cared before about how I was. In fact, he gave off the impression that I could have died and he wouldn't have realized, yet now he was chasing me down the high school parking lot to ask me how I am.

What was going on with the world? More importantly, what the hell was going on with Jared?

"O-okay, I suppose," I replied, my eyebrows scrunching on their own accord.

"Great."

The weird thing? He said that as if it actually was great that I was okay. It wasn't just a flippant "great" what people would usually say, but like he was genuinely happy that I was okay.

I was over-thinking this, surely.

"KIMBERLY!"

I looked away from staring wide-eyed at Jared to see my sister waving manically near my car as if I couldn't see her from only ten feet away.

"Bye." I threw over my shoulder quickly, running to Anna-Marie like she was my life line. I hopped into my car, slamming the door so hard Mike jumped out of his seat in fright. He sent me a rough glare and moodily turned to the window, but I was too busy trying not to faint to care.

It took me five minutes to regain breath and for me to start the car. I was only half concentrating on the roads (something my late great-grandmother would hit me for) as I drove home. Mike was chatting on about soccer practice in gym and Anna-Marie grinned slyly at me, her dark eyebrows raised in question. I ignored her and tried to listen to Mike, but the knowing glances she was sending me through the rear mirror were distracting me greatly.

"What was Jared talking about?" Anna-Marie questioned as soon Mike was out of hearing distance.

"What?" I asked dumbly. Maybe if I acted cool, she'd drop it.

She rolled her eyes. Apparently when I tried to act cool I came across as stupid. "You know, Kimmy. You've been crushing on him since forever and now you've finally got his attention. What'd you do?"

"Nothing."

She huffed. "Fine, don't tell me. I'll find out one day, Kimberly, and then I'll hold it against you for the rest of your life."

"Well, if you find out, please tell me the answer."

She rolled her eyes at me again and walked off into the kitchen. Honestly, I didn't know what I had done to suddenly gain some attention from him. Jared had never paid attention to me before, but, in all fairness, I hadn't done anything to grab his attention. I didn't put myself out to talk to him (even if he did talk to me I would have ended up looking like an embarrassed tomato), I didn't hang out with any of his friends, I didn't do or say anything to make myself stand out.

Had I done something different today? I ran the day's events through my head and tried to think if I did anything out of the ordinary. The only out-there thing I had done today was eat on the bench instead of in the lunch hall (wow, I really needed to get out more). Even then, Jared had noticed me before I had eaten on the bench anyway, so (by some bizarre slight chance) even if it was that, why did he pay attention to me in History class? Why did he call me beautiful?

It was strange even thinking of the word. No one had ever called me beautiful before, not even my parents. Anna-Marie and Erin called me "pretty" or "cute", but beautiful? That wasn't a word that described plain-Jane Kim Connweller, especially by the sex-God that was Jared Cameron. Being called beautiful caused some mixed emotions—flattery, confusion, happiness, awkwardness. And because the compliment (?) came from Jared Cameron's (perfect) mouth, it caused those emotions to strengthen tenfold.

No matter how much I wanted to believe that I had been thrown into a fairy-tale-like world and that my long term crush had finally noticed me and we would ride off into the sunset together with a couple of kids under our belt, I couldn't help but think about unbelievably weird it was. Had he really had an epiphany and realized I was his perfect girl? Or was this all one big joke to him?

It probably was. One of his friends had probably pointed out my cringe-worthy crush and Jared was now messing about with me for the benefit of entertainment. I wasn't going to submit to his games. I wasn't going to become the laughing stock of the school.

But what if he really did like me?

No.

The thought alone was stupid. Jared Cameron didn't like girls like me. He liked girls like Amy Jenson, Nicole Rockman and Hannah Ashworth. They were all gorgeous, out-going, party girls that loved having fun more than they did getting good grades. I was the total opposite to any of the girls Jared had dated in the past. So unless Jared had been hit by a meteor that had completely 180ed his personality, I was out of luck... not that I was in luck in the first place.

"Kim? Do you want some food?"

I looked away from the wall at my sister's voice. My feet moved on their own accord until I was in the kitchen watching as Anna-Marie shuffled around some bowls and Mike scribbled down some homework.

"Yeah, thanks."

She smiled at me and Mike asked me to help him with some Math.

My life was too complicated for someone like Jared anyway. From what I knew, Jared had loving parents, a good house near the beach and a cute little sister that I often seen him picking up from the elementary section of the school building. He'd probably run after the first meeting of my over-bearing, rude parents, and if not, then he'd run after realizing I was the only person to look after my siblings. Anna-Marie and Mike were my family, in my ways they were my life. Jared wouldn't be able to handle that anyway.

Would he?

Thoughts?

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-Laylax