Don't own anything except OC's.

Chapter 5: Everything

Kim's POV.

The weekend passed without much happening. My parents stayed in Seattle, leaving me and my siblings to our own devises, as per usual. Monday came faster than I would have liked and I nervously pulled into the school parking lot. Anna-Marie and Mike clambered out the car to rush to their friends and I slowly made my way to my locker. Erin wasn't there yet, she was always late on a Monday morning, so it was silent as I switched over some books.

"You avoided me."

The voice made me jump about ten feet in the air and a book bang to the ground. I peeked behind the locker door and saw the last (first) person I wanted to see. "What?" I whispered.

"On Friday, you avoided me," Jared said hurtfully.

Gulping, I closed my locker door and focused on not letting my heart burst out of my chest. "No, I didn't," I lied quietly.

He sighed as he bent down to pick up my book from the floor. During his action, he had stepped forward slightly so when he straightened back up he was basically touching me. His hot breath washed against the side of my face and I almost became a big puddle on the floor. Shakily, I took the book from his hand and placed it in my arm.

"Thanks," I mumbled, not meeting his eyes. When his breath fanned my face again I stepped back.

Jared grunted slightly and ran a hand through his hair. "So, considering you avoided me on Friday," I blushed despite myself. "Will you let me hang out with you today?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to hang out with me all of a sudden," I replied softly, finally looking up. Bad idea, the pools of brown in his eyes made my knees go slightly weak. "You've never paid attention to me before, Jared."

His face scrunched up in pain and flinched. I felt the need to comfort him, but refrained myself. Not only did I desperately want to know the answer, it would look slightly weird if I started to console him when we had spoken a handful of times. "I'm sorry," he breathed sorrowfully. "I—you—I finally stopped being an idiot and opened my eyes to you."

"What does that mean?"

"Everything."

Needless to say, I was confused. What the hell was he talking about? Maybe he really had been hit over the head with a hammer or abducted by aliens. He was certainly acting like he had. I wanted to question more until I had the answers I needed, however, the bell rang signalling the beginning of class. Chuckling at my astounded face, Jared took hold of my hand and pulled me to the lesson. Every pair of eyes comically swirled to our intertwined hands faster than I could have clicked my fingers. Jared paid no mind to their whispers and giggles but it made me flush bright red. Jared was used to being centre of gossip, I wasn't. Rumours were frequently spread around about Jared and his friends and their antics. I was considered as that nice girl Kim that listens to your problems and doesn't complain. I wasn't the centre of the rumours and gossip, I was on the receiving end.

I liked it that way.

I didn't like attention, never had. It always made me break out into a sweat and my insides burn. Even good attention made me feel sick. This kind of gossip, bitchy stuff was a thousand times worse.

I thought he was just trying to make a point that he wasn't going to tease me or play a prank on me. I was almost sure he was going to run to his friends at lunch and mess around with them. I was wrong. In fact, I had never been more wrong in my life. Jared followed me to the next lesson, during break, and the lesson after that. At lunch he sat at a table with Erin and I, the latter sending me surprised and meaningful looks every three seconds. He only left my side when we had to go to different lessons.

It stayed like that for three weeks. It almost became normal to hold hands as we walked to class or for him to be waiting at my locker on a morning. Every night I felt like laughing at myself. Who would have thought Jared Cameron would want to be friends with me? Jared sat with us at lunch and, thankfully, he even hit it off with Erin. They had the same carefree, light attitude and bonded over their share of musical tastes.

I was extremely glad that he was sitting with us, but I had caught him staring wistfully at his former friends' table in the lunch room. One day, when Erin had gone to flirt with some guy a few tables down, I asked him about why he didn't speak to his friends anymore. His face fell and he said something about a 'change of events' that stopped him from hanging out with them on the weekends and going out with them on a night. Finally, his friends got sick of it and they got into a fight about it and hadn't spoken since. After that I looked at his friends closer and realized that they sent hurtful and betrayed looks every now and then to our table while Jared was sitting with us. They were probably hurt that he was hanging out with me instead of them, but as much as I felt sorry for them, I couldn't bring myself to care. Knowing Jared wanted to hang around with me more than he did his friends and that he was making time for me made something spark in my stomach. Was I becoming important to him?

I pulled into the parking lot on a cloudy morning and jogged into the school, anxious to see Jared. I hadn't seen him for two days and a part of me missed him. His laugh, his smile, his cheesy jokes. He was stood leaning against my locker when I walked inside and my lips stretched into a wide smile. Then I noticed that someone was stood beside him looking quite moody.

"Hey Kim," he greeted me brightly.

Smiling warily, I said, "Hey Jared."

My eyes glanced uneasily at the guy beside him and Jared's smile faltered slightly. "Oh, Kim this is Paul."

Paul nodded glumly at me. As he fully turned his face I realized just who he was. He was in a few of my classes and always sat at the back flicking paper airplanes into girls' hair and making rude comments to the teacher. He was the resident bad boy at La Push high. I couldn't count how many times girls had come crying to me about Paul Lahote breaking their heart or guys snapping on about how he did drugs and drank too much alcohol. I hadn't really spoken to him before and, as far as I knew, neither had Jared, so what the hell was he doing now?

Jared saw my confused look but made no comment. Bemused, I shuffled through my locker and didn't protest as Jared took my hand and pulled me to class. Paul walked a little in front of us glaring at anyone who dared to look at him. Like Jared, he had disappeared for weeks and come back impossibly ripped and rugged with all of his hair chopped off. If I didn't know better I would have said he and Jared were brothers. Girls practically swooned as Paul walked into the classroom and took a seat at the back and most guys scoffed and huffed, apart from Paul's friends who looked at him like he had just landed from Mars.

Erin, who had swapped seats with Jared a week ago after he begged for four days straight, sent me a baffled look. Shrugging, I took my usual seat and scribbled down in my book. I waited patiently until lunch when Paul was at a different lesson and didn't walk with us.

"Why are you suddenly hanging out with Paul?" I asked as Jared took a seat beside me.

"He's been going through… stuff. I've been helping him out for a couple of weeks and we've become friends."

"What kind of stuff?"

Jared smirked. "Not drugs, Kim. He fell out with his friends, too, and I found him pretty torn up about it," seeing my apprehensive expression, he grinned and took a hold of my hand. "He's not that bad. He's actually really cool, he can just get angry at times, but who doesn't? Give him a chance and I think you'll like him."

Though still hesitant, I agreed, mostly because I didn't want Jared to stop hanging out with me to hang out with Paul. Erin came over soon after so I stopped talking about Paul and listened to her story about her sister getting caught doing it with her boyfriend by her parents. Paul silently joined, sitting at the end of the table and munching his food. He didn't do or say much, occasionally he let out a small snort or added a snippy comment, and when the bell rang he headed immediately for his class. Erin hissed in my ear about him on the way to class and I waved off her concern. I hadn't decided about Paul yet and I didn't want to be mean about him without really knowing him.

Another week passed and it stayed the same. Paul was an okay guy, moody and irrational at times, but all round okay. He and Jared seemed to have an unexplainable bond between them that freaked me out a little. They were always sharing secretive looks and I had caught them more than a few times whispering frantically to each other. I didn't pry, figuring it was something private do to with Paul and his falling out with his friends. However, as the days went on I became more and more curious to know exactly what they were thinking.

Friday came and Jared and I were sat in English doing work. Once we had finished the teacher let us have "free time" so we sat and talked for a while. During the conversation, Jared picked up my hand and began to fiddle around with my fingers. The feeling of his rough hands so gently weaving their way through mine made goosebumps erupt all over my body.

"What are you doing tomorrow?" he questioned, three of his fingers grazing down to my wrist and back up.

"Nothing. Homework, probably, you?"

He grinned slightly. "Do you think you could take an hour away from you homework and go out with me?"

I froze and felt my heart pound like a frightened kangaroo in my chest. "Like—like on a d-date?"

"Yep."

Oh my God!

I felt my blood rush to my brain and swirl around dangerously. Was this a dream? Jared Cameron asking me out had been my dream since I was ten-years-old, could it really be happening now?

"Kim?" Jared asked worriedly after a minute of silence. I wasn't even breathing. "Are you alright?"

"Yes."

His face lit up like a child at Christmas. "Yes to the date?"

Unable to speak, I nodded. He smiled so wide I was afraid his cheeks would crack. A smile itched its way onto my lips as well. The bell rang seconds later and as usual we walked to the parking lot together. I smiled shyly at him as we stopped near my car.

"I'll pick you up at five?" he said happily.

"Sure. Wait, do you know where I live?"

"Yeah. I've seen you walking into it before," he smiled. Shocking me, he leaned down and kissed my cheek. "See you tomorrow, Kim."

Yeah, I pretty much fainted.

In a daze, I got into the car and waited for my siblings. When I got home I collapsed onto my bed with a dreamy sigh. Abruptly, I sat up straight on the bed and gasped.

Shit, what was I going to wear?

Thoughts?

Thanks for the reviews, favourites and alerts! Hope you like this chapter and feel free to ask questions if you have any!

-Layla