AN: Hello everyone. It's 7 in the morning and I'm absolutely exhausted. I have work in an hour and I'm sitting here in my towel, but I wanted to get this out before I went off to go about my daily life...yeah.

Thanks to alicecullenisrealinmyworld, as always, for being an awesome beta. My head would be rolling around without her (:

This is kind of a filler chapter, and I'm really sorry, but the next chapter- let's just say that shit hits the fan and I hope to get that out sometime this week, so stick around & leave me a review!

Dean didn't come home that night.

"Mom," I whispered into the dark. She kept blankets and sheets over her windows to block out the sun while she slept. The only light in the room came from her digital alarm clock.

She didn't say anything.

"Mom," I said a little louder. There was slight movement and then her groggy voice, thick with sleep:

"What."

"Could you- could you get the girls on the bus this morning?" I asked hesitantly. I always felt bad asking my mom to do things in the morning because I knew that she worked late. But she never got the girls ready for school. Ever. "Dean has the car and I don't want to be late to school."

I waited patiently for her to respond, but all she did was breathe in deeply, so I knew that she fell back asleep.

"Mom."

"Jesus fucking Christ, Kim," she shouted into her pillow. I jumped. "I'm trying to sleep!"

"I have to go to school!" I said, a little astonished that she had shouted. She never shouted. "I'll be late!"

"So then be late, Kim! I'm fucking sleeping."

I stood there, staring at nothing but seeing everything. My heart was pounding.

"Close the damn door."

I did, pausing and taking a deep breath. I dejectedly walked to school in the rain after having gotten the girls on the bus. My mother rarely yelled, snapped or got angry as a general rule. It just wasn't her thing. She was either too tired or sleeping, whichever came first.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a very nice day, so I threw my hood up and hoped I wouldn't be drenched completely by the time I arrived at school.

But it did give me some time to daydream about Jared.

I'd sat up in bed for hours- only getting a couple to sleep, thinking about Jared and his kiss.

What happened now? Were we- were we boyfriend and girlfriend now? Did we ignore the fact that we kissed and go along our merry way? What if he decided that I was a terrible kisser and he didn't even want to talk to me anymore?

I was making myself sick; my stomach began churning just thinking of all the different possible reasons why Jared would no longer want to talk to me anymore.

There was a loud rumbling behind me and Jared, driving a white dirty Bronco, grinned at me from the inside.

"Need a ride?"

Why was he smiling at me? He was acting like- like he was happy to see me and- no. No. Maybe it wasn't an act- or- I didn't even know what to think anymore.

My mind was turning to mush.

"Kim?"

"Sure," I said quickly. I dashed to the passenger side and slid in. He grinned at me.

"Hi," he said happily, but then his smile slid off his face. "Something's wrong. What's wrong?"

I stared at him and let out a nervous chuckle. "Nothing's wrong-"

"Kim," he said, but it was the way he said it that made me stop. He was sincere. "What's wrong?" My eyes began to sting and horrified, a tear dripped down my cheek. He looked stricken. "Why are you crying? Did something happen?" He grabbed my hand.

"I'm being stupid," I sputtered. "I'm sorry-"

"Just tell me," he said, putting the truck in park- right in the middle of the street.

"My mom," I muttered, wiping my face angrily. "She- she just yelled at me this morning and I-I just-" I sighed and took another breath to calm myself down. "Sorry. You probably don't want to hear about this-"

"Kim," Jared said, drawing it out. "I could listen to you talk about statistics or the weather and I'd be interested."

"Why?"

"Because I care about you," he said simply and without any hesitation. "And I care about what you have to say and what's bothering you." He looked distressed. "Why do you- why do you always look at me like that? Like I'm about to-"

"-disappear," I whispered. "Because I'm afraid that that's exactly what's going to happen-"

"I'm not," he promised. "Wherever you are is where I'll be."

The way he was looking at me and the undeniable truth in his eyes excited me more than they should have. But.

"You don't believe me," he concluded when I didn't say anything. We were still sitting in the unmoving truck in the middle of the road.

"It's hard for me to accept it," I said.

"Why?"

"Could- could I tell you another time?" I said in a small voice. "I- we're already late for school-"

He stared at me for a second before turning back around in his seat and turned the car back on. He was disappointed, I could tell. "Sure."

I arrived at school much more miserable than I was before.

xxxxxx

In class, Jared didn't speak. He kept his head propped up with his left hand and doodled on his notebook with his right. He didn't look at me. Looking down at my notebook, I noticed that it was covered in my own doodles; all they said was Jared + Kim, something I hadn't written in a long time and it surprised me- I'd forgotten they were there. My face turned red as I turned the notebook over.

"Jared?" I whispered. He turned his gaze towards me. He looked defeated; it wasn't a good look- it made me anxious and my heart contract. "Are you mad at me?"

He blinked, picking his head off his hand. "I-"

At that exact moment, the door burst open. Paul stood there, breathing heavily and looking like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Jared," was all he said and then he began to shake, his whole body trembling .

"Mr. Lahote," Mrs. Henley admonished. "Get back to class immediately-"

But Jared jumped up, leaving his things behind. He stood in front of Paul, who was still shaking. He placed both hands on Paul's shoulders.

"Calm down, man- what's up? What's going on?"

"Jacob," he choked out. "Sam-"

Jared began shaking too. "Sorry Mrs. Henley-"

"Mr. Cameron-!"

"I've got to go!"

And they were both gone, the door slamming shut behind them.

The teacher blinked and it was suddenly extremely quiet in the room. Everyone was staring blankly at the door.

"Well," Mrs. Henley said a minute later. "I guess we'll…uh, continue-"

Class ended only ten minutes later, and I'd barely been in class (Jared really had made us later than we should have been). He never came back.

I gathered his stuff with my own, placing his books on top. His doodles were pretty good and I found myself smiling. My heart froze when I realized what a couple of them were.

My name.

My face was red again and I hurried out of the room, tossing his books in my locker the second I got it open.

I didn't see Jared for the rest of the day and I didn't think he'd come back- Paul wasn't in the rest of our classes either.

When I walked through the parking lot to go home, Jared's books tucked safely away in my bag, I noticed the white Bronco was the last truck in the lot. I ripped a piece of paper from my own notebook and pulled out a pen.

I'm sorry about earlier. I have your books, but I have work tonight. Come by the store and I'll give them to you.

I really am sorry.

I hesitated then left it under the windshield wiper, hoping that it wouldn't start raining again by the time he got to it.

By the time I got home, it was pouring.

AN: Alriiiiighty then. So I said before shit's going to hit the fan...what do you think is going to happen? I'll give you a little hint- you'll never want to work in a department store. Ever. (: Please review! xx