The sound of footsteps heading towards me reverberated across the empty and silent, school hallway. I ignored them and was seated on one of the chairs at the front desk, continuing to read my book.

My peripheral vision failed me. They sat on my left where most of my hair was currently dangling. I mentally shrugged and my curiosity quickly faded as I became fully engrossed at the words in front of me.

"Hi, Kim." I moved my hair away and looked up. I raised my eyebrows and replied,

"Hi." I returned to my book.

"So… You and Jared…" OK, that was random. What was he talking about? Damn it, now I was intrigued. Nonetheless, I acted unperturbed and said,

"What about him…"

He looked at me and started laughing. I replayed our miniscule conversation so far; I couldn't find the hilarity of the situation. His eyes quickly became watery and I wanted to kick him.

"Aww! Paul, I'm so proud! Since you're so happy, you must have remembered to take your pills today! Good for you."

He heard what I had said over his laughter and it seemed to sober him a little but he just shook his head slowly and said, "Oh wow."

Where the hell was my brother! This was one of those days where a gun would be handy. He obviously knew something and loved this, so I decided to act cool. I returned to my book.

"So, who are you waiting for?"

I sighed heavily and put the book into my bag. I replied, "My brother."

"Why is he late?"

"Why are you so nosy?"

"I'm not nosy, I'm curious."

"Right, of course. Doesn't matter anyway, I left my phone at home. He borrowed my car, and obviously, he's late. "

"Jared will take you home." Paul said casually.

"What are you talking about? Why do you keep mentioning him? And thanks, but no thanks."

"I know he'd be nice enough to take you home. He's nice enough to take me home." He grinned impishly. The three-mile walk to my house in the torrential rain, was starting to sound pretty great.

"Your brother could take a long time."

"So could Jared."

"Trust me, he won't."

"Um, no. I am fine, go wait for Jared somewhere else."

He held is hands up mockingly as if in surrender and answered, "OK. Just trying to be nice."

I grimaced. I grabbed my bag and opened the front door slightly, searching for the Renault in the almost bare parking lot. I sat down again. Paul was leaning back with his hands behind his head with his eyes were closed. He was wearing a t-shirt and shorts with a pair of extremely tatty sneakers. I rolled my eyes. I took out my iPod and like Paul, I closed my eyes.

Two songs later someone tapped me on the shoulder.

"You sure you don't want to come Kim?" said Paul seriously. I frowned. He suddenly seemed to ooze a huge, irritating glow of omniscience.

"Hi." Jared said quietly, looking at me.

"Hi." I answered. Jared looked at Paul blankly and said,

"Let's go."

"Yeah, yeah. You sure Kim? Last chance."

I frowned again. "I'm sure."

As they left, I noticed they wore similar clothing. Except Jared's shoes weren't as worn. Sheesh, probably some weird training routine they were doing.

When my brother arrived half an hour later, I got into the car and he began chanting the word "sorry". I scowled at him and he stopped. I replied mutinously,

"You should be."

A/N

Hello, so sorry this is incredibly short and and took so long to update! I won't give you any excuses and I hope you're all having a brilliant new year :)

This little scene was to let you all know that Jared and Kim aren't going to suddenly start snogging just because Jared's realised they're soulmates. Aka I want their relationship to develop "realistically". But hey, you never know...

And thank you so much for the lovely reviews! I really appreciate them, you guys have no idea how much each one has made my day! Really, I get a pleasant warm feeling every time I get one and it urges me to write more :)

x