A quick summary: Jared suddenly wants to be friends with Kim. She's reluctant about it and then at a party this guy Lucas kisses her at a club, resulting in a punch from Kim. Jared takes her home and the next day comforts her. Kim feels less suspicious. But a girl Jared used to date tries to threaten Kim so she decides she's had enough. They fight, they don't talk for awhile and now Jared's "kidnapped her" because he freaked out that Kim shouldn't be alone in the torrential rain. But now, he's being nice and flirty, despite the fact he did do the rather creepy thing of forcing Kim into his house (alone). It's OK guys, they've sort of known each other for 10 years and there has been no sign of Jared being a secret psychopath... Kim's safe... (for now)...

I quickly shrugged off Jared's odd comment and began looking around his room.

I guess it was just a normal bedroom, other than the fact his bed was king sized and seriously huge. His Xbox remote controls were sprawled on the carpet on one corner of the room, facing his TV. On the opposite side was his desk which had a few sheets of paper and school notebooks.

There was a shirt hanging off his desk-chair and a pair of boxers on the floor, which he probably would have stuffed under his bed as well, had it not been camouflaged by the matching colors of the carpet.

I had the strange desire to laugh and grimace at the same time. I was used to boxers being all over the place because of my brother, but it didn't mean it wasn't disgusting. Who knows how long they've been on the floor...

Jared's room was actually clean, as his bed was made and you could see that the carpet wasn't stained in certain places like my brother's. I never realised how much of a total slob Daniel was until now.

And then there was his bedside table. There were two books on top of one another and one was a very worn out To Kill A Mockingbird and the other had a Spanish title. I guess he chose Spanish as his elective. What the hell, that is so unbelievably attractive, I bet he speaks in Spanish to all the girls.

No really, I have no doubt he speaks it well, our school prides themselves in languages, so the majority of the school's population has to take a language - unless you really couldn't get the hang of it. It can be super painful and to the point where your brain might combust, but it's pretty neat, I practically learned french through cheesy songs and bad TV shows.

"So you like books, huh?" Jared was leaning against the door in a dry jeans and t-shirt.

I nodded at him in reply.

"Come on, I'll show you something." He smiled.

"What, do you own like a library or something?"

"It's better if you see for yourself."

"Uh, OK."

He lead me to their basement stairs and my curiosity grew.

"Are you going to kill me?" I wondered.

Jared laughed in reply. We reached the end of the stairs and stared at the darkness. Jared must have found the switch somewhere as I was momentarily blinded by the sudden light. I blinked quickly and suddenly, I couldn't help but gasp in awe.

There were infinite rows of books.

Shelves upon shelves of books, enveloped my sight. They were neatly arranged but the room felt cosy with its shabby bookcases and the dark wooden floor covered in plush tribal-type rugs.

The only corner in the room not aligned with books was a large corner sofa with equally large pillows resting on it and a heavy looking wooden coffee table with magazines, newspapers and more books. A lone mug sat on the table with the words in bold capitals: MINE.

Finally, there were two matching arm chairs next to the sofa and a sleek lamp on the wall which hung over it, the only piece of furniture that seemed modern.

"This is incredible." I said breathlessly.

"My dad's an English professor and he started collecting books with Uncle Matt since they were little. One day my mom joined in and soon after, so did my sister."

"What about you?"

"I'm not much of a reader." He shrugged.

"Seriously?"

"When my uncle died, I kinda stopped. So I don't read so much anymore."

"Oh." I avoided his eyes. "Sorry." I said quietly.

"It's OK."

"Could I, um..." I tried not to look longingly at the shelves.

"Yeah, sure. It's all yours." Jared smiled. I grinned widely back at him.

I slowly grazed the tips of my fingers on the spines and stopped every now and then to take out a book, carefully putting them back each time. Jared began to do the same and we stayed this way for a few minutes.

Without warning, I let out a strangled laugh.

"What? What is it?" Jared asked curiously.

"No, no. Nothing. Never-mind." I grinned to myself.

"No, come on. I wanna know now."

"Are you sure? This is at your own risk."

"Try me."

I took out Kama Sutra and faced the spine towards him so he could read the title. His eyes went wide and his jaw went slack.

"So, who do you think bought this?" I asked casually.

"I..." Jared looked completely horrified. I couldn't hold in my laughter for much longer but I managed to say,

"Do you think it was your dad... or your mom and dad, or..." And that's when I burst out laughing. I handed him the book as he stood there and I wiped my watery eyes, trying to calm my uncontrolled breaths and soothe my aching stomach.

"How have I never seen this?" He asked himself incredulously.

"A recent purchase, maybe?"

"I knew it. Behind the quiet girl thing you got going on, you're a crazy sadist." He replied jokily.

"Oh no, you don't get to change the subject. Face the facts Jared. Somebody in your family has read, or is reading Kama Sutra."

"Have you read it?"

"Of course I have, memorized all the details-"

"What!?" He strode to the sofa, and sat down slowly.

"I was kidding, Jared."

"Oh. For a second I thought I was missing out on a weird trend or something. So do you wanna read it?" He moved his eyebrows up and down comically.

"No, I'm good."

"Fine, I'll read it."

I almost muttered "weirdo" and was about to make a remark about using the same tips as his dad but decided against it and turned back to the shelves. After much difficulty, I finally settled with a book and sat a comfortable distance from Jared.

Once again, I became lost in the words and it was...nice sitting there. Again, with that word. I'd probably freak out later about this situation I'd gotten myself into.

After what must have been a while, Jared suddenly cleared his throat.

He said quickly, "I'm, uh gonna go check on your clothes. Pretty sure they're dry now." His voice sounded hoarse.

"OK, thank-" He left before I could finish. Huh, he probably needed to go to the bathroom.

When he came back, he had a really odd look on his face. He handed me my clothes and told me I could get changed back up in his room and to leave his clothes on the bed. I said my thanks again and practically ran away because I had noticed my clothes were folded.

Jared had folded them. So he had seen my underwear. It's not like I was going to keep wearing the soaked garments with the dry ones. My thoughts were in a high pitched voice. No! It's fine! He didn't say anything so I won't either.

I still felt panicked and was going through what he did as I was getting changed. I felt dazed.

I suddenly heard a strange noise and a quick slam of Jared's bedroom door.

"Sorry- I didn't mean to- I should've knocked-" Jared sputtered on the other side of his bedroom door.

I stood there with my pants still half on. Now he had seen me in my underwear. A part of me tried to console myself and thought: "Well, it was only my butt he saw."

Somehow, this didn't calm me. It's not like he saw anything. What if he saw me in my bra too! What if he saw me naked! Yeah, yeah. I know Jared's got a face and a body of a god, but still. The thought both embarrassed and mortified me.

The closest I had ever come to showing skin was wearing a bikini when Hannah had an all girls beach party, when she turned fourteen.

I was wearing shorts and a shirt over it which practically doesn't count and you could only see the bikini because the water had made my shirt see through (it's thoroughly impractical swimwear for La Push waters).

Almost 3 years later, that bikini is in the deep recesses of my wardrobe, which undoubtedly would still fit me, considering I had non existent breasts.

What was I thinking? What was Jared thinking? Why didn't I just get changed in the bathroom? Wait, did he think my butt was big?

"Kim?" His voice was muffled through the door.

I quickly put my socks on and opened the door. I slammed into his chest and he held my shoulders to steady me. I rubbed my now slightly throbbing nose.

"Sorry? Again?"

Something about Jared looking so flustered made me burst out laughing for the second time and he stood there looking very confused.

Nonetheless, I was still horrified on the inside but the look he gave was something I had rarely seen. The cool and casual confidence he usually exuded was nowhere to be found.

I had stepped away from his hold and now that I had stopped laughing I couldn't bring myself to look at him.

"Um. Thanks for this and I uh- should go. It stopped raining."

"No problem, I'll walk you home."

"No, no. It's OK."

"I have nothing else to do. Besides, why wouldn't you want my company?"

"Whatever."

He followed me out of the house and we began to walk side by side.

"So did you like our basement?"

"You mean your library?"

"Yeah well, thank my family for that."

"They seem pretty awesome."

"Eh, you know - half the time anyway." He shrugged.

Jared was an excellent conversationalist, I didn't feel like I had to try to say anything. It was weird how much we could talk about, I mean I had technically known him my whole life.

But I still had that nagging feeling of suspicion, despite his kindness. It still didn't change the fact he's had infinite chances for us to be friends. Why now?

Ugh, I gotta stop with this over-thinking, it's not healthy. I guess it would be easier to let whatever happen, happen. If he is bullshitting me, then well... I don't know. We'll see. Oh, I can't be bothered anymore. I might as well be pleasant to him.

"You're kidding!"

"What? It's so much effort!" Jared whined.

"But it's Harry Potter! You only have like, four books to go."

"Four!?"

I was about to reply to him. We turned a corner and my house was in view. I squinted, there was a woman walking towards my front door, a suitcase and multiple bags in hand. It could only be one person. I forgot about Jared.

I ran to her.

A/N

Hello! I've started college/sixth-form and it's been mad! Everything's been going by so quickly!

A special one, the next chapter :)

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