Chapter Fifteen
Juliet
Aside from the manifest of love pasted all over my locker classes have been weird. Jared is the main cause of this. A few days ago, I was boiling with the annoyance he causes, then next … I’m left wanting to know more. What is going on with me?
Jared is frustrating and confusing. I shouldn’t want to know anything about him. I shouldn’t even like talking to him. I need to quit looking over at his lunch table.
“What has you in a daze?” Addy asks pulling me from my thoughts.
“Nothing.” I shake my head and glance down at my turkey and avocado sandwich.
“Right. Uh huh.”
I shrink in my seat and glare at the ceiling. “Fine. I admit it. I liked talking to him today.”
“Interesting. Who, pray tell, are you referring to?” She asks knowing full-well who.
I give her the side eyes. “You know who.”
She rubs her chin. “Let me think on this for a moment.”
I laugh. “Quit it.”
She smiles. “I’m messing with you. Serious though, it’s okay to like Jared.”
“I didn’t say that. I said I liked talking to him.” I peer over at his table again. An odd feeling takes ahold of me as I spot Kimber Sanders sitting next to him. This is nuts. I shouldn’t care.
“You okay?” Chase asks as he plops down between Addy and me.
I throw down my sandwich. “I gotta go get some napkins,” I say and take off for the lunch line.
I need to snap out of it. I CANNOT fall for Jared Black. He will ruin me, and I never want to feel that type of pain ever again.
I hurry over to the lunch line and grab napkins from the dispenser. As I’m heading back to my table I can’t help but weave near his table. I could have easily bypassed it like I did before. As I near his table I hear Jared laugh. It sounds fake.
It bothers me. Why? I’m not sure.
I reach my lunch table with my thoughts more jumbled than ever. It all has to do with a tall muscled boy that’s got my head spinning.
I sit down in my chair and look over at Jared again. Kimber keeps throwing her head back and laughing then she touches him. I really wish she’d keep her hands to herself. I force myself to turn away.
Chase mutters something to Addy as I pick up a grape. Addy has her glare set in my direction. “What?” I ask.
“Not you. Him. I want to knock him flat on his butt.”
I shift in my seat and spot Austin talking to a group of cheerleaders. “What did Austin do to you?” I ask.
“I have to do this group assignment for History with that jerk. The whole time him and twiddle dumb said, ‘You’re like super smart why don’t you do all the hard stuff that we would totes suck at.’ Then I had to remind Rachel that just because I’m smart doesn’t mean I can do it all by myself.”
“Didn’t you get to pick who you get to work with?” Chase asks.
Addy snorts. “No. Mrs. Dinger said something about this is a life experience because sometimes you have to work with people you can’t stand. I want to tell her that’s all well and good, but couldn’t we wait until I don’t know, when we get a job and deal with it then?”
I frown. “Maybe you should talk to Austin. Tell him to straighten up or you’re going to not do the project and you’ll all fail.”
She sighs. “I would but it is worth a good chunk of our end of the year grade. So, if I decide not to do it I’ll end up with a B- at the end of term.”
Chase cracks his knuckles. “I’ll talk to him for you.”
She smiles. “No, that’s okay. I’ll figure it out.”
He nods mutters something about the library then takes off. Addy looks over at me with quirked brows. “Has he been acting weird to you?” she asks.
“Chase? No.”
“Hmmm. Maybe it’s just me then.”
I shrug. “Maybe.”
“What are you going to do about Rachel and Austin?” I ask.
“I’m going to punch him in his head. All I have to do is tell Rachel that Jared told me a secret and she’ll follow whatever I say.”
“Why would you do that?”
Adaline looks at me like I’m nuts. “That’s her all-time crush.”
“Okay, but why would that make a difference? Aren’t they hooking up?”
Addy looks at me as if I’m crazy. “Um, no. She wishes they were hooking up but he’s not into her. You think he’s dating Kimber?” She takes a bite of her pizza.
I give her a look. “Why would I know that?”
She points her slice at me. “You’ve got like every class with the guy.”
“That doesn’t mean I pay attention to his social life.” I glance over at Jared. Kimber is still touching him. It irritates me. When Kimber leans in and basically brushes her lips over Jared’s ear, I wince. “Gross. Hello. Lunchroom. Not in a private room.” My stomach literally turns. I’ve totally lost my appetite. I look over at Adaline.
She’s watching me. “Juliet, what would your mom say about that mouth of yours?” Addy teases.
“Probably the same thing she said about my shirt this morning.”
Adaline giggles. “It is rather interesting.”
I glance down at the all black shirt that says, Love Sucks.
The next class bell chimes. I dispose of my lunch into the nearest trash can and we head out of the commons. Adaline turns off the toward the Choir room and I go to Trig. I drop into my assigned seat and watch as other students pour into the class.
Jared stands by the door laughing at something Tyler says then strolls into the room. I observe Jared walk over to his seat and slump down in it. He pulls out his materials then glances about the room. His eyes land on mine then he smirks like he has a secret or something.
He’s really too sexy for his own good. I wonder what it would be like to touch his hair. Omigod I didn’t think that. I break our connection and flip through my book. Then I busy myself with my notebook and turn to a blank page. I’m completely ready to take notes or do problems.
Our teacher Mr. Dockson enters the room right as the tardy bell rings. He walks over to the board and begins to write while he says, “Today, we’re going to cover derivatives of inverse trig functions.”
Most of the class groans. I scribble down every note on the subject. About forty minutes of explaining he hands us out sheets and tells us to partner up. I notice a few girls approach Jared. I glance back down at my notebook. As I start the first problem by myself a throat clears. “You got a partner, Valentine?” Jared asks.
I smile and shake my head. “Awesome. You got one now.” He scoots a desk closer to mine. Why does this make me happy? I shouldn’t care. It’s just collaborating to work on problems. It’s not like he asked me out.
Whoa. Where did that come from? Would I want Jared to ask me out? No. Maybe. Crap. No, the answer should be no.
I shake myself from my silly thoughts and work on the problem. Jared is silently jotting down something, and I ask, “Want to do the odd and I’ll do the even ones? Or do you want to work on all of them and see what we come up with?”
“I like the odd and evens. I’ll finish up on number one you work on two, cool?”
“Yep. Got it.”
The problems distracted me, so my mind wasn’t wondering about Jared asking me out. Utterly ridiculous. Even if I were into football players Jared is like God. He wouldn’t date me. I know, Mark was popular and way out of my league. But Jared is way more popular and super out of my league.
There is sickening cracking sound and I glance up. Jared smirks. “Sorry, sometimes I have to crack my neck if I sit too long.”
“Oh.” That is all I say to him for the remaining of the class period.