A WATTPAD FEATURED STORY
❝Love pays no attention to color❞
Jasmine Karesh never thought she'd spend her senior year of high school struggling to accept her Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder diagnosis, a disease that forbids her from forgetting the scho...
While Selena squealed about how gross he was and that she would never date someone who refers to her as a backup plan, Jasmine stole a glance at Evan, whose pupils dilated as his coral blue eyes followed Selena. She wiggled out of his grasp and sent him a look of disgust, but they all knew it was just an act. Even Jasmine could see that their feelings were mutual to some extent, but perhaps Evan's ran deeper, in a way that scared Selena way too much to even try.
The warning bell rang and she needed to round her friends into class before they were all marked tardy on the first day of school. Jasmine snapped her fingers in front of Evan's face, as they neared the front of the classroom. "We're here, lover boy."
Evan's cheeks turned the faintest shade of pink and Jasmine laughed, before opening the door and walking in, unwilling to be late just because her friends couldn't stop flirting and bickering.
She stepped into the room and looked to the front, wearing her signature calm smile. Her heart dropped at the sight in front of her, though, along with her textbook.
"Shit!" she screamed as the heavy book crushed her toes and the class turned to her, including the boy up front. His eyebrows arched at the colorful word that left her mouth and when he really looked at her, an amused smirk played on his lips.
Fantastic. Two years later and that was how they met again. Just her luck.
Speaking of luck, while she stood there, gaping at the boy as if her brain suddenly stopped working, Evan stumbled into the room. Or rather, Evan stumbled over her feet, tripped and took Selena down with him.
Even better.
Selena seemed fine, probably because her land was cushioned by Evan, who groaned. Jasmine heard a soft, 'you're crushing my organs' from somewhere beside her feet, but she was much too involved in watching the boy.
He was laughing now, but it wasn't a remotely polite one. No, it was more of a sneer that complimented his cocky little grin perfectly. Jasmine's breathing halted as she heard his voice again for the first time in so long. Her lips parted slightly and she stared blankly at the boy, blinking only when her eyes teared up from staying open for too long.
Evan jumped to his feet, always the savior, and lightly used his pointer finger to close Jasmine's mouth, causing the boy to snicker even more. She flashed Evan a thankful look for saving her the further embarrassment of drooling in the middle of class.
Her teacher clicked her tongue at the mess in front of her before saying, "What a nice way to reintegrate ourselves back into class on the first day." Venom oozed from her incisors as she spoke. "I'd love to get to know you and your two friends better in detention today."
Selena quickly hurried to her feet and quirked an eyebrow upwards. "By two friends, you mean us? On what grounds, exactly?"
"On the grounds of disrupting class–"
"It hasn't even started yet!" Evan exclaimed.
She continued, "Being unnecessarily rude, using inappropriate language in a school setting, and of course, cutting me off in the middle of a sentence. Is that good enough for you," She looked to her clipboard with an attendance sheet attached to it and then back to Selena. "Ms. Astor?"
Selena bit her lip and nodded, while Evan and Jasmine exchanged looks. Their parents would not be happy to hear about this.
Someone did seem to be elated with the situation at hand, though, and that was the boy in front. Jasmine shot him a glare, her surprise turning into unadulterated annoyance, and his grin only widened.
"Ms. Karesh! Would you be kind enough to finally take a seat? I'm sure your toes aren't that hurt," Ms. Vienna barked.
Jasmine's head swiveled around the classroom and found Selena and Evan rushing to their seats, leaving her as a prime target for their demon of a teacher. She looked down sheepishly, picked up her books, and eyed the only two empty seats. They were next to each other, near the teacher's desk, and the boy was hovering near one of them. Cursing her luck and releasing a reluctant groan, she sat in the one by the window and the boy took a seat right after her.
The class passed by in a hushed silence with their teacher droning on about what Hitler named his militia, stating briefly that the useless fact would be on their unit exam. Jasmine, not paying attention at all, used every breadth of her willpower not to demand answers from the boy beside her and she managed to succeed until he cleared his throat.
She ignored him.
His smirk shifted into a good-natured smile, one that was reserved only for her. Jasmine knew that out of the many people Shayan Khan hated in this world, she was lucky enough to not be one of them. Yet, because he liked her so much, she was often the victim of his desperate grabs for attention. He cleared his throat once again, much more violently this time.
Jasmine swiveled in her chair and glared at him again. He placed a clenched fist to his mouth, raising his eyebrows at her as if to dare her to continue ignoring him. This time it was only him clearing his throat, but she knew that if she waited much longer, it would turn into a full-out, overly-exaggerated, completely-fake coughing fit. This sort of torture came out of mocking her own bouts of intense coughing— which were completely real—due to her asthma, which he found oh-so-amusing. It was probably because she rushed out of the classroom with an inhaler attached to her lips every time.
Feeling the seconds click away before all eyes would be on them once again, Jasmine relented with a fervent glance at Ms. Vienna, who was still lecturing without a care.
"What do you want, Shayan?" she hissed, grasping her pencil a little too tightly, aiming it a little too low and a little too close to him.
"I just wanted to say how much I've missed you, Jazzy Pants," he whispered into her ear as if he knew how much Jasmine hated that nickname. After all, her uncle was the one that came up with it.
Without another thought about controlling herself, she drove her pencil straight into his thigh.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Woah, we have a new character here and I'm sure you can probably guess his relation to Jasmine already but there's more to him than just a cliche and I can't wait to reveal more as the story goes on! Make sure to vote and comment! I get so excited whenever I see a notification and also, feel free to give me feedback or criticism on anything!
This chapter is dedicated to Simone Shirazi for writing the novel Arabian Nights, the same book that inspired me to incorporate diversity into my own stories, including this one.
