Scars To Your Beautiful : A Modern Beauty and the Beast retelling ✔

40. Getting to know you

Jacques knew he wasn't imagining things when he caught the small frame of a familiar platinum blonde typing furiously on her laptop. He had just finished basketball practice and passed by the football field to run a few laps. And there Naomi was, sitting on the bleachers with her long golden curls being pulled back by the headphone hanging over her ears while her fingers danced around the keyboard of her laptop.

What the hell was she still doing here? School had closed almost two hours ago. His head raised to meet traces of the sun that stirred in the sky, blazing rays over him. It was a far cry from the usual rainy days and it helped to brighten up what he assumed to be a mundane day. Jacques pinched the bridge of his nose and dragged out a groan. Naomi would kill him if he tried to talk to her, but his curious side had already taken over and he couldn't resist the need to do so.

Naomi could feel the weight of someone getting close to where she was but she was too engrossed with finishing up her article to care about it. Thin wispy eyebrows furrowed when she could detect faint muffled sounds around her and Naomi slid off her headphones all the way to her neck. Raising her gaze, she met curious dusky-dark eyes staring back at her with warmth lingering underneath.

Jacques freaking Peyton.

His brown hair looked messier than usual. It spiked atop his crown and disheveled thin layers of short tendrils that danced in the breeze. His arms glistened with sweat, taunting his glossy tanned skin.

"Mind if I sit down?" His damn sparkly teeth flashed when he spoke. Naomi almost rolled her eyes. He had turned on his 'charming personality'. Oh, joy.

"Actually I do mind. I'm..... " her words trailed off when she noticed him already settling down on one of the tiered planks. She scowled. "Why did you ask, if you were just gonna do the opposite of what I said?"

He shrugged, not looking directly at her but enjoying the feel of the breeze on his skin. "Just being polite. You should learn a thing or two about that."

Naomi snorted. Yeah, cause she needed to learn how to be nice from Mr.I'm-too-goodlooking-so-I-have-to-be-a-ball-of-sunshine, when a few weeks ago, he had acted like a dick to Callie. She knew his reasons for doing that but still, he had no right. "I'm more concerned why you're here in the first place."

His long fingers slipped into his beautiful hickory hair. Naomi bit back the need to slap his hand away from it when she noticed how his touch made his hair stick out in different angles. Jacques was still wearing his blue-and-gold basketball uniform, but a pool of dried sweat had doused the neck region of his apparel. At least, he still smelt so damn good and that surprised Naomi. "I'm here for basketball practice. I just wanted to shake off the leftover energy I had, by doing some laps round the field."

"Not here here. That's not what I meant. I'm talking about you sitting next to me." Keen grey eyes watched him. Everything about Naomi made him feel like he was being scrutinized.

Another shrug. His head turned. Dark eyes had softened into small balls of coal. "It looked like you needed the company. Was I wrong?"

Naomi froze at his response. Her eyes flickered back to her laptop. "I'm all good."

Jacques took a beat to stare at her. Her cold response wasn't a huge surprise but it was the pang of vulnerability in her eyes that got to him. His voice, low and deep. "What if I don't believe you?"

Naomi slammed her laptop shut. A fresh swell of rage flowed in her. "We're not buddies, Jacques. So quit getting on my nerves. I did you one teeny weeny favor and you don't have to pretend to tolerate me whenever you see me."