Chapter 22
I sat up immediately. “Excuse me?”
“Jonah Davis will be your partner," he repeated.
“Are you sure about this?” I asked him. “I mean, did he even approve of this?”
“He nodded his head, that’s enough approval," the teacher replied casually. “Now, we have 5 minutes left and you have a project to start, get to it.”
I watched as he walked away and I stood up, slowly walking towards Jonah. I waited for Waverly to tackle me down the nearest flights of stairs but she didn’t. She only glared at me from her seat beside Ainsley. I felt people’s eyes on me as I took a seat next to Jonah.
“Hey,” I waved my hand as I glanced at him. He nodded his head but looked the other way. “So who do you want to do the project on?”
“Listen, I’ll choose the person and I’ll do the project, but I’ll put your name on it. Okay? Great,” he snapped. The bell rang and he quickly stood up, exiting the classroom. I was trailing behind him as he attempted to go to the parking lot; I quickly moved and stood in front of him.
He tried to walk around me but I moved with him. “Go away.”
“No, I’m doing the project, too,” I replied and he narrowed his eyes at me.
“Fine, you do the project,” he snapped and walked around me. I grabbed his arm and he turned around with an annoyed look on his face.
“We’re both going to do the project; your anger isn’t going to stop me from getting a good grade,” I hissed and he ripped his arm out of my hold.
“Fine," he started storming off but I jumped in front of him again. “What? What do you want?”
“Fine? What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means fine; we’ll do the project,” he told me, impatiently tapping his foot.
“Why are you mad at me?” I asked and he turned to look at me.
“Who said I was mad at you?” he asked with an annoyed look on his face.
I gave him a flat look. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s the way you’re acting towards me. You don’t even have the decency to look at me when I’m talking to you!”
He just glared at me. “Happy now?”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “Can you just tell me why you’re so angry at me?”
“You tell me," he demanded.
I stared at him. “That’s the thing! I don’t know why you’re angry at me! Is it because of Francis?”
“Just forget about it okay?” his voice was calmer and I narrowed my eyes.
“What if I don’t want to forget about it?” I snapped.
“I forgive you," he ignored me.
“For what? What did I do that needs to be forgiven?” I asked him, crossing my arms.
He just forced a smile. “Forget about it; it’s behind us now.”
“Is it?” I asked him. He nodded his head. “Are you sure?”
“Positively," he assured me.
“Okay. Then hug me,” I instructed him, holding out my arms. He didn’t make a move to hug me. “If it’s all okay, hug me.”
He slowly took a step forward and hugged me. It was a quick hug and he barely even touched me. I ground my teeth. “See? It’s not okay and it won’t be unless you tell me why you’re angry at me.”
“Not here,” he muttered. I looked around to see the people watching us. I glared at him.
“Where then?” I asked and he tapped his foot.
“The library,” he responded.
I rubbed my forehead. “The library? Why would we go to a place where it’s completely quiet when we’re most likely going to be yelling?”
“Because the majority of them don’t even know this town has a library," he whispered and I pursed my lips.
“Fine. When?” I asked and he lifted his arms up in the air and ran his hands through his hair.
“Three hours, I need to bring the twins home; you want to talk so badly, right?” he asked and I glared before bypassing him and getting into my car.
~~~
The three hour wait at home was nerve-wracking and I felt my blood boiling at the idea of him being angry about me kissing Francis. He has no reason to be angry. Francis kissed me that time; I didn’t even want to kiss him! The first time I only did it to see if it was Jonah who kissed me! I didn’t think about the possiblity that maybe it was a stranger that kissed me accidentally! I didn’t look around me! It could’ve been a guy who thought I was his girlfriend and I was delusional when I said that it was the best kiss I ever had.
I did every possible thing to occupy myself; I played video games, cleaned my glasses, took a shower, changed clothes, did my hair, undid my hair because I felt too girly, picked up my room, made my bed, and I even played two games of Uno with Jer. There was even a point where I questioned whether Jonah would show up to the library.
When the clock struck 5 o’clock, I got in my car and drove to the library. I noticed Jonah’s car in the parking lot along with a few other cars. When I entered the building, I saw Jonah slumped over on a table. I noticed that the table he was at was the table where we sat when we first talked. I resisted the urge to coo at that small thought and slammed my bag down onto the table, causing him to flinch.
“Explain yourself,” I demanded as I sat down.
He looked at the table and began drawing circles against the fake wood. “I guess I was just angry.”
“Yeah, I know that. We didn’t talk for four days because you were angry. Why were you angry?” I asked him and he gave me an annoyed look.
“I guess you can say I was slightly jealous,” he admitted and I raised an eyebrow. “Not because I like you or anything, though.” That totally wasn't a stab to the heart or anything. I'll just try and ignore the pain.
“Yeah, you made that pretty clear when you snapped at me,” I replied casually. Another stab to the heart.
He winced. “Sorry about that,” he apologized and I just shrugged. “Not that this is any of my business, but do you…you know, like Francis?”
I shook my head. “No, I don’t. That time, he kissed me.”
“So you kissed him before?” he asked and I nodded my head. “When?”
“You remember that thing on Christmas Eve, right? Well, someone kissed me when the lights went out and when they came back on, Francis was right there so I thought maybe it was him. So the other day, I ended up kissing him in the janitor’s closet. I’m guessing he found out it was me and that’s why he kissed me in the parking lot,” I replied.
Jonah was quiet for a minute. I decided to speak up. “So, are we okay?”
Jonah nodded. “Yeah, I guess.”
“You guess?” I asked and he nodded.
“Yeah, we’re okay.”
“So are you going to hug me now? And not like a scared little girl?” I asked him and he smiled. I stood up and he wrapped his arms around me.
“You’re hard to stay mad at,” he stated.
“So I’ve heard,” I joked.
“Your hair smells good, like strawberries," he murmured, inhaling deeply.
“Thank you?” I smirked.
“I have a feeling that you like my hugs," he muttered as he rested his chin on my head.
“Shut up,” I muttered, causing him to laugh. It felt better knowing that we were on good terms. “It’s okay to be a little jealous.”
Jonah pulled away from me. “You were the jealous one! You wanted to stab Waverly!”
I felt my face warm up. “No I didn’t!”
“Don’t lie,” he smirked, earning a punch from me. “Did you know that you gave Francis a black eye?”
“I was so close to giving you a black eye,” I muttered and he looked at me.
“What stopped you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as a smirk played on his lips. Because I like you, you idiot. I cringed at the bluntness of those words. I’m still not comfortable at the fact that I have a crush on him. It’d be easier to deny it if his cousin didn’t know. Stupid move.
“I don’t like to hit my friends,” I replied, lying through my teeth.
“You just punched me in the shoulder!” he exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder.
“You can hide that bruise, though,” I retorted. “Francis can’t hide his face.”
~~~
“I made a new friend,” I grinned at Jonah.
“Did you kiss him, too?” he muttered with a smirk and I glared at him.
“She’s a girl!” I replied. “Her names Dana; she invited me to sit with her at lunch.”
“What happened to your table?” he asked me, a tinge of happiness in his voice. “Still covered in snow?”
I frowned. “I think that table and I have had our times together but we’re done,” I replied.
“Good because it was cold out there," he replied and I glare at him.
“Okay, back to our project,” I stated.
“What? We were never talking about our project,” he stated and I kicked him under the table. “You’re abusive.”
“I say we do a project on Adolf Hitler,” I announced.
“Didn’t you already do a project on Adolf Hitler?” he asked while rubbing his shin under the table and I nodded.
“I have a lot of background knowledge; it's less work,” I grinned.
“Surprised you have any knowledge," he muttered and I glared at him.
Despite out constant banter, I’m glad we’re friends again. “Shut up.”
“Did you kiss your knowledge in a janitor’s closet, too?”
Okay, maybe I’m not so happy.
Who am I kidding? I’m ecstatic.