Complement #34
Said to: Ms. Brownstone
I am a big fan of your sweaters.
***
Weeks pass by and my occasional run-ins with Jed become more and more sporadic.
Not once did I visit him at Caffair. Not once did I speak during the World Lit class. We are now in the middle of discussing The Old Man And The Sea and even though I love this book, I don't have it in me to raise my hand and say something smart. Neither I nor Jed switched places in the classroom, and so that one particular hour has become the worst in the entire week. I can feel his gaze drilling holes in my back for the entire forty-five minutes and it's driving me crazy. We enter and leave the classroom wordlessly and when we pass each other on the corridor, it's like we never even knew each other.
A few days back, Makena snapped and started threatening that if we don't stop acting like children, she's going to leave us both and go make friends with Jesse Carson. She's tired of having to play the role of our linker and having to divide her time in two.
"You're like a couple after a breakup." She said. "Soon you'll turn into your version of Mean Girls."
I told her I've never seen Mean Girls. I ended up having to watch it over the weekend.
Ms. Brownstone isn't much help, either. She claims that lately I've been acting grumpier than usual. And because she knew Ada-family relations were stable and that I still talked to Makena, it didn't take her long to put two and two together. Now she's smiling that secretive smile every single time she sees me, as if she knows something I don't. I take double effort gaining notes into my notebook, motivated by the idea of having to watch this smile just once a week.
There's still some time left until Homecoming, but Mrs. Scottinson wants to make sure everything will be ready in time. Both Makena and I stay at school extra time, preparing the decorations and planning everything. There's an artistic group at our school responsible for decorating all the events but I don't mind helping them. I don't have much to do after school anyway and I'm tired of sitting at home doing nothing. Together, we came up with the idea of using all of the useless rubbish stashed in Mrs. Scottinson's storage. We chose to set old school as this year's main theme and most of the decorations are going to be made out of old newspapers. And as much as I'm not a fan of parties, I'm starting to get a little jealous of all the people who are going to have fun in this climate. There's still much to do left but I have a feeling the effects are going to be amazing.
Right now, we're spending the lunch break on cutting different patterns from the newspapers. With Mrs. Scottinson's permission, we brought our lunches here and made some sort of an indoor picnic. There's just a few of us here - me, Makena, Josh, Sarah, Alice, and Conrad, the most engaged ones. Al didn't join us, excusing himself with a Calculus test he has to learn for.
I laugh as Alice throws a piece of apple to Josh and misses, hitting Makena in the face. In response, she balls up a piece of paper in her fist and throws the missile back at Alice. Before we know it, we have a paper fight going on, our work and lunches forgotten.
It's surprising, really, how easy it was to find something I entertain so much. Coming to the US, I never thought I was going to be this happy. Never expected to make new friends. Never considered myself social.
And yet here I am, tearing up a piece of paper and throwing it at Conrad who just stole one of my sandwiches.
Yes, I'm eating sandwiches. I actually let my Mum make me sandwiches and brought them to school, fully intending to eat them.
I think I might be sick. There's definitely something wrong with me.
"Earth to Ada." Makena yells into my ear. My head snaps toward her and I frown. "I asked you to pass me the scissors." She says, nodding to a pair of scissors laying by my side.
I pass them over to her and pause. My gaze zeroes in on a peach laying on Sarah's lunch tray. My mind immediately wanders back to the picnic when I last talked to Jed. A wave of anger compiled with embarrassment washes over me.
He said he wanted to kiss me. And I panicked. Run away. Never talked to him since.
Now I feel like a coward.
Truth be told, he didn't do anything wrong. And honestly, neither did I. I just told him what I think and he got angry. I never intended to hurt him with my words, nor did I lie. Not when I told him I thought he talked to me out of pity. Not when I said his species doesn't collide with mine. Not even when I told him I didn't think he was a manwhore.
He just likes company. I'm scared of getting attached.
There's no way in hell the two of us could ever get along. Not for long, at least.
It was fun while it lasted. Now it's over. End of the topic.
"Jesus, A, what has this paper ever done to you?" Alice asks with a grin.
I look down to where my hands are clenching a piece of a newspaper and scissors. I never realized what force I was cutting it with until Alice pointed it out.
"My scissors are blunt." I shrug.
I feel Mae's eyes on me. I look to the side and find her watching me with suspicion written all over her face. I stick out my tongue. She does the same.
We decide to finish five minutes before the end of lunch break. By that time, I manage to cut a pile of stars. We're going to tie them to thin threads and hang them from the gym's ceiling. In my head, it's going to look beautiful.
We pack our things and stuff our work in one of the lockers. We had to clear one of them just to have somewhere to hide all the ready decorations. There's still such a mess in here that everything would get lost if we hadn't taken care of this.
Conrad volunteers to bring our trays back to the cafeteria, and we head out of Mrs. Scottinson's classroom and head for our lockers. My next class is English, which means I have an easy hour in front of myself. Whatever problems I might have had in the beginning due to the difference of my origin are slowly disappearing and I'm growing to love this subject once more.
We say goodbye to the rest of the group and part our ways. Makena follows me to my locker like she always does. She puts an extra bounce to her step, a goofy smile on her face. I eye her from the corner of my eye, wondering about the reason of her abnormally good mood.
"What?" I ask her, raising a brow.
"What what?" She looks at me.
"This." I run my hand up and down her frame. "Whatever this is."
"It's called happiness, Ada." She replied with a grin. "Something you could sometimes try."
I ignore the little offence she sends my way.
"Does that happiness have a source?" I push the topic. I'm not normally this nosy but the light radiating from Makena right now is blinding me. And I really appreciate my sight.
"Well." She jumps in place. "I might or might have not kissed someone."
Oh. So that's why she's so happy.
What do I do now? Start jumping with her? Hug her? Ask her for details?
"Congratulations." I choose the option that seems the least ridiculous.
"Thank you." Her smile widens. Dear God. She's a lost cause.
We stop by my locker and I open it to grab my books. When I'm done, I close it and nearly experience a heart attack.
All I see is a dark shape before me. I catch a glimpse of black-rimmed glasses and a mop of brown hair before I'm pushed back against my locker and two hands grab me gently by the waist.
I suck in a sharp breath when Jed's lips descend on mine, catching whatever sound I might have made. My whole body freezes and I stand there for a moment while my brain experiences a short circuit. The whole thing lasts barely a few seconds and before I know it, Jed is moving away and I can breathe again.
I stare at him with eyes so wide they must look like two saucers. My whole face is about as red as my hair and my heartbeat both races and stops at the same moment. My whole body trembles when Jed's lips curl into a slow smile and his eyes meet mine. He's still standing close enough I can feel that his breathing is slightly labored, too. I'm slightly aware of the delicate pressure of his hands still cradling my waist but for some reason, I don't make him drop them. All I focus on is remaining upright and standing on my own two feet.
"See?" Jed murmurs with a grin. He leans in closer, creating a separate world consisting only of him and me. "There's nothing to be afraid of."
And then he leans in once more, leaves a quick kiss on my forehead, and leaves.
I slump back against the locker and lock my knees together to keep myself from tripping. Reality starts hitting me slowly and I take a deep breath to cool off. I blink rapidly and look around, searching for Jed. He's nowhere to be seen.
Makena is standing right next to me, her eyes wide and mouth hanging open. When she notices me staring, her lips split into a wide grin and her eyes twinkle mischievously.
"Seems like a perfect day for kissing, huh?" She says.
I close my eyes. Open them again. See the peanut gallery that had gathered around me. Sigh.
Seems like a perfect day for dying.
***
L/N: So I decided to make up for the lack of update on Thursday. Truth be told, this wasn't meant to happen but after so many of you wanted Ada and Jed to kiss, I decided to change my plans a bit. It may seem a little random but well, it was spontaneous. But hey, all of the best kisses are, and so is theirs. I just hope you liked it and are satisfied (for now).
Also, the Wattys winners were announced this morning. I'm proud to say that many of the books I loved are listed there. I'm so happy for their authors <3 You made a great job, guys, all of you deserve it <3