We're back in school now. Five weeks until our next break: Christmas.
Winter sports started as soon as we got back from thanksgiving break and the season has flown by. We've attend every one of Vincent's home games. But this weekend we're going to go to an away game, the last game of the season.
Vincent will be on the bus and me, Maggie, and Jasmine are driving there in my car.
Currently it's Thursday. I'm in health class bored to death to say the least.
Joy sits next to me and we don't talk much anymore. I've distanced myself from Jacob completely and sadly I in turn distances Joy because they're always together.
"Alright we'll stop here and finish notes tomorrow." Mrs.Matthews says turning off her projector and walking back to her desk.
I open my messenger bag and shove my notes in my health folder before standing just as the bell rings. Slinging my bag over my shoulder I leave out and head to the canteen.
Walking across the campus to the canteen is short but I still have to tug my jacket a little closer as the wind blows, hitting me in the face with the cold. A shiver runs up my spine and then a warm hand slips into mine.
Jasmine smiles at me, leans up, and kisses my cheek. Her presence alone warms me and I smile.
We get in line and get our lunch then sit at the table. She sits right next to me as we eat, Vincent and Maggie joining us.
They're quiet for a moment, looking at us.
"So what happened between you two?" Vincent asks.
I raise a brow," what're you talking about?"
"Something definitely happened between you two. Something romantic," Maggie agrees.
Jasmine frowns," how did you know?"
"Body language. Your shoulders are touching more than a little bit, your hands keep brushing together, the close proximity gives it all away." He smirks.
The words are oh so familiar. Because I said them to him and Maggie my first day here.
"You son of a b-"
"Yeah something happened between us." Jasmine cuts me off.
He chuckles, Maggie smiles knowingly.
She leans forward," so are you two together now?"
Jasmine shrugs," are we?"
"I mean, we can be."
"If you don't want to that's fine."
"No no that's not what I meant it's just," I stop talking as I see Vincent and Maggie noticeably lean forward.
I shoot them a pointed look and they sit back acting as if they aren't listening.
I continue," I just wasn't sure if you wanted to go on a few dates first or if you wanted me to ask you or not."
"We've been on quite a few dates. And in my opinion you don't have to ask to make us official. You know?"
"We should both kind of connect with it, establish it without having to communicate it verbally." I nod.
She smiles," exactly."
"A few dates?" Maggie asks.
Turning to Maggie and Vincent I say," yeah we're together."
They nod.
"About damn time." Vincent mumbles.
Jasmine looks at him incredulously.
"I know right." I say.
Her gaze turns to me," it's your fault. You should've said something before."
"Doubts babe, I had doubts."
"I know. But now there's nothing to doubt." Smiling she leans in and places a kiss on my cheek.
I smile and turn my head, kissing her on the lips briefly.
Vincent let's out a loud groan," Jesus Christ are we going to have to sit through this every breakfast, lunch, and dinner?"
"We had to sit through you and Maggie sucking face and ogling at each other. So shut up." I tell him.
He raises his hands in surrender," okay okay. You're right," then he smiles," I'm happy for you two."
"Yeah you're really cute together." Maggie adds.
Jasmine smiles and wraps her arms around my arm, lying her head on my shoulder. I place a kiss on top of her head.
We talk amongst ourselves and eat and once it's time to go I wait for Jasmine and we walk hand in hand to class.
Hersey High is smaller than this place, less students for sure. Despite this fact, there are still people looking at us as we walk.
One of those people just so happens to be Jacob. His eyes find mine as we walk and he smiles, but once he notices our hands his smile drops.
I grimace a little. Honestly I didn't want to hurt Jacob. I know he likes me and all and even though he was a little annoying I didn't want to hurt him.
Still he looks me in my eyes, smiles, and nods. I do the same.
English passes by fairly fast, it not being the most interesting class on my schedule. But my next class is Music.
I perk up on my way there. Jasmine noticing my new found excitement.
"It's no fair that you're a musician already. This class is an easy A for you." She pouts.
It's more than adorable the way her bottom lip sticks out past her top, her eyes holding a playful sadness.
"Truthfully I feel like everyone's got some music in them it's just a matter of tapping into it and using it." I tell her.
Her pout remains," I don't know how to tap into it."
We take our seats and I turn to her, finger at the bottom of her chin.
"You don't need to be a musician people should right songs about you. You deserve to have the most beautiful ballads written about you."
The pout on her face replaces itself with a smile, she leans in, and kisses me.
"You are a national treasure Emerson." She mumbles against my lips.
Whenever I'm around her there's a smile on my face and I can't possibly fight it.
Mr.Lucia comes in and greets us immediately telling us to get our guitars. Everyone stands to greet theirs and I just pull mine out the case and pull the strap around my shoulders.
Jasmine sits back down and looks at me," can you write a song about me?"
"I don't know," I pause," I'm not all that good at lyrics I play though, that's it."
She nods," well you'll have to serenade me sometime."
"Will do babe."
Mr.Lucia calls us to attention and starts the lesson.
He's taught us the basics already: handling, reading music, and notes.
It's pretty advanced now, we're learning songs. Nothing drastic but Thirteen by Ben Kweller, Tush by ZZ Top, and My Best Friend's Girl by The Cars.
A few people complained about the music choices asking why we couldn't play Mary Had a Little Lamb or Rock-A-Bye Baby.
He tells us that songs like that limit the creative mind. Yes they're good to learn as basic songs but if we learned those songs we might feel like we don't have to learn anything else and he wants to mold our minds to be as creative as possible.
Mr.Lucia is my favorite teacher, Mr.Rose the close runner up.
After a brief lecture he hands out the sheet music to Thirteen. We start to individually learn the song.
On Tuesday we're to come together knowing at least half the song as a whole.
Class ends and I walk Jasmine to her class.
"Are we still hanging out with Vince and Maggie in the commons later?" I ask her.
Stepping forward she grabs my hand," definitely."
I chuckle, nod, and kiss her," see you soon love."
With pink cheeks she turns into her class and I walk to mine.
Jacob smiles at me in greeting and that's the most of our communication for the class.
Mr.Rose starts our next chapter in the book, a chapter I've personally been looking forward to and also one I've read already: Astrological Mythology.
He takes us by surprise though. He tells us to ditch our textbooks and he hands out smaller ones. They're all black paperback books. In bold golden letters on the cover it reads 'Astrological Mythology' and constellations litters the front and back.
It looks really cool, all brand new.
"Who already knows about mythical constellations?" He asks.
I, along with a few other people, raise their hands.
He calls on a girl and asks what her favorite constellation story is, she says Aquila. Then he calls on Jacob who says Gemini, then he calls on me to which I answer Cassiopeia.
The discussion continues, him telling us that all constellations originate with the Greek Mythical Gods.
I love and hate when I'm interested in a topic. I love it because I'm so engrossed in the topic and I learn so much. I hate it because time flies when you're having fun.
We're dismissed in what feels like 20 minutes but was really 55.
I head over to my room ready to start my homework but I'm met with an angry Joy.
"So what we're not friends anymore because my brother's into you?!" She shouts.
A frown immediately takes over my face and I hold my hand up," for one calm down, all the way-"
"I don't need to calm down. I take my friendships very seriously and for you to just drop ours over my brothers petty cru-"
She's mad I know but yelling is not making this any better. I'm getting upset.
"No seriously you need to calm the hell down. I don't appreciate you yelling at me over this."
"Because you don't give a fuck Emerson!" She shouts.
Heaving a sigh I turn on my heel and leave out the room.
Where to go where to go?
I head to Jasmine's room. Rapping my knuckles on the door I wait for her to open it.
"Hey babe what're you doing here?" She asks stepping back and letting me in.
Shaking my head I say," Joy blew up at me because I don't hang out with her anymore. And I mean I understand why she's upset, I do, but yelling at me about it definitely is not going to make me want to hang out with her ya know?"
Jasmine nods and sits down on her bed.
"Yeah so she kept yelling and I just left." I say before lying next to her, my head on her lap.
She starts to run her fingers through my hair.
"Give it time. Let her cool off and you cool off and then talk it out."
I'm looking up into her eyes and I smile. Look at her, the voice of reason.
"Yeah, you're right."
"I know, I usually am." She says leaning down and kissing my head.
I chuckle and sit up," I still have homework to do."
I'm about to reach down and grab my bag. She wasn't having it though. Her hand comes down and she puts a finger under my chin.
"Or we could make out."
There's a mischievous look in her eyes. I chuckle, lean in, and kiss her.
Her lips start to move against mine, hand on the back of my neck playing with my hair.
As the kiss heats up my hand finds her leg, slowly it trails up to her thigh, then her waist. We lie back, me hovering over her slightly, and her hand moves from my waist and under my shirt.
The shiver that runs down my spine doesn't go unnoticed by Jasmine, her hand sliding further up.
I cautiously trail my kisses from her lips to her neck. The most beautiful moan slips from her lips as I kiss the spot right between her neck and her collarbone.
There's no doubt in my mind that I've left a mark on her neck.
Her face is red and her breathing is shallow as her hands travel over my body.
It dawns on me that this is the furthest we've gone. It's just making out but the way our hands traveled over each other's bodies was all new.
So I take a risk and slide my hand down to her butt. She doesn't stop me as I squeeze it softly.
I'm not a butt type of girl I'm more of a breast gal. Jasmine doesn't have the bigger butt and I'm okay with that.
It's enough to grab and it's cute and perky. Then again she doesn't have much in the breast department either.
She's slim, and she's curvy in the slightest bit. I know most people would want a girl who's all curvy with big boobs and huge breasts but in my opinion Jasmine looks like a model.
At this point my lips have traveled down her collarbone to her chest.
It's when my lips are right above her heart that there's a knock on the door.
We pull away from each other. Her hands aren't under my shirt anymore and my lips aren't on her. We sit up and Jasmine calls out a come in.
Maggie comes in eyes landing on me then looking at us both.
"Did I interrupt something?" She asks.
"Yeah." I mumble.
"No, we were talking, about to leave actually, let's go Vince is probably waiting." Jasmine says standing.
She grabs an olive green jacket and pulls it on and I sigh and stand, following both girls out the room.
I shove my hands in the pockets of my dark blue jeans and quietly walk behind them over to the common building.
We get inside and sure enough Vince is sitting on a couch playing on his phone.
Maggie sits down next to him and Jasmine sits on my lap after I've plopped down in a chair.
The next few hours we spend talking, playing games, and doing homework. I beat Vince in pool twice and win $40.
After playing pool we head to the canteen at 7:50 for dinner.
The girls sit and Vince and I go get our food.
"We have to go on a double date some time!" Maggie says as we eat dinner.
I chuckle.
"Yeah that sounds awesome!" Jasmine says.
"Next weekend movies and dinner." Maggie says.
"Sounds like a plan."
So they sit there discussing movies to see and restaurants to go to and I turn to Vince and we talk about sports.
He asks me if I'm trying out for a team and I tell him when spring comes I'm going to try out for the lacrosse team.
Before we know it dinner ends and we head our separate ways to our dorms.
"You mind if I stay with you tonight I don't exactly feel like sleeping in a room with Joy."
Jasmine nods and we go to her room. We don't make out or anything we just cuddle, talk, and eventually fall asleep.