Claire yawned as she made her way to the exit of the school building. The cold wind rushed past and she tightened her scarf around her neck. Autumn passes by quickly, and since it was undoubtedly her favorite season, she hated that. The leaves of the trees turning into different shades of rust, yellow and brown adorned the streets, and she loved the smell of Pumpkin Spice lattes from the coffee shop across the campus.
Having been reminded of this, Claire then made a mental note to herself to pick up a cup for herself before going home.
“Claire!”
She looked up from examining the leaves on the ground to find her best friend Jess running towards her with a huge smile on her face. After class today, Jess told her that she was in a hurry and went ahead without her, so she was pleasantly surprised to see her.
“Hey!” she called out, waving a hand while the other cupped the side of her mouth in an attempt to make her voice louder.
By the time she reached her, Jess was panting, but her smile never got any smaller. “I-I knew it… It’s J-Jay. He’s here”
Upon hearing this, her eyes widened. “Are you sure?”
“That’s why I was in a hurry”, Jess replied, standing up properly as she started to get her normal breathing pattern back. “I wanted to confirm it”
Seeing as her shock was not going to subside soon, Jess abruptly grabbed her wrist and pulled her as she ran towards the gates. They bumped into a few angry students but Jess only laughed, shouting a quick apology without stopping for a second.
When they reached the bus stop, Claire immediately spotted him, and the fact that he was here finally started to sink in. Jay was leaning against the brick wall fence of the campus with a lollipop in his mouth, idly watching the sky, unaware of the curious and flirty looks the girls round him were giving him.
The last time Claire saw him was when they were twelve. She admitted that he was cute then, so it was no surprise that he was even more good-looking as a teenager. Although he was taller, leaner and the guy even bleached his hair blond, she recognized him right when she landed her eyes on him.
That’s Jay, alright, she thought, smiling to herself.
“Jay!”
The guy turned his head and spotted them. Smiling, he pushed himself off the wall and waved in greeting.
“Hey”, he said once he reached them.
“Hey, your ass!” Jess exclaimed and jumped to give him a smack on the head. “Why are you here? And without a heads-up, even?!”
“Uhh”, he mumbled, removing his lollipop from his mouth. “Surprise?”
“I hate you”
Jay, confused that Claire remained silent, took a step forward and raised a hand to flick her forehead. “Hey, dummy”
She mumbled a quiet ow before rubbing her forehead. Although painful, she thought that it was indeed necessary to flick her forehead to wake her up.
“That hurt”, she mumbled, pouting.
Jay laughed at this. He threw his lollipop into the nearest trash bin before turning his attention back to the two girls and raising his arms. “Now, where’s my welcome hug?”
The two chuckled but ran to hug him at the same time, anyway. Jay was Jess’s Korean cousin and they would meet every summer when Jess goes home to Korea, but to Claire, she only got to see him that one time they went to America during summer vacation for a change.
“I missed you, you idiot”, Claire mumbled.
“Ah!” Jessica exclaimed, breaking away from the hug and pointing at the café across the street. “Let’s go to that coffee shop to catch up!”
“I’m down!”
“But”, Claire chimed in. “It’s a weekday…”
“Oh come on!” Jay insisted, throwing a rather heavy arm around her shoulder and smiling down at her. Claire remembered him as a skinny kid who was shorter than anybody else she met, but now, he was at least a head taller than she was. “Is this really the warm welcome that I get?”
Claire stayed silent to think about it for a moment. She never hangs out anywhere after school unless it was a weekend to have more time to study at home. But since exams just ended, they didn’t have any homework or tests to prepare for.
“Alright alright”, she replied at last, chuckling and shaking her head before removing Jay’s arm on her shoulder. “Let’s go, then. For Jay”
With that, the trio headed for the café.
---
“Why?!”
“What do you mean why?” Claire asked, pushing Jess’ face away from hers with two fingers on her forehead. “I don’t want to, that’s obviously why”
Jess crossed her arms over her chest and pouted in annoyance. The two were walking towards the bus stop after another whole day of classes, and apparently, there would be a Halloween-themed house party this weekend. A guy named Luke-something, whom she recognized as one of the known rich guys in the campus, was throwing it and according to Jess, everyone was welcomed to go.
“But I wanted to go with you”, she sighed. “Nevermind. If you’re not going, then, I’m not either”
“You can just go without me. You’re great with people”
“But it’s not the same without you”, the other whined, linking her arm with hers and looking up at her with rehearsed puppy eyes.
Claire was about to reply when she felt an arm on her shoulder. She stumbled a little bit due to the sudden weight. Annoyed, she craned her head to her right to look at the culprit.
“Hey!”
“Ugh”, Claire groaned, letting go of Jess’ arm to push Ethan away from her. “What is it?”
It was unusual for Ethan to be approaching her when it wasn’t a Friday. When she looked around and noticed that most of the students in the corridors were looking at them with confused stares, Claire suddenly felt self-conscious. Well, she couldn’t blame them as they were indeed a surprising group.
Jess didn’t seem to mind, though, and smiled at him. “Hey, Ethan!”
Ethan returned her smile and nodded in greeting before turning her attention to Claire once again. He raised a hand and poked her cheek with a finger repeatedly. “Claire Claire”
“What?” she asked, rolling her eyes. She gave up trying to keep his hands off her so she ignored his poking tactics. Girls were starting to give her jealous and anguish stares. She forgot that despite his childishness, Ethan was actually quite popular among the ladies.
“You’re going to the party this weekend, right?”
“No”, she replied. She wanted to end the interaction quickly as more and more students were starting to pay attention to them. Knowing that Ethan was probably used to it by now, he wasn’t fazed at all. “Jess wanted to go, though. Can you take care of her for me?”
“Oh”, Ethan mumbled and glanced at Jess. He stopped poking her cheeks. “I can definitely do that. But I was expecting to come with you, too”
“Please do convince her, Ethan”, Jess chimed in, pumping a fist in the air in encouragement. “I was trying to do that for the past five minutes”
When they reached the area in the parking lot where Ethan parked his car, he placed a hand on Claire’s head to stop her from walking any further. “Come on, it’ll be fun!”
Claire turned to face him. She squinted her eyes at him in irritation. It really became his habit to hold her by the head, and she was so used to it now that she was starting to not feel weirded out by it. “You’re being really annoying”
“You’re the annoying one here”
“Just go bother someone else”, she sighed dejectedly and removed his hand from her head before fixing her hair. “A lot of people want to come with you, anyway”
Claire was tempted to say that he was better off bothering Stephanie to go with him but upon remembering the ominous looks he was giving her at the restaurant last weekend, her tongue backed down. She didn’t want to disclose the encounter to Jess, too.
“Yeah”, he shrugged. “But I want to go with Claire”
Claire blushed at this and as usual, she looked down at the ground so that the boy wouldn’t see it. It was even more embarrassing that Jess was just spectating their exchange with a teasing smile and there were students, too, who couldn’t keep their noses out of their business.
“Fine”, she agreed, mostly because she just wanted to get the matter over with and partly because Ethan said that he specifically wanted her to be there with him. But of course, she wasn’t going to admit that.
Jess shrieked in happiness and linked her arm with hers again. “Good job, Ethan!”
He chuckled and took out his car keys from his pocket. “Great, I’ll pick you two up by then”
“Thank you”, Jess said and showed him a thumbs up. “We’ll be off, then. We wouldn’t want to miss the bus”
Ethan waved a hand in goodbye before jogging towards the group of guys waiting for him by his car while she followed him with her gaze. They were the same group Claire always see him with having lunch in the cafeteria. When he got to their area, they exchanged fist bumps, and, based on the looks they were giving her and Jess, were confused as to how a distinguished guy like him was talking to them.
“Ethan’s really sweet, huh?”
This caused Claire to peel her gaze off the guys by Ethan’s car. She then continued to walk towards the bus stop, pulling Jess with her. “Nah, I think he’s just like that to everybody”
“Huh”, Jess mumbled in thought. Then, she smiled at her, dismissing the topic. “So, do we prepare matching costumes or what?”
“Don’t go overboard”
“Do I really look okay in this costume?” Claire self-consciously tugged at the hem of her skirt as it was a lot shorter than what she was comfortable wearing. Ever since they decided to go to the Halloween party, Jess has been stoked about the costumes, so she didn’t want to let her down by refusing to wear what she came up with, which turned out to be a Japanese-style maid costume. Jess, being a cute Asian-American, had no trouble looking good in it. “Yeah, of course, you do”, Jess replied as she adjusted her headpiece. “I wouldn’t choose this if you wouldn’t look good wearing it” Two hours ago, Jess came over to her house with a ginormous gym bag filled with clothes, accessories, and makeup, and ever since then, the two have been preparing for the party. She was too excited that Claire didn’t have even a second of rest after a d
“How was the party?”Claire remained silent and continued to sip on her iced coffee. After the incident with Ethan in the backyard, she tried to act as how she normally would while casually ignoring him. Ethan might've found it amusing but she wasn't delighted at all. Worse, she wanted to slap herself for not disliking the fact that he touched her.Luckily, Jess was more than happy to answer.“It was fun!” she interjected, raising her arms for more effect. “Claire got drunk and I got to flirt with a guy!”“Wait”, Claire interrupted, abandoning her coffee. Upon hearing Jess, her ears perked up and her eyes went wide in shock. “What guy?”She tilted her head in confusion and looked at the ceiling, trying to remember as much as she could about last night’s events, which proved to be hard. After Ethan’s ridiculous antic, she couldn’t focus at all and kept on drinking to distr
Five minutes before 9 pm, Claire headed out. The playground that they agreed to meet at was actually in the neighborhood so it was a mere five-minute walk to get there. A block after, she realized that it was rather chilly tonight, and regretted not wearing a scarf, but she figured that it would be too late for her to go back to get one. The cold wind rushed by, causing a mini tornado of autumn leaves by her feet, and she hugged herself in an attempt to keep herself warm.When she arrived at the playground, five minutes later, it was deserted. She hopped over the chain that hung around the perimeter and settled into one of the swings. There were no other people around and cars rarely go through these streets so it was quiet, in a serene way rather than a terrifying one.“I’m not too early, aren’t I?” she mumbled to herself, craning her neck side to side in case she just didn’t spot Jay when she got there, but true enough, she was alone.
The school bell rang, signaling the end of the last period. As the students hurried towards the corridors, happily chatting along with their peers, Claire immediately slammed her forehead into her desk and she was tempted to sleep right then and there. Due to the unexpected turn of events on the previous night, she couldn’t sleep at all.“Yo”, she heard Jess say while poking her head with her index fingers. “Why so glum-glum, Claire?”“I just need a nap”, she groaned, closing her eyes. “You can go ahead without me”“A nap? Here?”“Yeah, I don’t really care”Jess fell silent but Claire could tell that she was still there, contemplating whether to leave her alone or not. She wasn’t able to tell her anything yet since she was still confused and didn’t really know how to do so. Even so, Jess knew that something was up and she had been obviously trying so har
The weekend came and ever since then, Ethan has been waiting outside her last period classroom and insisting to drive her home. Although the ‘little incident’ last Monday, as she called it, never happened again nor was brought up in their conversations, Claire still felt a little bit awkward with him and she even sometimes caught herself staring at his lips. Fortunately, Ethan wasn’t acting out of the ordinary so it was easier for her to shrug it off.“Brian”, she called out as she gestured towards the stack of books left unattended on a nearby table. “Can you go and reshelve those?”The guy paused from arranging the borrower’s cards and nodded at her before heading towards the table to do as she instructed.Today, Claire was in charge of check-out counter duty since Katie had family plans for Thanksgiving and couldn’t come. The head librarian did assign another part-timer to work with her in the meantime, th
“Soooo?”Claire suppressed a smile before closing the bedroom door behind her and leaning against it. She looked at Jess who was smiling expectantly at her while sitting cross-legged on the bed and hugging a pillow. A second after locking eyes with Jess, Claire burst into fits of laughter then ran to her bed to grab a pillow for herself and bury her face there, hiding her red cheeks.“You sly dog”, she heard Jess say while hitting her repeatedly at the back with a pillow. “I really had no idea until Jay asked me to help him have some time alone with you!”“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” she exclaimed and rolled over to shield herself from Jess’s pillow attacks and look up at her. “He’s your cousin so I was hesitating”“You suck”, Jess laughed. “But looking back, I think I see it now. I can’t believe I missed that”“Well, we talked about i
For the rest of the week, Claire has been trying hard to not get herself distracted. Winter break was coming and her academic load has been getting heavier and heavier so it was quite easy for her to focus on something else to keep herself from thinking about the possibility of her parents getting back together. Jess has been really cheerful, as well, ever since she went on a date with Greg so she counted on her to make her smile. But at the same time, because of her behavior, Claire found it difficult to open up to her about her situation as she didn’t want to spoil her mood.“Hmm”, she mumbled as she checked the mock quiz she made for Ethan. “Looks like you’ve grasped the concepts pretty well”“Well”, Ethan said and leaned in towards her. He crossed his arms and rested them on the table as his eyebrows wiggled playfully. “Do I get to receive a reward, then?”Usually, Ethan’s tactics like this on
The school bell rang which was then immediately followed by a mixed chorus of the students’ excited cheers and frustrated groans. Their chemistry teacher pounded her tray on the table, wordlessly instructing the students to place their test papers there. Claire, confident in her answers, stood up and did so, shoving her body against the wave of rowdy students. It was officially winter break. Clare didn’t have any concrete plans besides hanging out with Jay and Jess every now and then since the library won’t be open again until next month, but she was fine with that. “Hey hey”, Jess greeted her as she approached her desk. Claire looked up from arranging her books and pencil case in her backpack to return her smile. “Let’s go home together today!” “What about Greg?” she asked, tilting her head a little in confusion. “He’s not accompanying you today?” “Nah, I told him that I wanted to come home with you” “Oh, okay, then”, she nodded before slingi