Paper Airplanes Read online

  “Oh, so Jared has a girlfriend?”

  “Yeah, he does,” I said as passively as I could, since I knew deep down I wished he was single. I was a horrible person.

  “Is he the one you were flirting with?”

  “Yes,” I said glumly. “But it was harmless.”

  “If you say so.”

  “It was,” I insisted. “We’re just friends.”

  “So what about Scott?”

  I laughed just thinking about him. “No, Scott doesn’t have a girlfriend. He’s such a goofball. He and Jared are like total opposites of each other. Jared’s all serious and brooding, and Scott’s a nut. He’s so fun to hang out with.”

  “Is he hot?”

  “In his own way he’s cute, and his personality makes him kind of adorable, but I’m not interested in him.”

  “I know. I can tell from your tone that you’re not into him, but Jared on the other hand, the way you say his name, you like him, don’t you? It wasn’t just harmless flirting.”

  Damn, only the girl who’d known me for most of my life could deduce my feelings for someone by the way I said his name.

  “No!” I said quickly, my voice getting a little too squeaky for my refute to sound plausible.

  “You are such a liar,” she accused, and I could hear the smile in her voice.

  “I’m not lying. He’s cute, and he’s nice and sweet, but I’m not going there. He has a girlfriend. And besides, I’m not ready to date either. Not yet. Things are still too raw with Will, you know?”

  “I know,” she said, and I felt bad for dragging us back to reality. It sucked. “Well, maybe when I come visit you this summer, the four of us can all hang out – as friends.”

  “You’re coming to visit me?” I asked, the excitement I felt unable to be masked.

  “Yeah, totally. I miss you so much, babe.”

  “I miss you too. When are you coming to visit?”

  “Sometime in July, I think. I’ll let you know for sure.”

  “Awesome. I can’t wait.”

  “Me either. Alright, I have to get back to work. I was just on my lunch break, so I figured I’d give you a call. Call me this week, okay?”

  Marley worked at a local animal hospital. She was in school to be a vet and had gotten a job when she moved home for the same reasons I had. She also was trying to gain work experience, but I knew the job served a dual purpose.

  “Yeah, sure. I’ll let you know all about how chemistry is since I’m sure it’ll be thrilling the second time around – at least the first few weeks of it.”

  “I’m sure it’ll be great. It’ll be good to get back into taking classes. I wished I’d have thought of that.”

  “You’re working full-time at the hospital. You’re busy enough.”

  “This is true. And speaking of which, I gotta go. Tell Hale I said hi when you see him. He owes me a phone call.”

  “I’ll tell him. Now get back to work before they fire you for being too social while on the clock.”

  “Yes ma’m!” she said, and had she been standing in front of me, she would have saluted me.

  Man, I really missed her.

  * * *

  I got to chemistry ten minutes before class started, and the room was already half full, so I grabbed an open seat and slid into it. A glance around the room told me I didn’t recognize anyone, so I opened my iPad, wrote the date at the top of a blank page of uPad paper and tapped the end of my stylus against the screen a few times. Then I opened my textbook and started to read the first chapter. It was really boring, and I was only three paragraphs in when I realized I had just read three sentences, but I hadn’t actually absorbed what was written.

  I took a deep breath and started the paragraph over. I got two words in before a paper airplane landed right on top of my textbook. I made a face at it, crumpled it up and left the wad of paper on the corner of my desk, annoyed that someone was being so immature. This was college after all, but maybe that was what people in community college did.

  No sooner did I stare back at my textbook when another airplane landed in the spot where the previous one had been. This one had the words ‘OPEN ME’ scrawled on the wing, so I opened it up to find the word ‘Hi’ inside.

  Well, hello creepy person who is trying to annoy me. I crumpled the paper up and left the wad next to the other ruined airplane. A second later, another airplane landed on my textbook, and I looked up in the direction it had come from with the most annoyed look on my face that I could muster, hoping it would be enough to get the thrower to back off.

  Then my face broke into a smile.

  I should have known. Sitting across the room, wearing a shit-eating grin, was Jared. He gestured to the airplane he’d thrown, indicating that I should open it. I faced front, since the teacher was walking into the classroom at that moment, and discreetly opened the airplane.

  It’s nice to see you.

  I smiled at the words Jared had written inside. Then I turned to him and mouthed, “You too.” He smiled in return.

  “Good morning, everyone. I’m Mr. Graves, and I will be the one showing you the wondrous world of college level chemistry this summer. How excited are you?”

  Oh, good Lord. This guy thought of himself as a comedian. Fantastic.

  “Great,” he said when no one answered him. “I’m ecstatic, as well.” Then he clapped his hands. “Okay, so here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to pass out the syllabus, then we’re going to review it, and then I’m going to lecture for the next two hours. I should forewarn you that this class is not going to be an easy one for many of you. I take my subject very seriously, and I expect that you will, as well. Please note that this class will meet for two and a half hours on Mondays and Wednesdays, and on Fridays we’ll have a one hour lab. You will need to choose a lab partner. If you don’t, I’ll assign you, but regardless of the process, this person will be your partner for the entire semester, so choose wisely or leave it up to fate. It is your decision. So, without further ado . . .”

  He kept talking, and whenever he said something relevant, I wrote it down. By the end of the class, my hand was aching, and I had twelve pages of notes. The man wasn’t messing around. And I had a boatload of reading to do before I had to go in for my shift at work that started at five. It was going to be a busy day.

  I looked over to see Jared putting his book in his backpack. The brunette that had been sitting next to him was talking to him, but I wasn’t sure he was really listening. I watched while she smiled and flipped her hair, and then she paused. I watched, enthralled, because I was pretty sure she was asking him to be her lab partner, and I let out a sigh of relief when he shook his head. He was the only person in the class that I knew, so I was hoping we could be partners. I didn’t want to get stuck with someone random.

  He said something to her, and the girl’s face fell. Then she looked up and made eye contact with me when she saw me watching them, so I quickly averted my eyes. I didn’t want her to think I was interested in him in case she knew Brooke. That girl probably had eyes all over town. I just wanted Jared to be my lab partner.

  “Hey,” he said a few seconds later, startling me.

  I looked up and smiled. “Hi. Fun class, right?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m not a fan of chemistry, but it’s required for my AA, so here I am. I’ve put it off for a while, but my advisor told me I needed to take it. I’m glad to see I know someone in the class.”

  “Me too,” I said, as I hiked my backpack higher onto my shoulder. “I was glad to see you earlier. I was hoping maybe we could be lab partners.”

  His face looked passive when he said, “Yeah, sure. Definitely,” and I wondered if he knew I’d seen him turn down the other girl.

  I smiled. “Great.”

  “So, where are you headed now?” he asked.

  I ran my hand back through my curls. The humidity had gotten to them from my walk from the parking lot to class, and they were out of control, so I qui
ckly twisted them up into a high bun. I did that a lot during the summer, since my hair could get a little crazy.

  “I have Intro to Psychology in an hour, so I guess I’ll get some of this reading out of the way,” I told him. “What about you?”

  “I have class in an hour too. I’m taking Calculus.” He made another face.

  “How fun for you. Are you trying to kill yourself?” I asked, as we left the classroom together.

  Jared laughed. “No, I just figured summer classes are only for ten weeks, so it’s less time I’ll have to focus on two subjects I hate.”

  “Sounds logical.”

  “I hope so. Or it’ll kick my ass, and I’ll have no life this summer, but whatever. It’s all part of my master plan in life, so I guess I’ll consider these classes a rite of passage.”

  “Your master plan in life?” I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

  “Yeah, I want to be a writer, but I need my AA so I can apply to a writing program at a larger university, so even though I’ll never use what I learn in these classes, they’re a means to an end, so they’re worth it.”

  “That’s cool. I didn’t know you wanted to be a writer.”

  “Yeah, it’s sort of all I’ve ever wanted to do. I’ve been writing since I was a kid.”

  “Really? That’s so cool. What do you write?”

  I watched his cheeks flush, and I wondered if I’d embarrassed him. “Um, mostly short stories – some sci-fi, some fantasy – and I wrote a novel last year that was more of a coming of age story, but it was set in a dystopian society.”

  My eyebrows rose. “You wrote a book?”

  Jared’s face flushed even redder. “Um, yeah, I did.”

  “Wow! That is amazing. How many pages is it?”

  He ran his hand back through his dark brown hair. “Like, three-fifty.”

  I stopped walking, and it took him a moment before he realized I wasn’t next to him. He turned to look back at me, and I was gaping at him in awe.

  “What?” he asked, clearly uncomfortable with the look on my face.

  “Three hundred and fifty pages? Seriously?”

  “Yeah,” he said, his face completely red by this point.

  “Jared,” I said, walking the few steps to catch up to him. “That is so incredible. You actually wrote a book. Do you know how cool that is?”

  He shrugged. “I guess.”

  “Oh, my God. Can I read it?”

  Jesus, even his ears were turning pink. He was seriously embarrassed, and I couldn’t stop gushing over him. What he’d done was majorly cool.

  “It’s, um, on Amazon,” he said quietly, shrugging. “So, yeah.”

  “AMAZON!” I yelled, not realizing how high my volume had gone. “You sell it?!”

  He nodded. “Yeah, but I just self-published. It’s not a big deal. I’ve only sold like a thousand copies in the past year.”

  My eyes went wide. “Jared! That’s incredible!”

  He looked way too humble for my taste. He’d written a book, and a thousand people had read it. If that had been me, I’d be telling everyone I knew about it. How could he have kept this a secret?

  “Okay, can we talk about something else?” he asked, desperate to change the subject.

  “No, definitely not. You have to tell me all about your book. Come on. Let’s go get coffee, and you can tell me the synopsis while I buy it on my iPad.”

  “Um,” he said, not sure how to respond.

  I was a little hyper, which wasn’t normally how I acted around him. In truth I hadn’t acted that way around anyone in months, but with Jared I didn’t have the same reservations that I felt around everyone else. I felt at ease with him, and it had been a long time since I’d felt that way.

  “Come on,” I said, grabbing him by the elbow and leading him to the coffee shop on campus. “This is by far the coolest thing one of my friends has ever done. I can’t wait to read it.”

  Jared just groaned behind me as we entered the coffee shop.

  “What do you want to drink?” I asked, turning around to face him as I bounced a little on my heels.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “I’ll have a black coffee, but I’d recommend something decaffeinated for you,” he said, so I checked him in the shoulder and turned around to peruse the menu.

  When I stepped up to the counter, I ordered something cararmelly and sugary and creamy that made Jared’s face scrunch up in disgust. So I rolled my eyes, ordered his boring black coffee and paid for them both.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” he said, as he followed me to the other side of the counter to wait for my drink.

  I turned around to face him, loving the way he styled his hair so it looked like he’d just rolled out of bed. I had the same urge I’d had a few days earlier to run my fingers through it. He looked so hot and unassuming standing there with his backpack slung over his shoulder and his thumb tucked under the strap. I wondered if he knew just how good looking he really was. He didn’t act like most of the guys I knew who looked like he did. He wasn’t cocky at all even though he had a lot of reasons to be. He was still the same shy, reserved guy he’d probably always been, and I think that’s why I found him so attractive. He wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met.

  “What?” he asked, when he caught me staring.

  I shook my head. “Nothing,” I said, looking away from him, because I probably could have continued to stare all day.

  I reminded myself that I shouldn’t do that. I should be thinking about Will. But I also knew that if our situations were reversed, I’d have wanted Will to be happy. I’d have wanted him to move on with his life and find someone to love him. I wondered if he’d want the same thing for me. I thought he just might. It didn’t make me feel any less guilty for wanting Jared, but it made the guilt easier to swallow.

  But even if there hadn’t been a Will, there was a still a Brooke, and I was fairly certain she wouldn’t want me ogling her boyfriend. Definitely not.

  So I turned around to watch the barista make my drink in an effort to avoid my inappropriate desires to watch Jared. I thought he took a step closer to me, but even if he didn’t, I could feel him standing behind me, and it gave me goose bumps. A part of me wanted him to slip his arms around my waist and pull me back against him. I wondered what it would be like to be flush against his firm chest, his head tucked next to mine, cheek to cheek. It had been a long time since anyone had held me like that – not since that last night with Will that seemed like it was yesterday at the same time as it felt light years ago.

  I closed my eyes for a few seconds to ward off the thoughts that were suddenly invading my brain. Shit, I couldn’t think like that. It was all so wrong and confusing as the two guys melded together in my mind and made me think things I shouldn’t have been thinking.

  “Cassie?” Jared suddenly said, and he was so close I could almost feel his warm breath on my neck. I was suddenly so afraid he’d been able to tell what I’d been thinking.

  “Yeah?” I asked, not turning around because I knew my face was flushed, and I didn’t want him to see me that way.

  “Your drink is ready.”

  Oh.

  Okay, so that wasn’t what I’d expected him to say. I looked up to see my drink sitting on the counter and wondered if the barista had called my name and I just hadn’t heard.

  I grabbed it and walked over to a set of armchairs in the corner, hoping the walk would calm me down. I’d never been this flustered by a guy before. I was usually much more confident and in control. Even with Will who had turned my insides to jelly, I was still able to stay calm and flirt and be adorable. I felt like Jared had the ability to turn me into a blubbering mess if given the chance.

  He came over to sit next to me after I’d settled into the armchair, and I looked over at him, but I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “So what did you really think of class?” he asked, and I knew he was just making conversation. We’d already established that we both hated chemis
try.

  “Well, my hand is about ready to fall off, because I wrote down everything Mr. Graves said. In truth I’m horrible at science, so I figure I’ll have to work extra hard to not fail. Usually Marley, my best friend, helps me since this is so up her alley – she’s in school to be a vet – but since she’s not here, I’m on my own.”

  Jared took a sip of his coffee and appraised me. “We can study together if you want. I’m not great at science either, but maybe we can struggle through it together? And if we can’t figure something out, I can always call my brother. He’s pre-med, so he could probably pass this class with his eyes closed.”

  Okay, that was really sweet and completely unexpected. Jared was making my stomach do all sorts of funny things again. But then I remembered one issue with his seemingly stellar suggestion for us to spend more time together.

  “I don’t think Brooke will like that very much,” I said as I imagined Jared and me in my room together, huddled close as we read our chemistry textbook and made study notes.

  He cocked his head to the side and grinned. “What? Me calling Evan for help? Yeah, you’re probably right, they’ve never really like each other.”

  I returned his smiled. “No,” I said, rolling my eyes at him. “Me and you studying together.”

  He shrugged. “I think she’ll get over it,” he said, and I didn’t think he could have been more wrong.

  No way would she get over something like that. She’d been ice cold to me when we’d worked together on Saturday night, even bumping into me ‘by accident’ twice. She wasn’t a fan and the last thing she’d want was me spending alone time with her boyfriend.

  “Well, either way, I have to work with you both, and I’d rather not piss off your girlfriend. She already sort of doesn’t like me for some reason.”

  Jared just looked at me and blinked a few times. “My girlfriend? Brooke?”

  “Yeah, obviously,” I said, completely confused as to why he was questioning who I was talking about.