Admiring From Afar

“Hey, guys,” the heard someone say. “Who’s that?”

Cassandra turned around and saw Zack standing there.

“Hey, Zack, this is just my friend Jason. We have to work on a project together,” Cassandra told him.

“Oh, cool,” Zack said and he walked over to Jack and started to talk to him.

“Sorry about that,” Cassandra told Jason.

“It’s no problem…I know that I can’t be liked by everyone,” Jason told her with a shrug of his shoulders.

“So, do you want to start working on our project?” Cassandra offered.

“Yeah, where do you wanna work?” Jason asked her.

“Is here okay?” Cassandra asked him.

“Sure, let me just go out and get the poster board and we’ll be ready to go, okay?” he told her.

“Sure, there’s a store just a block down that I’m sure sells the poster board,” Cassandra told him.

“Cool, I’ll be back,” Jason told her. He walked out the door and started to walk to the store.

Cassandra turned around and walked over to Zack.

“Y’know, that wasn’t very nice of you,” Cassandra told Zack. Zack turned around.

“What?” he asked her.

“You weren’t very nice to Jason,” she clarified.

“Oh, sorry,” he told her and then turned back around and continued to talk to Jack.

Cassandra walked away from him and muttered ‘annoying’.

Zack’s POV

Stupid Jason. Won’t stop looking at Cassandra…Why can’t he just focus on the fucking project and not on her lips? I knew I got a bad vibe when she introduced me to him..
Zack’s thoughts were broken by Alex’s voice.

“Zack! Dude! Are you out of it or something? You’re totally messing up… Either you come in too late or late or you’re messing up your notes or all three…” Alex told him.

“Sorry, dude. I’m kinda out of it,” Zack told him.

“Yeah, thought so. Why don’t we take a little break,” Alex suggested.

“Yeah, a break would be good,” Zack said. He put his bass on the stand and walked to the cooler that had drinks. He took and water bottle and took a long drink.

Suddenly, he heard loud laughing. He looked over and saw Jason and Cassandra laughing their butts off.

What’s so funny over there? Are they laughing at my mess ups? Zack was getting really really getting annoyed with this Jason guy. He was charming his Cassandra and he was getting sick of the sight. Zack knew that he needed to get over Cassandra but he just couldn’t. He just couldn’t get her smile and laugh and sparkling eyes out of his head. He was actually looking forward to this band rehearsal because Cassandra would be here. He hoped that he could maybe win her over with his bass playing and his intense stares.

They needed to start acting like a happy couple because his parents were starting to bug him about getting together with Cassandra. They said that they wanted to see their son happy with a good girl.

Suddenly, he heard someone playing his bass. They were playing the piece that he messed up flawlessly. He turned around and saw fucking Jason playing his bass while smiling at Cassandra.

What a douche. Zack thought to himself.

“Whoa, dude. That was awesome!” Jordan Marie told him.

“Not really, I messed up a bit,” Jason told him while shyly taking the guitar off of his body and placing it back down on the stand.

“No, really, that was great,” Alex told him. “Do you mind if we play a song with you?”

“Really? You want to play a song with me?” Jason asked them.

“Yeah, it’ll be fun,” Jack said.

“Cool,” Jason put the guitar back on and all of the guys except for Zack went to their places. They started playing Circles.

Everybody was doing great and Zack hated to say it but Jason was rocking the bass. All Zack could do was glare at him but nobody except for Jordan Marie seemed to notice. Everybody was staring at Jason with amazement, but Jason was staring solely at Cassandra, who was working on the computer.

Then, Cassandra looked up from her computer and saw that Jason was staring at her. She started to blush and looked back down on her computer with a big smile on her face. Her reaction just made Zack even angrier. She never reacted that way when he stared at her! Does this mean that she liked him?! Zack couldn’t believe that guy. He had no right to just come into his life and take his fiancé and impress his friends!

“Dude, that was sick! You should totally get in a band,” Jack told Jason.

“Wow, really? Am I that good?” Jason asked with a surprised expression.

“Yeah, that was really awesome…hey, maybe we could swap you with Zack,” Alex joked.

“Haha, I don’t think that Zack would like that,” Jason told him feeling Zack’s glare on him.

“Hahaha,” Zack laughed sarcastically.

“Zack are you ready to play yet?” Rian asked him.

“Yeah,” Zack said and he took his bass from Jason’s hands.

“Jason! I finished the paper. All you need to do is the poster okay?” Cassandra told him.

“Yeah, I’ll finish it tonight. I’ll stop by and show it to you tomorrow. Sorry, but I have to go. My mom’s been stressing family dinners…” Jason told her.

“Oh, well then I’ll see you tomorrow,” Cassandra told him with a wave.

“Bye guys,” Jason told everyone.

After a few ‘byes’ and waves Jason left.

“So, what did you guys think of him?” Cassandra asked.

“He’s a cool dude,” Rian said.

“Yeah, he can totally rock the bass,” Jack commented.

“If Zack ever gets sick we know who to call,” Alex told them.

“He was great,” Jordan Marie said.

“He annoyed me,” Zack told them.

“Really? Why?” Cassandra asked him.

“Just ‘cause,” Zack replied.
“Hey, Zack, can I talk to you for a minute?” Jordan Marie asked him.

“Yeah, why?” Zack asked. Jordan motioned for him to come towards him.

“What?” Zack asked him.

“I think I know why you don’t like Jason,” Jordan Marie told him.

“Really? Please tell me,” Zack asked her.

“You’re jealous,” Jordan Marie stated.

“Me? Jealous? No way,” Zack said while shaking his head in disbelief.

“That’s just what a jealous person would say,” Jordan said.

“You’re jealous that he and Cassandra seem to like each other,” Jordan Marie told him.

“So, I’m already over her. I don’t care if she likes someone new,” Zack lied.

“Liar,” Jordan Marie said.

“Whatever,” Zack walked away.