Never Fall For You

-Kat-

The next couple of weeks passed by uneventfully. Jason stopped being weird, and started out-right avoiding me. Which was fine; I was too preoccupied with other things anyway. Tyler, on the other hand, always seem to linger around. Not in an overbearing way, but he seemed to fit into he group better than Jason had. He was nice, funny, got along with everyone. Hunter was the only one who seemed to care if Jason was around or not.

So January came and went. Nothing notable about the month. Then February rolled around, and with it, came snow. And a lot of it. School was closed down for two and a half weeks, which everyone was super excited about. I don’t know why; those were days we were just going to have to make up at the end of the year.

Inches upon inches of snow piled up, like a large, thick white blanket covering the entire town. It had taken everyone by surprise, though some people were smart enough to prepare for the possibility. Not my family, though. No, we literally woke up one morning, and our power was out, and our water wouldn’t run. Lydia and I huddled together with blankets wrapped around us as Mom and Dad called their jobs, to arrange someone to cover for them; there was no way they’d be able to drive their snow-covered cars to town with the streets the way they were. And, of course, no one could come out to the house to fix the power and water until the streets were cleared. That only left us with one option.

You see, Robert and Ginny were part lucky and part just plain smart. They had a backup generator and city water, so they were set. And, being the kind people they are, instantly invited us over to stay at their house until everything got sorted out at ours.

Normally, I would’ve argued this idea, but I was freezing cold, and I hadn’t had a shower yet, so I was the first one packed and ready to go. Then, we all wrapped up in our coats, and boots, and made the short walk across the street to our new, and temporary ’home’.

“I’m so glad you guys are here!” Ginny squealed, upon entering her house. She looked at Mom, grinning. “It’s going to be just like high school.” She and Mom immediately fell into conversation, as did Dad and Robert.

“Let me help you with that.”

I looked up to see Tyler reaching for my two suitcases, smiling widely as he looked down at me. Then, Jason, following his lead, reached for Lydia’s suitcase, and she looked at me, taken aback. I shrugged, and we let the two boys take our suitcases, and lead us towards the room that we had been informed we were going to share. We were also informed that it was the room Tyler had been staying in, but he was now going to be staying in Jason’s room.

After showing us our room, the two boys hung around as we unpacked our things. Tyler kept bringing up small talk, while Jason hung around awkwardly. Once I got everything set up the way I wanted it, I excused myself, and headed for the shower.

It felt good having warm water run over my frozen body, so I just stood there in the heat, letting it thaw me out. That was, until Lydia came pounding on the door, claiming that I had been in the shower for half an hour already, and it was her turn. So I climbed out of the shower reluctantly, dried off, and pulled on my warm clothes. I wrapped my wet hair into a towel, and decided to explore the house while I had some free time.

It’s not that I’ve never seen the inside of the Hughes house before. I mean, when we were a kid, we used to come over all of the time. But as I got older, I started finding other things to do so that I could skip on having meals here. And as I looked around the large house, I noticed that a lot had changed. I barely even recognized the place anymore.

I wondered downstairs, looking at the different pictures that were hanging up on the walls. Then, noticing an open door, I wondered down the hall towards the room. I peaked inside, and a small flutter of excitement rushed through me. All three walls were covered, floor to ceiling, in books. I walked in, running my hands over the books, reading the titles silently as I went along.

“I‘m not surprised that this is the first room you found.”

I looked up, my hand resting on two books that were side-by-side on the bookshelf, and, to my surprise, saw Jason standing in the doorway. I smiled.

“When did you guys make this room?” I asked, looking around, and Jason stepped farther into the room.

“About a year ago” he answered. “You know how my mother loves her books.”

I nodded, turning back towards the books I had been looking at, as an awkward silence fell over us.

“I still have your favorite book” he said, after a moment, and I turned back towards him, my eyebrows raised.

“My favorite book?”

He smiled, and looked away, and for the first time, I really noticed how handsome Jason was. His dark hair was kind of messy, and pushed up in the front, and he had stubble from where he hadn’t shaved this morning. And his dark green eyes were staring down on me with a look that wasn’t full of disdain. Unusual.

I shook my head. No, no, no, no, no, Kat. Not Jason. Maybe Tyler, but definitely never Jason.

“Well” he said, bringing me out of my thoughts. “It used to be your favorite book. Even when we were kids, you used to make your Mom read it to you. And I remember, I never understood it, but you always seemed to know what was going on.”

He reached over, and plucked a book off of the shelf next to him, staring at the cover before handing it to me. His hand brushed against my hand, and I felt my heart skip a beat. I looked down. Pride and Prejudice lay in my hands, and I smiled. It was my favorite book. Always had been. How did he remember that?

I looked up at him, searching his eyes. He was different than he used to me. His expressions seemed softer now, and he seemed more… anxious lately. He smiled, looking away from me, and I swear I saw that boy blush. Again.

“Anyways” he said, his voice cracking a bit. “I just came to tell you Mom made lunch. So, uh, whenever you’re ready.” He looked up, past my face, and I suddenly remembered that my hair was still wrapped in a towel.

I nodded. “I’ll be there, um, shortly” I replied, and he smiled, then turned to leave. Then, he stopped at the doorway, turned back towards me, opened his mouth to say something, but just shook his head, and continued on his way.

And I just stood there, with the book close to my chest, wondering what in the hell was going on with Jason, and now me.