Parallel Lines

“What do you think are you doing?”

“I don’t want to go to school, what is your problem?” Jarod rubbed the back of his head and lowered his tone, making sure the girl he was with won’t hear their conversation.

“You’re with a girl,” The person in the other line scoffed, “In your fucking room, you fuckass! You think that’s fucking normal!”

The tall boy switched his eyes to the door of the CR inside his room. What was the problem with that? He was just hanging out with her friend which was a girl, why would Julius think of him like that?

“You’re stupid,” Jarod replied, “She’s my friend. And I can’t do that to a friend.”

“Be careful, don’t wear your heart on your sleeves, aight?” Julius, the person on the other line, laughed, “Kidding. We’ll visit there later. Wait for us since it’s almost 4 in the afternoon.”

Out of annoyance, he hung up and lied on his mattress, wondering what movie should they watch and ignoring what his friend just told him. 500 Days of Summer? Eh. Stuck in Love? Eh. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Maybe.

He stood up and sat in front of his rack of movies, he couldn’t help but it was on alphabetic order. He didn’t know what kind of genre the girl liked. Romance? Action? Comedy?

“Hey Jarod,” Jennifer spoke, closing the door of his CR. “Your CR is really neat. Wow.”

He hushed, grabbing the copy of My Sassy Girl, a korean romance-comedy film. It was once of his faves. He felt her presence behind him, shifting his look at her.

“Know this film?” He asked as he handed her the DVD.

Jennifer accepted it as she kneeled down beside him, her head bending a bit, “Nope.” She proceeded on reading the synopsis of the film at the back of the DVD cover.

“It’s a nice movie, really,” He smiled, “Watched it for the third time last month.”

The girl gave it back to him, grinning, “Sure, let’s watch that.” He watched as she stood up and sat on the couch beside his bed.

“Alright. I’ll just order pizza downstairs then I’ll fix this.” He spoke, standing up and placing the DVD on his table, “You can open the television already if you want.”

He went downstairs, picking up the telephone as he yelled, “Ate Liza, can you please give us two glasses upstairs? Iced tea and 2 buckets of popcorn are fine. Thank you!”

-

He lied on his bed, his eyes never leaving the girl’s back who was sitting at the edge of the bed, watching another episode of The Big Bang Theory. Stuffing his pillow on his bedside, he said, “We should start watching it now, the pizza will come in a few minutes, don’t worry.”

Jennifer nodded, raising a hand signalling him to wait. “I’ll just finish this episode.”

“What even is that?” He glanced at the television, “You watch that show? Boring.”

He watched her as she looked at him, an annoyed look on her face, “Give me 3 minutes to finish this one without saying anything, yeah? For all I know you’re the one who dragged me here and told me to do anything as I please.”

Jarod laughed, throwing the smallest he had on his bed on her back, “I was just kidding, brown-eyed girl. Have your time.”

“Thank you.” She grinned at him, throwing the pillow back to him.

Jarod stood up, and sat beside her, trying to absorb what was the person on the TV saying, “Okay, so that’s Sheldon…?”

“Yes.”

“What are they?”

“Scientists.”

He groaned, leaning back so he could fall on his bed, “You are a dork. I can’t believe I’m going to let my mom know you’re a huge dork.”

“At least you can tell your mom that we’re studying,” she simply replied, making a remark, “Instead of telling her that ‘Hi mom, I cut class with this stupid girl I met in class!’”

He snorted, shifting his body away from her, “You make good ideas, I hate you.”

He heard her laugh, making him grin. He stood up from his bed again, sitting beside her. He never knew how weird and ill-tempered this girl was but hey, she was sure as hell a good company.

“Tell me something about yourself as you watch, please. Then I’ll tell something about myself in return,” Jarod begged, “I’m bored.”

Jennifer raised her eyebrow at him, “Alright… So um, I like TV series and movies a lot.”

“I like anime, a lot.” He replied, leaning his head on her shoulder.

She nodded, “Cool, well I don’t.”

“Same, I don’t like TV series.”

She laughed, slapping him away. “I don’t care. Um, I like sketching a lot. Specifically portraits.”

“I like,” He replied, leaning his head again, “Doodling kawaii stuff. Wow,” he smelled his jacket being worn by Jennifer, “My jacket does smell good.”

Finally the episode was already done, Jen tapped his head as she said, “I’m not good with socializing.”

“That speaks a lot,” he stood up, smiling at the girl, “That’s why we get along. I finally understand.”

She simply nodded and let herself fell on the bed. Jarod fixed his DVD player and placed the CD inside. He sat on the bed and removed her glasses, grinning, “Remember to remove your glasses when lying, it may possibly break.”

“Thanks, Mom.” She smirked, shoving his face away. “I’m guessing, you’re an older brother eh? You act like one.”

He puckered his lips as he stared at the TV, the movie’s now starting. “Yep,” he answered, popping the ‘p’.

“Cool,” He heard her spoke, “You know, you’re the first boy I actually got along in the class since I don’t really consider Riggs under that ‘category’.”

The intro was already rolling when he decided to dive finally on the bed, Jennifer was beside him, lying face first. He shrugged her to stand up and watch.

“It’s starting, dude.” He said, grabbing the popcorn from the table.

-

The film had finished when Jarod realized the girl beside her was crying, making him smile. He leaned down and tapped her back, knowing it was actually the first thing he did when he first watched the movie.

He watched as the brown-eyed girl removed her glasses and rubbed her tears away.

“Damn that movie.”

“No, damn you for still looking attractive when crying,” He smiled, lending her the box of tissues.

“I know that’s my talent,” she laughed, her tears still spilling, “Kidding.”

He couldn’t see a girl crying so he took a piece of pizza and stuffed it in his mouth, trying so hard not to be close to her. The brunette was still in a relationship and he couldn’t just dig her out of the grave her boyfriend made since she was very sentimental that time.

He twisted his body and watched as she wore her glasses and grinned at him, “Sorry, I’m that sentimental.” She laughed, still lying on the cold bed and engulfing the sweet scent of it.

“I don’t mind.” He nodded, “Who wouldn’t cry anyway after watching that kind of movie, right?”

Jennifer smiled, “Heartless people wouldn’t,”

His eyes flicked as he watched her bury herself on the pillow. He realized how much this girl was truly something. He placed the box of pizzas on the table beside his bed and lied inches beside her.

“Jen,”

“Hm?

Her eyes glanced into his as her glasses flared due to the sunlight from the window. He grinned down at her as he offered, “Lie here beside me.”

“Alright.” She moved closer, and removed her glasses. He took it from her and said, “Let me place it here.”

He had this thing inside his chest and he think it would burst the moment his hand made contact with her hair. Shoving the hair from her face, he studied her face and without a doubt, smiled.

This shouldn’t be happening.

“Thanks for making me cut, Jarod.”

He smirked down at her, now braiding her hair – the vanilla scent of hers lingering. “Sure, and I’ll make sure you’ll graduate, dork. We’ll graduate. Stop worrying.”

“I trust you enough to not worry.”

Her reply made his lips dry, and stopping him from braiding her hair.

He didn’t know it would come. God, he couldn't stop the feeling.

“Be careful, don’t wear your heart on your sleeves, aight?”

He should have listened to Julius.

Because when the film started rolling, his thoughts and attention were only focused on her, and he didn't mind a single bit.