❝Happiness is achieved when you stop waiting for your life to begin and start making the most of the moment you are in.❞

 - Germany Kent

[ H U N T E R   W I L L I A M S ]

I couldn't quite believe that autumn would soon come to an end. It was already the start of the last week of November and I laid in bed sort of awestruck, astonished as to how quickly time had been passing.

A lot has happened since my talk with Evelyn, I was considering her advice and opening myself to new possibilities. Scratch that - I was diving headfirst into new possibilities, because I couldn't have that dumb little crush on my teacher gnaw at my soul.

You'd be surprised as to how many new connections I had missed out on over the years, I was for sure. Ever since the word got out that I was open to all parties, I became some sort of a sensation - people were practically throwing themselves at me and I didn't know how to feel about that.

I guess the good part about the situation was that I began kindling new - more intimate - friendships, now, I wasn't sleeping around like a total pig - that was just unnecessary and so out of my character. I was simply looking at my options and I thought I found a perfect candidate for a possible love interest and his name was Jake Phillips.

He was the sort of guy to sit at the back of the classroom with his headphones in and ignore his surroundings. Somehow, he still managed to excel at most of his subjects and that intrigued me. He sort of reminded me of Evelyn - she was an absolute headcase, but an incredibly smart one.

Jake was incredibly closed off, I practically knew nothing about the guy, apart from the fact the was a part of the school's swim team, despite being in the same class for over three years. I seemed to have a thing for mysterious guys, now that I think of it, maybe it was just my dumb intuition guiding me into dumb circumstances, but the attraction - even if one-sided - was there.

A part of me knew that I was acting completely reckless when I decided to pursue his attention, but I couldn't let that part take over me again. I needed to force my growing feelings for Mr Featherhead out of the way - we could never be together, anyways, I had told myself.

Kindling a connection with Jake Phillips was easier than I had anticipated. Over a few days of talking to him, I found out a lot about him and I found myself wanting more. He seemed like the type of person to open to up to anyone willing to talk to him and I sympathized with that because I was just like him.

Maybe I had been moving way too fast when it came to Jake, okay, I was. But he was now a regular at my lunch table. Consciously, I think he knew what my true intentions were.

I was more than content with the friendships I had at the time and everybody around me knew that. The fact that I was looking for something more seemed to dawn upon the boy quickly, but instead of leaning away - he leaned forward.

It was already lunchtime on a Monday, I walked through the hallway with Jake by my side, giddily smiling to myself. Jake was pretty reluctant when it came to hanging out with my friends and me during lunch, but I reassured him and pressed him to continue forward. He wasn't exactly riddled with anxiety, he was simply misanthropic and I could understand that.

He'd rather spend hours on end buried in books or swimming in the pool, than mutter a couple of words to his peers, but I was slowly breaking him out of that shell.  I turned back to him and smiled, stopping dead in my tracks. "I can smell your reluctance from over here, you know that right? Stop worrying so much, my friends like you." I reassured him, my hands resting on my hips.

A small smile formed on his plump lips, I took the moment took take in the piece of masculine beauty that was walking towards me. Jake sported a chiselled jaw, tantalizing green eyes and dark brown hair - he was truly someone out a model magazine, how had I never noticed him before?

Just then, I saw Blake walk past me, haunting me like a bad memory. He shot me a small but firm nod and I retorted with a small, disingenuous smile. We hadn't been exactly close since he drove me home after I sprained my ankle, there wasn't a real reason for us not to be talking - but the atmosphere, especially during our meetings was unnecessarily tense and I couldn't be bothered to deal with it.

Ah, whatever, my main focus right now was Jake Phillips, I could deal with the demon that was Blake Carter later.

Jake caught up to me without much hassle, I grabbed his wrist and lead him to the cafeteria with a hastier pace, despite the confusion on his face. 

Upon entering the cafeteria, I immediately dashed towards the table where my group had already been situated. My hand still on Jake's wrist, chaotically swinging him through a sea of students. "Hey, guys!" I greeted everyone at the table, interrupting the comfortable silence between my friends.

Mason and Miles were focused on a textbook, as if they were in an alternate dimension, completely ignoring the environment. River was scrolling through her phone, meanwhile, Evelyn was devouring a pretty hefty burrito, just another normal day at Lockwood High School. 

I sat down on the bench and slung my backpack over the front, attempting to fish the container with a couple of sandwiches I had prepared for lunch, before leaving for school that morning, out of a small compartment. I felt Jake sit next to me, closer than friends would normally sit next to each other, I smiled to myself.

He plopped his mathematics textbook on the table and opened it again. The few times he had come to lunch with me, he never ate and I was growing concerned. It's not like he was me and he would regularly forget to bring his lunch to school, did he just not eat? 

I had so many questions and such a little amount of answers, but I persevered and offered him a sandwich with a genuine smile.

Initially, he sort of... blinked at me with a blank expression on his face, I had to shake the sandwich a little to make sure he noticed it's presence.

"Oh, no, it's fine. I don't want any." He shook his head, his tone deep and calm. Jake soon focused his attention on his textbook and left me there dumbfounded.

"You know, it wasn't a question whether or not you wanted it or not. Take it, I'm not asking." I was no longer offering the sandwich, it was lunchtime after all. I wasn't about to seek a relationship with a person who thinks eating is an unnecessary practice.

Jake reluctantly took the sandwich out of my hand and a satisfied smirk was beginning to form on my face. Unfortunately, it vanished just as quickly as it came, as he simply put the sandwich back in the container and shot me a challenging glare.

"Are you mocking me?" I asked, my mouth agape.

"I did what you wanted me to, didn't I?" He challenged me sassily. I didn't exactly know where this newfound confidence was coming from, but I was sort of enjoying it. Having to deal with someone as stubborn as myself was a foreign feeling, and dare I say it, I sort of liked the challenge.

"Don't get clever with me, you weasel. Eat the sandwich, I don't want you to starve, don't forget that you have to swim after classes." I glared at him as a disapproving mother would. Trust me, I had gotten that glare too many times not to be able to replicate it.

"Fine," Jake grumbled and took the sandwich back out of the container. Looks like I win this time, I smirked to myself.

I felt a pair of eyes on me, as I was munching on my sandwich that was in one hand while scrolling through social media on my phone with the other. I looked up only to be met by Evelyn's eyes studying the two of us.

Jake Phillips seemed to be in a world of his own, cause he didn't even acknowledge her stare. I shot Evelyn a questioning look and received a shrug in response. I couldn't quite tell how Evelyn felt about me so desperately chasing after different people, but I doubted she cared all that much.

It was her idea to meet new people and get over my small crush on Blake Carter before it spun out of control. I don't see why she should be disapproving of this.