Chapter Nine

Claire yawned as she made her way to the exit of the school building. The cold wind rushed past and she tightened her scarf around her neck. Autumn passes by quickly, and since it was undoubtedly her favorite season, she hated that. The leaves of the trees turning into different shades of rust, yellow and brown adorned the streets, and she loved the smell of Pumpkin Spice lattes from the coffee shop across the campus.

Having been reminded of this, Claire then made a mental note to herself to pick up a cup for herself before going home.

“Claire!”

She looked up from examining the leaves on the ground to find her best friend Jess running towards her with a huge smile on her face. After class today, Jess told her that she was in a hurry and went ahead without her, so she was pleasantly surprised to see her.

“Hey!” she called out, waving a hand while the other cupped the side of her mouth in an attempt to make her voice louder.

By the time she reached her, Jess was panting, but her smile never got any smaller. “I-I knew it… It’s J-Jay. He’s here”

Upon hearing this, her eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“That’s why I was in a hurry”, Jess replied, standing up properly as she started to get her normal breathing pattern back. “I wanted to confirm it”

Seeing as her shock was not going to subside soon, Jess abruptly grabbed her wrist and pulled her as she ran towards the gates. They bumped into a few angry students but Jess only laughed, shouting a quick apology without stopping for a second.

When they reached the bus stop, Claire immediately spotted him, and the fact that he was here finally started to sink in. Jay was leaning against the brick wall fence of the campus with a lollipop in his mouth, idly watching the sky, unaware of the curious and flirty looks the girls round him were giving him.

The last time Claire saw him was when they were twelve. She admitted that he was cute then, so it was no surprise that he was even more good-looking as a teenager. Although he was taller, leaner and the guy even bleached his hair blond, she recognized him right when she landed her eyes on him.

That’s Jay, alright, she thought, smiling to herself.

“Jay!”

The guy turned his head and spotted them. Smiling, he pushed himself off the wall and waved in greeting.

“Hey”, he said once he reached them.

“Hey, your ass!” Jess exclaimed and jumped to give him a smack on the head. “Why are you here? And without a heads-up, even?!”

“Uhh”, he mumbled, removing his lollipop from his mouth. “Surprise?”

“I hate you”

Jay, confused that Claire remained silent, took a step forward and raised a hand to flick her forehead. “Hey, dummy”

She mumbled a quiet ow before rubbing her forehead. Although painful, she thought that it was indeed necessary to flick her forehead to wake her up.

“That hurt”, she mumbled, pouting.

Jay laughed at this. He threw his lollipop into the nearest trash bin before turning his attention back to the two girls and raising his arms. “Now, where’s my welcome hug?”

The two chuckled but ran to hug him at the same time, anyway. Jay was Jess’s Korean cousin and they would meet every summer when Jess goes home to Korea, but to Claire, she only got to see him that one time they went to America during summer vacation for a change.

“I missed you, you idiot”, Claire mumbled.

“Ah!” Jessica exclaimed, breaking away from the hug and pointing at the café across the street. “Let’s go to that coffee shop to catch up!”

“I’m down!”

“But”, Claire chimed in. “It’s a weekday…”

“Oh come on!” Jay insisted, throwing a rather heavy arm around her shoulder and smiling down at her. Claire remembered him as a skinny kid who was shorter than anybody else she met, but now, he was at least a head taller than she was. “Is this really the warm welcome that I get?”

Claire stayed silent to think about it for a moment. She never hangs out anywhere after school unless it was a weekend to have more time to study at home. But since exams just ended, they didn’t have any homework or tests to prepare for.

“Alright alright”, she replied at last, chuckling and shaking her head before removing Jay’s arm on her shoulder. “Let’s go, then. For Jay”

With that, the trio headed for the café.

---

“Why?!”

“What do you mean why?” Claire asked, pushing Jess’ face away from hers with two fingers on her forehead. “I don’t want to, that’s obviously why”

Jess crossed her arms over her chest and pouted in annoyance. The two were walking towards the bus stop after another whole day of classes, and apparently, there would be a Halloween-themed house party this weekend. A guy named Luke-something, whom she recognized as one of the known rich guys in the campus, was throwing it and according to Jess, everyone was welcomed to go.

“But I wanted to go with you”, she sighed. “Nevermind. If you’re not going, then, I’m not either”

“You can just go without me. You’re great with people”

“But it’s not the same without you”, the other whined, linking her arm with hers and looking up at her with rehearsed puppy eyes.

Claire was about to reply when she felt an arm on her shoulder. She stumbled a little bit due to the sudden weight. Annoyed, she craned her head to her right to look at the culprit.

“Hey!”

“Ugh”, Claire groaned, letting go of Jess’ arm to push Ethan away from her. “What is it?”

It was unusual for Ethan to be approaching her when it wasn’t a Friday. When she looked around and noticed that most of the students in the corridors were looking at them with confused stares, Claire suddenly felt self-conscious. Well, she couldn’t blame them as they were indeed a surprising group.

Jess didn’t seem to mind, though, and smiled at him. “Hey, Ethan!”

Ethan returned her smile and nodded in greeting before turning her attention to Claire once again. He raised a hand and poked her cheek with a finger repeatedly. “Claire Claire”

“What?” she asked, rolling her eyes. She gave up trying to keep his hands off her so she ignored his poking tactics. Girls were starting to give her jealous and anguish stares. She forgot that despite his childishness, Ethan was actually quite popular among the ladies.

“You’re going to the party this weekend, right?”

“No”, she replied. She wanted to end the interaction quickly as more and more students were starting to pay attention to them. Knowing that Ethan was probably used to it by now, he wasn’t fazed at all. “Jess wanted to go, though. Can you take care of her for me?”

“Oh”, Ethan mumbled and glanced at Jess. He stopped poking her cheeks. “I can definitely do that. But I was expecting to come with you, too”

“Please do convince her, Ethan”, Jess chimed in, pumping a fist in the air in encouragement. “I was trying to do that for the past five minutes”

When they reached the area in the parking lot where Ethan parked his car, he placed a hand on Claire’s head to stop her from walking any further. “Come on, it’ll be fun!”

Claire turned to face him. She squinted her eyes at him in irritation. It really became his habit to hold her by the head, and she was so used to it now that she was starting to not feel weirded out by it. “You’re being really annoying”

“You’re the annoying one here”

“Just go bother someone else”, she sighed dejectedly and removed his hand from her head before fixing her hair. “A lot of people want to come with you, anyway”

Claire was tempted to say that he was better off bothering Stephanie to go with him but upon remembering the ominous looks he was giving her at the restaurant last weekend, her tongue backed down. She didn’t want to disclose the encounter to Jess, too.

“Yeah”, he shrugged. “But I want to go with Claire”

Claire blushed at this and as usual, she looked down at the ground so that the boy wouldn’t see it. It was even more embarrassing that Jess was just spectating their exchange with a teasing smile and there were students, too, who couldn’t keep their noses out of their business.

“Fine”, she agreed, mostly because she just wanted to get the matter over with and partly because Ethan said that he specifically wanted her to be there with him. But of course, she wasn’t going to admit that.

Jess shrieked in happiness and linked her arm with hers again. “Good job, Ethan!”

He chuckled and took out his car keys from his pocket. “Great, I’ll pick you two up by then”

“Thank you”, Jess said and showed him a thumbs up. “We’ll be off, then. We wouldn’t want to miss the bus”

Ethan waved a hand in goodbye before jogging towards the group of guys waiting for him by his car while she followed him with her gaze. They were the same group Claire always see him with having lunch in the cafeteria. When he got to their area, they exchanged fist bumps, and, based on the looks they were giving her and Jess, were confused as to how a distinguished guy like him was talking to them.

“Ethan’s really sweet, huh?”

This caused Claire to peel her gaze off the guys by Ethan’s car. She then continued to walk towards the bus stop, pulling Jess with her. “Nah, I think he’s just like that to everybody”

“Huh”, Jess mumbled in thought. Then, she smiled at her, dismissing the topic. “So, do we prepare matching costumes or what?”

“Don’t go overboard”