A seductive smile

(Jasmine's POV)

Why did I lie? Does that mean my conversation with him last night wasn't a dream? I gulped hard as I stared into his honey-colored eyes, and he was looking back into my eyes as well, my heart thudding inside my chest.

"I knew you were lying when you said you don't go to Wilford High School," he began. "You were that newbie from a year ago, right? The girl who didn't know her direction to the Principal's office, right?" he asked.

He still remembered taking me to the Principal's office a year ago? This was what I least expected from a playboy like him. I stared at him and slowly nodded my head. He already knows the truth, so lying would only turn me into a coward.

"I knew it!" he exclaimed like he had just received an award. "I thought so hard last night, wondering where I had seen you before, and it turns out you're the cute girl from a year ago," he gushed.

My cheeks almost heated up at the thought of Jack thinking about me all night. It made my heart flutter so much.

"Where have you been all this while?" he asked with a smile.

I opened my mouth to say something again, but he cut me short with a question.

"Where are your glasses? I still recall you were wearing glasses that day," he beamed.

"Contact lenses," I whispered.

I've always been short-sighted, so I always wear glasses to help with my vision, but recently I chose not to wear them anymore after my mom introduced contact lenses to me. I love my contact lenses because my glasses often make me look like a grandma.

"Oh... You wear contact lenses now?" he asked, not minding how close we were. For the record, I didn't mind. This was what I had wanted from the moment I set my eyes on him—for him to notice me and to be close to him, even though I am a shy girl.

Looking at him, I nodded my head, the fragrance of his strawberry cologne filling my nose and making butterflies tickle in my stomach.

"You look better without your glasses, but you were extremely cute with your glasses," he touched my chin with a smile. Does he even have any idea what he's doing to me right now?

"Promise me you won't lie to me again," he said, his voice sounding more like a whisper.

I swallowed hard and nodded my head.

"You won't run away if, peradventure, I show up on your doorstep, right?" he flashed a smile at me, while I twisted my eyebrows. Is he going to show up at my doorstep unannounced? It will be easier for him to do so since we live next door now.

"Why are you quiet, Jellybean? Are you planning to run away the next time you see me?" he whispered, but with a silly face that made me smile.

"No, I won't," I answered with a smile.

"You look beautiful when you smile. I always want to see this side of you, not the nervous Jellybean," he murmured, and my heart skipped a bit, more butterflies tickling in my stomach.

"How long will you be in there?" someone asked from outside, and that's when I realized how long we had been inside the toilet stall.

Jack pulled away from me, but I wished he hadn't, and I also wished someone hadn't come to interrupt us. I was finally having my moment with Jack, and someone just had to ruin it.

"See you at home, Jellybean," he gave me a wink with a curved smile—my knees wobbled.

He opened the toilet stall, and the girl from outside looked at both Jack and I suspiciously before her eyes focused on Jack.

"Hi Jack. I didn't know you were in there," she said, as she purposely revealed the flesh of her boobs while giving him a seductive smile.

I felt jealous about it because I know even in a thousand years to come, I won't ever be flirty like the girls in Wilford High School. It just wasn't my kind of thing.

A smile curved on my lips when Jack ignored her and walked away from her. It's rare for him to resist any girl that throws herself at him, which is why I was over the moon that he ignored her.

"Who the heck are you, and what were you doing with Jack?" she demanded as if she's my mom and had caught me in a silly act.

"We weren't doing anything. We just talked," I answered her.

She scoffed and glared at me. "You just talked? Do you possibly think I'll believe you? Of all the places you could talk to Jack, it has to be the toilet stall, one of the safest places for making out or sex?" she asked, as her eyes threw invisible bullets at me.

"Were you making out or having sex with him?" she demanded.

I haven't kissed anyone my whole life, talk more of having sex. I've always been curious about what it feels like to have sex or be kissed, but I have never been confident enough to try it. I'm the girl who's more focused on fulfilling her parents' wishes.

"I didn't make out or have sex with Jack," I replied in a low tone.

"Who in this school doesn't make out with Jack?" she said sarcastically, and I felt hurt that the boy I like had kissed almost all the girls in school.

I swallowed hard and walked away from her. I didn't want to be reminded of how much of a playboy Jack is.

I shouldn't dwell on that. What matters is that Jack living next door to me isn't just a dream and that he finally noticed and talked to me.

As I walked down the hallway toward my locker, I couldn't help but simper about my conversation with Jack inside the toilet stall.

He didn't just remember me as the girl from a year ago, he also remembered I was the girl who used to wear glasses. My parents have even forgotten I was born short-sighted.

Does that mean I have been in his head and mind all this while? I thought to myself, but shook it off.

"Don't overthink just yet, Jasmine," I said to myself and brought out my backpack from inside my locker, smiling.

The moment I closed my locker, I found Amy behind me, and I almost had a heart attack.

"Oh my gosh, Amy! You scared me," I said, my hand on my chest.

"Where have you been? I went to Ms. Jenkins to look for you, and she told me you already left her office. So where did my bestie go?" she smiled at me.

I exhaled.

It was time to tell Amy the truth, since what I thought to be a dream turned out not to be a dream.

"Amy, I have something to tell you," I said, and her brows creased in curiosity.

"Okay... what could it be?" she asked with a smile.

"Well, Jack is—"

I was interrupted by Callista's voice when she saw me in the hallway.

"Jasmine!" she called out loudly, approaching me, her ponytail dangling in the air.

Amy became stunned immediately. She couldn't move or blink her eyes, but I could clearly read the words in her eyes.

They were screaming: "How in the world did you and Callista become friends!"