ღ Finding Cinderella- 30 ღ

-Kylie-

The next day, Julianne was eagerly waiting for me in our homeroom, and I pursed my lips as I plopped into my chair beside her.

"Jules, don't—" I was going to ask her not to grill me about what had passed yesterday, but she had lifted her finger before I could finish.

"You have to tell me everything from beginning to end, and do not leave anything out," she demanded.

I scowled. "I'm sorry, but there's really nothing to tell. And I'm still mad at you and Lacey for ditching me."

Sighing, she leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. "Fine, I'm sorry. But we had to do it, okay? We were not supposed to be there. Tristan asked you out, and we didn't want to be a third wheel."

"We were supposed to hang out together," I insisted.

Julianne shook her hand to dismiss it. "Well, it's over now. Sorry. And anyway"—she grinned wickedly—"if you didn't want it, you would've gone home immediately. But you stayed with him, which means that you wanted to spend time with him."

That was like a punch that I couldn't dodge. "I didn't want to ditch him the way you guys ditched me," I responded weakly. "What you did was pure evil."

"So you do care about him," she said with a nod.

I only grunted and turned to face the blackboard. Some of our classmates poured into the room.

"What happened after we left?" Julianne asked.

"Nothing much. We just talked about stuff," I droned without turning to her. I wanted to convey that I was not in the mood to talk.

She kept pressing the subject. "Like what kind of stuff?"

Our memories. Tristan's indirectly confessing—"Trivial stuff," I answered with a halfhearted shrug.

"Right. Trivial. But did he ever, like, make a move on you?"

He did. "He's Tristan. He makes a move on anything female with a heartbeat," I said. I wanted to knock this little traitorous voice out of my head.

Julianne put a hand on her mouth as a smile appeared on her face. "I guess that gives you a hint of what he wants, right?"

Officially fed up, I inhaled sharply through my nose and growled, "He's not getting in my pants, okay?"

I didn't realize what I had said until silence enveloped the room, only to be broken by someone shouting in front, "Yeah, but you might get in his."

Julianne guffawed, her spit flying, and she immediately covered her mouth with her hands. Eyes widening in terror, I quickly buried my face in my palms as a blush burned my neck and cheeks.

"Oh my God, I did not just say that!" I exclaimed and sent a death glare toward some of my giggling classmates. "All of you shut up and mind your business."

I looked at Julianne, whose face was blotchy red, and slapped her in the shoulder. "Jules! This is your fault!"

"What? Why is it—oh God, wait, I can't breathe." Julianne had to pause to gasp for air. Then she continued laughing. "I wasn't talking about it, Kylie. You're the one who assumed he's gonna—" Tears sprang to the corners of her eyes as she lapsed into another hearty laugh. "Ow, my sides hurt. So you do get those dirty thoughts sometimes. God, I freaking love this day and it's only 7:47. Hey, Conner! That was gold." She flashed a thumbs-up to the guy who had reacted.

With my head still reeling from the humiliation, I rubbed a hand over my face and drew a deep breath. "I didn't mean to say it, but don't tell Tristan what I said."

"Mm-mmm, yeah." Julianne nodded for the second time. "I think that kind of topic should be discussed only by the two individuals involved."

"Dammit, stop."

"Hon, you can deny all you want, but I've seen and heard enough to know that you're intensely attracted to him," she said with a satisfied smirk. "Come on, Kylie. I know it's hard, but it's about time for you to open this and this."

When she pointed to her chest and her head, a shiver ran through my body. I couldn't tell whether she was a secret psychic or I was just easy to read, but either way, I didn't like how she could read me like a book. I didn't want to open my heart and mind.

Why?

Because that would mean ruining something that I worked so hard to keep.

ღ

I didn't want to see him after my slip up this morning.

Sadly, when I got to English class, Tristan was napping in his chair with his earphones plugged in his ears. No choice. It wasn't as if I could just skip class because I couldn't bear to look at his face. So I did my best to appear calm as I quietly made my way to my chair. Luckily, Julianne was in the bathroom doing some make-up retouching with Ronnie, so I was safe from another episode of teasing and humiliation.

I retrieved my notebook and pen from my bag and tried to review my notes to forget the prior events. With my anxiety level being high, I wiggled the pen between my fingers and accidentally launched it in Tristan's direction, hitting his shoulder and prompting him to rouse from his nap.

I cursed in my head. I tried to reach down for my pen, but it had rolled right under his chair so I had to duck more and stretch out my arm.

"What was that?" I heard him ask in a sleepy voice. I momentarily froze, in awe of what I just heard. Holy shit, that sounds good.

I mentally slapped myself.

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up," I said as I tried to get my pen again.

Tristan hunched over to pick it up. When he lifted his head, I realized that our faces were only inches apart. Surprised jolted me, and I pulled myself away so fast that I almost hurled myself off my chair. Luckily, I was able to hold on to my desk just in time.

"Whoa. Are you okay?" he asked

Catching my breath, I nodded and sat upright. "I'm fine," I croaked.

"Here." Smiling, he handed the pen to me. I grabbed it cautiously so as not to brush my finger against his.

At the moment, skin-to-skin contact was dangerous.

I went back to pretending I was busy studying. We didn't speak for a minute or so until he murmured, "Are you really not mad at me?"

"Why do you ask?" I replied, keeping my eyes on my notebook.

"Because I feel like you're avoiding me or something," he said.

Yes, I'm trying to avoid you because everything about you is so fucking dangerous. Your stupid messy hair and your stupid gray eyes and your stupid dimples and your stupid sexy sleepy voice. I don't know when I started seeing you in this extraordinary light, but I hate how it's making me act weird. And I swear to God, if you come close to me again and make me feel special and do all that shit that makes me wildly, intensely, and irrevocably attracted to you, I'll fucking kill you.

"Oh, I hate spoon-feeding. Maybe you should think carefully about what you did," I said with a nonchalant air.

He silently pondered for a bit. I wasn't sure if he had figured out what the problem was, but he said, "How can I make it up to you?"

"I don't know. Buy me a drink, I guess," I said without a second thought.

ღ

I pretty much forgot about my request until after lunch, when I was waiting for Julianne and Lacey to finish sprucing up. The bathrooms were everyone's obligatory destination after this period, and I didn't want to squeeze into the traffic inside so I stayed in the hall. I was playing some game on my phone and pacing around when out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Tristan jogging toward me.

"Hey, found you," he panted. Then he lifted a cold can of Dr. Pepper and a blue box of cookies from Crest. "Here, my peace offering," he said.

Staring at him in disbelief, I tucked my phone in my pocket to take the box and lift the cover. They weren't just ordinary cookies. They were vanilla pudding chocolate chip cookies. The snacks that I'd been dying to eat.

"You know, I'm not sure if vanilla pudding and Dr. Pepper will go well together on your taste buds, but I grabbed them before anyone else could," he added with a shrug.

"Wait, wait." I shook my head to regain my bearings. "You actually drove out of school to buy these?"

"Yes." Tristan grinned sheepishly. "Because I know they're your favorite."

"Oh my God," I said under my breath. "You didn't have to do it."

"But you're mad at me, and I don't know specifically what I did. But I didn't want the problem to blow up like the last time, so I did what I could do to patch things up before we had a falling out again."

Flabbergasted, I snapped my mouth shut. Thrill swirled around my chest and settled in my belly as I took in his words. As much as I wanted to deny it, that was sweet and mature of him.

I tried to stop a smile but was unsuccessful. "Well... thanks, T," I said. A realization hit me and I frowned at him. "Have you had lunch?"

He blinked. "Oh shit, I forgot."

I laughed. Poor guy. "We can share."

I opened the box again, and each of us took a cookie. As I took a huge bite, another thrill rushed through me as my eyes met Tristan's. The moment conjured up some of my memories that summer, when we used to cook and bake at each other's houses and our moms had scolded us for creating a mess in the kitchen. I missed that. Maybe it was the fact that I hadn't known—that the reason why I loved vanilla pudding was that it had the nostalgic flavor of that summer.

We munched in silence until someone spoke, "Now, doesn't this view look picturesque?"

We turned to the voice. Julianne was forming a heart with her hands, her one eye closed as if she was trying to fit him and me in the heart frame. Beside her, Lacey was chortling like crazy. Annoyed, I sent them a 'not now' look. 

Lacey grabbed the redhead by the sleeve and began dragging her away, yelling, "Sorry! We didn't mean to interrupt!"

With my cheeks flushing again, I turned back to Tristan. I didn't want to look at him directly, but I stole a glance to know how he was reacting. I almost melted into a freaking human soup when I saw him biting his lip to stifle his smile. In haste, I jerked my head away and placed the cover back on the box.

"Uh, I gotta go and catch up with them," I mumbled. I had to get away from him before the chemicals in my brain could make me do something reckless. I didn't even want to imagine what I could do.

"Wait. Your drink," he said.

I was about to grab it, but he suddenly pulled it out of my reach. I frowned as a crafty smile played on his lips.

"So we're good, right?"

Damn it. I should stop acting like a little school girl.

Deciding to match his confident demeanor, I raised my chin and replied, "Maybe." Then I took a step forward to swipe the can of Dr. Pepper from him, and added grimly, "I really hate you."

His smile fell faster than a house of cards.

"Wait, what? Kylie!" Tristan's voice echoed in the hall. I didn't turn back as I strode away. "Kylie, what did I do this time?" he called.

What did you do? A lot of things, asshole, I thought, exasperation pumping through my veins. But what tops the list—and what aggravates me the most—is you making me feel again that stupid mini-crush I had on you when I was fourteen.