Date: February 4, 2019

✰

The following Monday was struggle to deal with for the two. Not only did they have multiple classes together, but things were still awkward from the Saturday before.

Ryan didn't have Jessie's phone number, so he couldn't text or call her at all over the weekend. He thought school would be his chance to talk to her about what went on Saturday, clear things up and hopefully make up as well.

But by lunchtime, he had made no progress.

He saw Hayden and Jessie sitting at their usual spot, talking about something from opposite sides of the table. Their chatter went quiet when he walked by.

"Jessie, I'm sorry for what happened yesterday."

Ryan stood next to her, his words genuine.

"I didn't understand then, do you think you could give me another chance?"

She slouched, keeping her head up with her hands.

"Look, we had a deal. So how about we stick to it?"

"Jess, please."

"I thought I told you not to call me that."

"Sorry.. but I just want to apologize for what I did, and was wondering if we could just be friends?"

He shifted so that he'd be in her sight range.

"Wait, what did he do?"

Hayden questioned, confusion on their face.

"You don't want to know." she shook her head.

They frowned and crossed their arms with a huff.

"Come on, Jess." the edges of his lips pulled down into a desperate pout. "Just take a moment an listen to war I have to say, then I'll leave you alone."

"Fine." She groaned. "But you have two minutes, and that's all I'm giving you. Hayden?"

They reached into their backpack and pulled out a handheld stopwatch, waiting a second before pressing the start.

Ryan took in a deep breath.

"Jessie, I'm really, really, sorry for the way I acted yesterday and I really hope you forgive me and that we can hang out again, just as friends." he got out all in one go.

She glanced over to Hayden.

"Hey, it's been less than two minutes, you should at least consider what he said."

She looked back up at Ryan, whose expression was practically pleading for forgiveness.

Sighing, she rolled her eyes and gave a tiny smile of submission.

"Alright, if you're really that desperate for a friend-"

"Not just any friend." he stopped her. "You're special."

Jess felt an unfamiliar fuzzy feeling in her stomach. Her heart's pace seemed off, especially when he looked at her and smiled ever-so-sweetly before walking off to get his lunch.

'This... this feels weird. Shit. What if I'm demiromantic?..' she pondered, resting her head on her clenched fist. 'Wait a minute. Ugh, fuck you for making me question that.' she narrowed her eyes at the boy who walked away from their table, slowly disappearing into the crowd of students.

"So, he's not so bad, is he?" Hayden brought up, playing with a small pile of rubber bands they'd placed on the table.

Her mind went back to her previous experiences with him. The good, the bad, and the extremely aggravating.

"Yeah, I guess he's not completely terrible."

× × × × × × × × × × × × × × × × × × × × ×

Final episode before the epilogue, I hope this doesn't turn out totally bad in the end ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

526 words