meant to be

chapter 8: jake

"Man, I wouldn't put it past you." Mikaela laughed.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, trying to seem offended. The truth was, he didn't think Mikaela could ever offend him.

"Dude, do you not remember last year??" She said, flipping her dark hair over her shoulder.

"What specifically about last year are we talking about?" Jake asked. Although he had a feeling he knew what she meant.

He had liked sitting  at the back of the classroom. He liked it because Mikaela's desk was right in front of the radiator.
Both had gotten to class early, and she was on her phone, which she shouldn't have been. He remembered that day she looked particularly good. She had been wearing a floral dress that was a little short, a bit on the edgier side for her.
"Mikaela are you on your phone?" He asked.
"Yeah..."
He leaned in.
"Mikaela you're being a bad girl" He said, his voice deeper than it normally was. He thought it would be a nice touch. Sure enough, she sort of freaked out.
She shoved her phone in her pocket and took out a book from her bag.
"I'm just messing with you" He said smiling as he got off the radiator and sat in his normal seat which was a couple seats in front of Mikaela, sitting down as soon as the bell rang.

"We're talking about the 'wanna do ny toe nails' thing! Do you not remember?" She cried, incredulous.

Ooooooooh yeahhhhh... that.

He didn't remember what was happening at the time, but Mikaela had been painting one of her friend's nails. He had seen it and said "that's a nice color." and then he asked "wanna paint my toenails?"
She had said "No one would see it anyway, you're wearing socks and sneakers" totally missing what he was trying to say.

She was so innocently funny.

"Oooooh I remember that." He said, smirking.

"Jake not gonna lie, you're pretty weird." She laughed.

"Weird is good right?" Jake laughed. Mikaela didn't say anything, she just continued laughing.

"Right Mikaela?!" He asked, smiling. She laughed harder, just like he thought she would.

Suddenly today was a really good day.

And just like that, it was four o'clock, and the party was done.

"See you, Jake." She said, picking up her purple and blue tie dye hoodie and standing up. He liked looking at her like this, with him looking up at her.

"Bye Mikaela." He said, also standing up. They both walked out of the gym, and he sat on a bench, shooting a text to his dad to come pick him up, just in case his dad forgot. Normally he would be annoyed his dad wasn't already here to pick him up, but today?

Nothing could get to him, today.