Kiss It Better

As the end of September approached, the outside of the school campus was crowded with students as the final school bell rang. Many green leaves were now painted in autumn colors as the breeze blew slowly, gradually causing the majority of the leaves to fly off onto the ground. Most students wore sweaters, something light to cover themselves from the slight breeze, as they walked straight to vehicles or homes, their laughter and chit-chat filled the air from left to right, mingling with the sounds of leaves being crunched underneath people's shoes or boots.

Minutes passed, and the school became more of a ghost town with every passing second, other than a few staff members or students who stayed after school for fall sports and clubs. Speaking of clubs, just two members of the music club were heading towards the exit after the crowds of students had decreased intensely.

"Maybe if you quit showing up a few minutes late, we would've made more progress with the duet that you came up with," Hailey added in, her tone leaking with sarcasm, which awfully reminded Jake a lot of Zander's sarcastic attitude. Even though Zander and Hailey weren't related by blood, they were related by something one way or another— according to Jake himself (his suffering of being mocked by the step-siblings 24/7), answering back to his complaint about her overdoing everything all at once—more yapping sessions she goes off on for who knows how long...

It's not like it bothered Jake much— he's too used to listening to her mumble every now and then, sharing her thoughts with him about their upcoming band competition performance. Jake understood that, but he wanted something more with her than that, like before. He wanted to have the exact closeness he had with her when the club went to the mall on the weekend. And how one way or another, he had somehow opened up to her. It felt really nice, something swelled in his chest at that moment, in a good way. Jake also knew if Hailey doesn't get her mind off the competition right now, she'll have a whole head of gray hair from the stress in the next 30 minutes. And he was confident of it.

"Awh, come on... Don't be like that with me, Princess." Jake whined, letting out one of his teasing weak chuckles as he lightly shoved Hailey in a joking manner as payback.

"Quit calling me that! And also, I'm not wrong about your horrible timing. It's something I shouldn't be surprised about either way, especially when it comes to you." Hailey grinned, letting out a giggle that made Jake feel funny in his guts but somehow relieved. She finally smiled at him, her dark gray eyes beaming instead of having those eyes stuck onto her music notebook and panicking over the performance.

Jake let out a dramatic huff after that, rolling his eyes playfully.

"If you keep complaining, you're gonna make me seriously regret ditching Zander and Luke to walk with you."

"Oh, shut up!" Jake's eyebrows scrunched up but his cheeky grin expanded, the sound of his chuckles increasing as he acted annoyed with her—walking ahead of Hailey before she was running back to her original place, right beside him. Their dumb conversations continued during their walk home, then it would switch to the performance again and again.

During their walk together alone, Jake would catch himself staring at her for any little behavior, every little detail of her expressions during their long conversations. Which he found pretty stupid since he probably had seen her a thousand times for the past three years in high school. Jake couldn't deny that Hailey was a pretty girl, he knew that, of course. But in that moment, he began to genuinely notice she was really, really gorgeous. Especially with those pretty little dimples of hers.

He didn't understand why he felt a type of yearning warmth creeping into his cheeks, or why his heartbeat quickened, causing a strange tightness in his chest. Was it just the heat of the moment, with summer coming to an end? That's what he tried to tell himself, as he brushed off the feelings once Hailey caught him staring at her, awkwardly shifting his gaze the opposite way she was walking beside him.