Kisses after midnight (WICKED #0) | ✓

21

MATEO CAME OVER A lot, but never before had he felt so awkward. It was like one wrong move could cause the strained friendship they had now to fall apart, the band-aid they had stuck on it not enough to hide the shambles it was in. Jay and Sahar seemed unaware of their discomfort though, or perhaps they were too busy with whatever was going on between themselves.

Only after ten minutes of silence did Sahar speak, slamming her hand down on her homework.

"Okay," she said," I can't take this. Jay, let's talk."

Jay's eyes were wide, but after a second he carefully nodded.

"I'm not angry at you," she said," I just hate the fact you acted like I wasn't talking at all and didn't even bother listening to me." She shook her head. "I talked about it with my sisters and they told me I shouldn't have run away, but I think you shouldn't have randomly started a fight with people we're becoming friends with."

At the end of her rant she breathed out, looking a bit relieved even.

"Okay, that's all I wanted to say," she said, waving a hand at him," now it's your turn."

He looked surprised, like he had a hard time processing her words, but when she frowned he spoke up.

"Sorry," he murmured," this... it's just the first time someone really communicated with me like this." He placed an awkward hand on his neck. "I don't know, I had just expected you to hate me."

"Hate you?" she said, surprised," why? Fights are supposed to get resolved. We are friends, after all."

When Jay looked her in her eyes, for a moment it almost looked like he would cry. After he blinked that was gone though, his face unreadable this time.

"I apologize," he said," I should have listened. I'm just used to fighting so much I wouldn't know how to react otherwise."

"I'm there for you," she said," I'm prone to act before I think as well, so we can both help each other."

"Yeah," he said," but your impulsive actions make you go to rallies and organize protests. Mine make me end up in a gang fight at three AM."

"That's the best time for a gang fight," Mateo noted.

"It is," Jay nodded at him.

Sahar just raised her eyebrows at the two of them and Jay looked away sheepishly. She grabbed his hand then and he froze, gaze snapping towards her.

"I just don't like to see you get hurt," she said, voice softer.

A blush came over him, causing him to quickly look away to hide it. He was too red for that to have any effect though and Sahar smiled, her hand still interlaced with his.

The rest of the study session actually went well then, Jay and Sahar both more at ease than Mateo had ever seen them before. He was seeing a whole new side of Jay these days anyway, their conversation at the bar having broken many of the walls that had been between them. Though he didn't know the dude for that long, somehow they both already knew way more about each other than other people in the world did about them. Hell, he had never spoken a word about his father to Chase and he had known him for five years now.

His gaze was drawn to Gabriela again, who was helping Sahar with some math problems. If Jay and Sahar could solve their problem so easily merely by communicating, shouldn't that work the same for him and Gabriela as well? It was at least worth a try.

He hated this newfound tension between them.

Jay and Sahar left two hours later and it was only when they both returned to her room that he realized they hadn't spoken a single word to each other during this whole study session. She started closing the textbooks on her desk and piling them up, not paying him any mind as he leaned against her closed door. They were together and yet he was so alone.