The 7 Year Endearment. √

Chapter 8

Jason's POV.

A few days earlier

Eleanor.

I just couldn't stop thinking about her since the day I not so kindly sent her away after she confessed her feelings to me. The first thing I thought about her was Oh God. Not another Alex. Even when Mr. Smith assigned my seat next to her, I looked up and started counting the number of unlucky stars outnumbering my lucky ones. But when I walked across the room and sat down with a frown plastered on my face, she didn't even bother to look at me.

Truth be told, I was slightly offended and taken aback by her cold behaviour towards me. But then I realised my own actions and didn't fuss about it further.

I am that guy who is not open about my thoughts with every other person who approaches me and I do come off as rude even when I don't intend to most of the times. So when a pretty girl walks over to my table and presents her whole heart in front of me, my defence mechanism shoots up and I end up insulting her.

Truth be told, I wouldn't have considered thinking about her if she kept on nagging and following me everywhere like a lovesick puppy which is what I dreaded to happen given my past experiences. But when none of my predictions were taking place, my thoughts were spilled everywhere.

"Hey man what's up?" George acknowledged me as he entered the English classroom in his football jersey uniform. I raised my eyebrows in greeting as he takes a seat in front of mine and looks around the classroom.

"Looking for someone?" I sat back in my seat as I smirked, knowing that he was searching for Sarah, his new girlfriend. George had a few past relationships and he liked to keep them under the radar. But this one seemed different as he didn't mind everyone knowing about them. Maybe this could have been because I threatened to beat the shit out of him if he ever hurt my friend. I knew Sarah for a long time as we were family friends and so were Jessica and Paris.

"Stop fangirling over the new couple" He waved a hand dismissively and chuckled when he saw my smirk wear off. I rolled my eyes and playfully punched him on the shoulder and he began pretending that I hit him way too hard.

"Hey guys!" Rebecca's voice seeped through our ears and we both turned our heads to look at her.

"Rebecca." I nodded in response as she took a seat beside me. George gave his own set of greetings to her before glancing at the entrance again waiting for his girlfriend.

"That girl has become so famous. I mean she literally asked out Jason in front of everyone," Rebecca gushed about this almost every other day and me and George had unwillingly become used to it. She looked at Eleanor's direction who had just entered the classroom and gave her back a disgusted look as she set her brown-checkered bag on the floor, "What's her name again?" her confused blue eyes darted to George for a response. But before he could answer I heard myself saying, "Eleanor."

Her eyebrows raised at me but she seemed too eager to change the flow of the topic as she continued, "I even called her the other day and practically threatened her." She giggled and glanced at me with a certain kind of hope in her eyes. Me and George, on the other hand, exchanged expressions of bewilderment.

"Why the hell would you do that?" I asked her in a low voice. Truth be told, I wouldn't have protested this a few weeks earlier when I wasn't accustomed to Eleanor's cold behaviour. But after studying the way she acted around me, the idea of Rebecca rubbing it on her face didn't seem cool.

"Oh JayJay," she tsked and placed her hand on my shoulder, "What you did that day isn't enough for such girls to get off your back."

"Jason," George ignored her as he asked, "Has Eleanor done anything unusual?" He air quoted the words and raised an eyebrow at me.

"No." I replied almost instinctively.

He shook his head and turned his attention to Rebecca, "We would have considered the threatening part if she had done something unacceptable," he ran a hand through his blonde hair as he shrugged, "And the way you behaved that day with her is what I'd call unacceptable." He finished as he gave me a pointed look.

I winced as I knew that George was right. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions.

"What Jason did was right." Rebecca suddenly bellowed at George and threw her hands up in exasperation, "How can you guarantee that if he behaved sweetly she wouldn't have taken him for granted?"

"I am not guaranteeing anything." My best friend deadpanned, "I am saying this in context of true events," he said it slowly as if explaining it to a 4 year old kid, "not non-existent scenarios which are pointless to consider."

They both seemed engrossed in a stare off with each other as if challenging the other person to speak. George however withdrew first as he rolled his hazel eyes at her before focusing his attention on me, "A word of advice?" he asked and I nodded for him to go on, "You should apologize to her like you demeaned her man."

I contemplated on his words for a moment and thought of apologizing to her in front of everyone. If that would repair the damage I'd done to her ego.

"I should do that." I finally said after considering his advice.

"Hello?" Rebecca gaped at us as if we both had lost our minds, "Apologizing is a red flag." She waved her hand as if she held an invisible flag, "You don't want to drill a wrong assumption in her tiny brain."

"What wrong assumption can she possibly find in a harmless apology?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and looked at George who mirrored my expression.

But before she could reply any further, Ms. Russell had entered the classroom shutting all of our mouths. Rebecca rolled her eyes but didn't say anything as she removed a notebook and became totally engrossed in it. I sat back in my seat and casually scanned the classroom but my eyes suddenly stopped as I took notice of Eleanor.

She was already seated in her place and I don't know what had gotten into me as I raked my gaze through her body. She was wearing a plain white shirt with high waist jeans. Her shoulder length hair was left open and she kept on running her hand through them after every few seconds. My gaze travelled all the way as her fingers combed the strands to her roots, her mouth animatedly moving as she whisper talked to her friend, Bethany I thought was her name.

I heard a low cough from ahead of me and saw George giving me a teasing look as he wiggled his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes and kicked his chair from under the bench in response, trying to cover the fact that my cheeks were warming up.

I ran a hand through my hair and when I made sure that George wasn't keeping track of my gaze, I looked back at her but this time she was looking straight in my direction with a leftover smile on her face. I expected her smile to grow wide or I don't know some girly thing she'd do when you're being noticed by your crush. But instead, her smile faltered as her lips were drawn into a thin line and she looked away.

I was a bit dazed as I looked in the front and I didn't realise that Rebecca was looking at me with a stern expression on her face like she didn't like the idea of me staring at Eleanor. Truth be told, I myself had no clue why I was eager to look in her direction. My partner seemed a bit riled up but before she could talk about how she felt, she was cut off yet again by Ms. Russell who began reading Shakespeare's As You Like It.

And for the rest of the class I wondered the reason behind my heartbeat skip when I locked eyes with Eleanor.