out of the woods • jeremiah fisher

get into it (yuh)

Avery was busy getting ready for the bonfire when her door opened and Jeremiah popped his face inside the room. "Jere, knock next time! I could've been naked," she scolded.

He looked her up and down flirtatiously before saying, "I wouldn't have minded." The pillow Avery threw at his face hit its mark but not before he sent a suggestive wink her way. "Be ready to go in five." The Cooper girl nodded, going back to applying some makeup to her eyes.

"I'll be ready in thirty seconds, Jere, I just need to finish my mascara."

Instead of leaving, Jeremiah plopped onto the bed to watch Avery as she worked. "I know my opinion doesn't matter, but you look absolutely gorgeous tonight, with or without makeup."

Avery flushed. Jeremiah was always flirty with her, but never outright complimented her. "Thank you."

He rose from the bed to hug her around the waist as she cleaned up the vanity. "I especially love how you do your mascara so that it brings out your eyes more. It looks amazing tonight," he said, looking at her in the mirror.

"It took years and years of practice," she admitted. "Remember when I was trying to perfect my eyeliner a few years ago?"

Jeremiah had been over at Avery's house the day she decided to show him how to do winged eyeliner. He was so intrigued that he asked her to do it to him. It went well on the left eye, but once she tried the right, her mom came into the room and Avery wound up poking Jeremiah in the eye in surprise. Because it was liquid eyeliner, black streaks started falling down his face as he tried to get it out of his eye, and Ariana was so frightened that the even tried to call an exorcist.

"That's definitely something I'm not going to forget any time soon," Jeremiah laughed. "You ready to go?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." Avery was wearing a burgundy cropped tank top with white flowers on it and a pair of denim shorts. "I just need to ask Conrad for his blue jacket if he isn't wearing it tonight."

Something shifted in Jeremiah's eyes as he heard his brother's name. "You can just wear one of mine if you want. It's no trouble."

"It's fine, I steal his jacket all the time," Avery laughed, pushing past Jeremiah towards the door. Before she could get far, he caught her arm lightly.

"Wear mine," he said, his eyes softening. Without warning, he rushed from the room and came back seconds later with a gray zip-up that was oversized enough to be comfortable and smelled like him. "I don't mind, I promise."

"Are you sure?" she said, her heart thudding in her chest. This wasn't usual between the two of them. He never gave her clothes, that would feel too much like a relationship. It was different with Conrad because neither one of them wanted anything romantic to come from their friendship. They constantly borrowed each other's clothes all the time (Conrad had yet to give back her favorite fuzzy Hello Kitty socks and she was still pissed about it). But with Jeremiah, she couldn't help but feel hope swelling in her chest that maybe it meant something more.

"Yeah, I want you to," he said, wrapping the jacket around her shoulders. "Plus, I think I saw Conrad wearing his blue jacket by the pool a few minutes ago." Avery's heart sunk at that. Of course, there was another reason why he had offered. It was only because he knew that the one she'd planned on wearing was already being used.