Kissing Booth || Jarren

[ 20 ] Every Kisser Has a Name

Justin stood beside the projector, holding his laptop and clicking through the prepared slideshow as Kane began the chemistry presentation.

"During class, we learned that some alkali metals have a strong reaction when they come into contact with water, and we wanted to figure out which ones create the most prominent reaction," Kane explained.

"In other words, we wanted to make the biggest explosion possible without blowing up the kitchen," Justin added.

Around the room, a few students chuckled while the teacher suppressed a small smile. "I do hope you wore safety goggles," she told them.

"Of course," Justin replied. "We overlooked the gloves, though. That turned out to be a bad move." To emphasize this point, he held up his injured hand for the class to see. The bandages and tape had long been discarded, and now there was a scarlet red scab slashed across his open palm, flaking away bit by bit with each passing day. It didn't hinder his performance in any way, but it would likely leave a noticeable scar.

"Oh dear," Ms. Lowe murmured, shaking her head slightly. "I'm sorry that happened, Justin. I do hope you're alright."

Justin shrugged. "Yeah, no worries. I got some help from a friend."

He heard it as soon as he said it and immediately regretted his words. Justin clamped his mouth shut as his mind began to whirl. He'd said it without thinking, his intentions bent on simply reassuring his teacher that nothing major had gone wrong. After all, 'friend' could be used casually in such a way, right?

But to whom was he referring to when he said it? Kane had helped him in the beginning. The kindly senior had been extremely concerned and quickly sprung into action to help. Since then, they had cleared the air between them and made friendly conversation. So yes, Justin considered Kane a friend.

As for the person who had finished the bandaging job after Kane left the room... well, it was complicated, to say the least. Justin still wasn't quite sure how he felt about Darren Liang. He was still thrown by the complete one-eighty in the King's behavior toward him, and he still felt uneasy whenever they came within speaking distance of each other. If anything, it was awkward, and it certainly wasn't friendship. Fuck, why am I even thinking about this again?

While Justin stood there in his storm of disorganized thoughts and feelings, Kane continued the presentation, only turning to Justin when it was his turn to speak. Taking a step forward, he changed the slide to display the data analysis.

Hardly five seconds after he opened his mouth, a couple of girls near the front of the room began whispering to each other, stealing glances at Justin and giggling. While the junior couldn't make out what they were saying, he picked up on a couple of words like "loser" and "playboy," which gave him a rough idea of the content of their little discussion.

Glancing at the teacher, he could tell that she was getting a little annoyed. The girls weren't putting in a great effort to keep their voices down. They could probably be heard all the way in the back of the classroom. Justin glared at them pointedly, willing them to shut up, but they ignored him completely.

Irritation pricked Justin's skin as he tried to continue speaking but to no avail. Finally, he paused his explanation and stared straight at them, tapping his foot impatiently. "Hey, I'm trying to give a presentation here, but your big fucking forehead is shining like the surface of the sun, and it's very distracting. I'd appreciate it if you would kindly lower your head so I can finish?"

Without waiting for an answer, he resumed speaking and didn't look their way again.

A couple of minutes later, his two weeks of hard work had come to an end, and the class applauded politely as he and Kane returned to their seats.