Novocaine ▸ Jasper Hale [1]

V

FIVE; MUTUAL FEELINGS

"Look at you, huh? You're alive." Mike said as he stood in front of Cassadee, bringing her attention to him.

"Yeah, false alarm, I guess." Cassadee let out a short laugh to humor the teenager.

"Now, I wanted to ask you, you know, if, you know, it's like a month away, but...." Mike trailed off, giving a nervous laugh.

"You've never asked a girl out, have you?" Cassadee asked with a raised brow.

"It's that obvious?" Mike asked, laughing nervously again.

"Extremely," Cassadee clarified, not making the situation any better. "And if you're asking me to prom I'm sorry but I can't go." The brunette gave Mike an apologetic smile; she felt bad for turning Mike down but she had no desire whatsoever to go to prom and she would not be one of those girls that goes just because someone asked her, the thought of prom was so unappealing to her that she was positive she would turn anyone in the world down, even her favorite celebrity.

"Oh..." Mike said, surprise and hurt flashing across his face.

"It's nothing personal!" Cassadee tried to comfort the teenage boy. "It's just that we're going to Jacksonville that weekend." She said smoothly, making sure that Mike couldn't tell that she was lying. Cassadee glanced behind Mike to see Jasper, Alice, and Edward watching the three interact, Jasper watching Cassadee intently as she looked back at Mike so she could actually hear what he was saying instead of focusing on Jasper.

"You can't go another weekend?"

"Non-refundable ticket." Bella said quickly, coming to the rescue even though Cassadee didn't need it.

"You should ask Jessica. I know she wants to go with you." Cassadee smiled, hoping that Mike would take her advice. Mike looked over at Jessica before turning back to Cassadee and giving her a sad smile, he looked a lot like a wounded puppy to Cassadee, which really only made her feel worse.

"Hey, guys, come on." Mr. Molina called out to the students standing around the parking lot. "We gotta go. We gotta go. Green is what? Good. Let's go. Guys, come on." He said, guiding the students onto a bus as Mike walked in front of the Swan twins.

"That was weird." Cassadee said as she watched Mike with furrowed brows.

"The fact that a guy actually asked you out?" Bella asked, causing Cassadee to playfully push her.

"The fact that he asked me, he hasn't been able to keep his eyes off you since we started school."

"I highly doubt that."

"Well you haven't seen it. I think he just asked because of the accident that everyone thinks I almost died in."

"Technically you would have if it weren't for Jasper."

The ride to the greenhouse probably wasn't as long as it seemed for Cassadee. She sat by her sister and even though both of them had headphones on because they were listening to their iPod's it didn't stop their friends from constantly finding something to talk to them about. The only time that they seemed to stop was when they got off the bus and made their way into the building full of plants.

"Egg shells, carrot tops. Compost is cool." Mr. Molina said as the students walked through the greenhouse. "Now I'm gonna make a steaming cup of compost tea." He said as he held the glass of dark brown liquid up before Tyler took it out of his hands. "This is recycling in its most basic form, guys. Don't drink it! It's for the plants."

"I feel like you purposely stayed back on the bus so you could come talk to me." Cassadee said when she felt the ice cold and rock hard arm brush against her back, even though her jacket she could still feel it. She definitely didn't have to turn around to tell that it was Jasper.