The Fuentes Family: Yasmin

23

Maybe it was Alex telling Jace to move on that made him really stop talking to me. It's been weeks. I can't even remember the last time we made eye contact.

It's not as hard as I thought it would be – as long as I don't think about him or see him. Everything's just easy if you cut it out of your mind though.

"Yas," Max whispers and I look up. He's leaning back in his chair, holding onto my table and I'm resisting the urge to kick the chair leg and make him fall. "What did you write for the first two questions?" He whispers.

"As if i'd tell you."

"Me? Your brother? So who would you tell? George who sits in the corner?"

"Probably."

"Tell me. Do you want me to fail this class?"

An arm comes around me and Wes rests his chin on my shoulder. "Stop distracting her, Max. You'll only learn if you do it yourself."

I smile. "Exactly. I'm glad someone is responsible."

He doesn't say anything else and when I look back at Max he's smiling, then I catch on to what's happening.

"Hey!" I push Wes off of me. "You're looking at my work."

"I'd never!"

"Assholes," I mumble while Max just looks amused to still have his bestie on his side.

"I was just admiring your fabulous handwriting," he slips his hand on top of mine on the desk. "Since everything you do is perfect."

Awww. "Go away. Never forgiving you for that betrayal."

Wes leans in and kisses my cheek. "Never?" He then kisses the side of my mouth, then turns my head and kisses my lips. "Still not forgiving me?"

"Get a fuckin' room, weirdos," Max says.

"Will you three pay attention?" Mrs. Lee finally snaps. She waits until Wesley has slowly pulled away from me then goes back to writing on the board.

I walk to my next class alone with my earphones in, blasting some good old Adele into my ears and getting all in my feels. The song gets even more emotional when I set eyes on Jace.

I mean, I don't care. It's only sad cause he's an old friend. But it's not really that sad. I don't care.

The way he walks is so... interesting. That's a weird thing to say, but I can't keep my eyes off of the way he moves. It's like... addicting.

I'm gonna need to pass him. Where will I look? Where will he look? Should I say hi?

Everything happens so fast and in a split second, my foot is stuck behind something and i'm falling onto the floor.

I pull my earphones out and look up at the two guys laughing, looking down on me. The assholes tripped me up. What is wrong with people these days?

The knee that I landed on stings but all I can think about right now is how embarrassing this is. Everyone stares and laughs, but some have the decency to at least try and hide their laughter.

"What you gonna do, princess? Get your big brothers to fight your battles?" One of them laughs. "Don't cry. You think she's gonna cry?"

I grab the stuff that fell out of my bag and shove it back in and gather up my earphones. Someone stands in front of me. My eyes trail up to find Jace's face. He holds out a hand to help me up but I don't take it.

When i'm up, I look at the boys, then Jace who's silent with a straight face. "I can fight my own battles and I don't know what made you think otherwise. Is it the fact that i'm a girl? And I bet that pushing me down just made you feel so much bigger. I bet you'll go home to your father and tell him that his son isn't a disappointment, because he made a girl fall. I bet you're just so proud of that. Congratulations. I hope a pat on the back will be worth making yourself look like a real fucking dickhead."