Not My Type

Chapter 2: Flashback

I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t think about Jason in high school at all. But I’m not lying when I say that I didn’t think of him for almost three years.

It wasn’t until the second half of junior year that I was actually within the same vicinity as Jason. We had just taken our SATs. It was March, there was a quiet breeze blowing, and a group of kids from our high school had congregated at a table. I was giving my friend (I use that term loosely in this case) Meghna a ride home and we were waiting for my dad to come.

Meghna is gorgeous. Not just for a brown person, but for any person. She’s naturally thin, has long, black wavy hair, and she has fantastic cheekbones. Not to mention her impeccable fashion sense. I don’t really like her most of the time, because she complains a lot about things she really shouldn’t complain about, like how many guys flirt with her and how she doesn’t like any of them and how “annoying” it is. Jason happened to be one of these guys.

So that’s how I found myself sitting at a table on a Saturday afternoon with Jason Roberts, Meghna, and a bunch of other kids who I certainly did not belong with.

That was the first time I had seen Jason’s face and gotten a really good look at it since eighth grade. I saw him in the hallways sometimes, but I hadn't really been this close to him ever.

Well, lo and behold, puberty had done wonders for Jason. His acne had cleared up completely and he no longer spiked up his hair with gel like he did in junior high, so it sat tousled and loose, still the same shade of light blonde. Maybe it was the way the California sunlight hit his face, but he was glowing. His eyes were bluer than I remembered and he had gotten much more muscular.

As the others talked with each other, I stood and had my own conversation with my friend Ben. Jason and I didn’t really look at each other at all, and I didn’t think about him for awhile after that.

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In May that year, we had the science fair, and all AP Biology students were required to participate. I did my project with Meghna, and Jason did his with some of his football buddies.

Meghna decided she wanted to try out his experiment. Frankly, I don’t remember what it was about, because it didn’t really make sense at the time as to what he was even testing. But I tagged along anyway, because we got free candy for participating in experiments.

I signed up on the “Participants” sheet. Jason was behind me and Meghna, waiting to begin.

"Such a beautiful name," he said over my shoulder as I wrote it down, and I couldn't help but blush, even though I'm sure he had said it to the girl before me whose name was Tiffany.

I smiled and thanked him, telling myself it was just Jason being Jason. Always the charmer. I have a tendency to fall in love with the first guy to make eye contact with me (as shown in previous years).

Later that day, I was walking out of the library where the fair was being held with two other friends when I bumped into him on accident.

“Sorry,” I said quickly, barely making eye contact with him.

“My bad,” he said.

I turned as he said that, because usually I was the one to bump into people and be the one to apologize. I had bumped into him, Jason was simply standing and talking to his friend. But he still apologized.

And then I had that split-second connection again. And I found myself gazing into those startlingly blue eyes with the faintest gray ring around them.

But I snapped myself out of it. Because a guy like him would never be with a girl like me.