Betting on You

1

o n e

"Jared's looking at you. Pervertedly. Again."

I looked up from my history textbook just in time to catch Jaime roll her eyes before her own gaze dropped down to her own books. But it wasn't as if she had to mention such a fact to me — I could feel Jared's usual stare on my back from across the library without even having to know he was there.

"I'm not gonna look," I gave her a smile, tilting my head and ignoring the urge to look over my shoulder at the semi-attractive goal keeper on our schools' soccer team, "I thought I told you that there's nothing going on there."

"I know that there's nothing going on there," she shrugged lightly, shaking her head as her eyes continued to skim her biology notes, "But that's not stopping him from staring at you."

"He's going out with Stephanie," I reasoned with her, though I didn't really need to. She didn't seem to need any convincing of that fact, "Wait. He is, right? Or was that just something she made up? I never know with her."

I felt my mood deflate with annoyance at the sudden topic of Stephanie Reed. At the mention of her name to my best friend, Jaime Rose, she automatically rolled her eyes without being able to help herself. There were just too many times to count where Stephanie had tested both of our patience and our limits, and asserted her dominance where it wasn't her place.

Yet, her and Jared Armstrong? Actually dating? Jared didn't really date anyone. And neither did Stephanie, for that matter.

So to that, I furrowed my brows at her in question as she answered me with a shoulder shrug, "I couldn't care less. She's 'dating' everyone in this school if we were to go by her word."

"Right." I shifted in my seat, shaking off the weird feeling of Jared and Stephanie being hookup buddies now. It was unsettling to know someone who had absolutly no self-respect for themselves, such as Stephanie. She liked to think that everyone in highschool loved her yet here she was, manipulating others to get to the top. Though, having known her for the past few years, could I really be surprised?

Jaime looked up at me at my response and again she was raising her brow, not understanding my tone. She opened her mouth to say something more but suddenly the chair to my left was being pulled out and someone seated themselves in it abruptly, further disrupting our study period.

Again, I felt my mood turn sour almost instantly, yet masked my frown with a smile instead, "Hey, Steph."

"Girls," she waved a dismissive hand in greeting to Jaime and I as she placed her notebook and maths textbook onto our table, seeming to make herself comfortable without having been invited to sit with us, "Can one of you give me a pen or something?"

My eyes met Jaime's breifly at Stephanie's absentminded tone, yet I reached to my over the shoulder book bag on the floor and grabbed a pencil from the outside pocket. I handed it to her without a word, and refrained from rolling my eyes at her lack of a 'thank you'.

"Rough day so far, Steph?" I asked with a raised brow, watching her frustradely flip through her textbook before opening to a fresh page in her notebook. She huffed to herself, tucking her long blond hair behind her ear as she began copying something from the book.

"More like rough night," she shook her head yet was smiling to herself at whatever memory was flashing behind her eyes, "Jared was over late last night and well into this morning."