IDLE TOWN, jess mariano

⁰⁸bloody knuckles

「 chapter eight 」
❝ you gonna confess your love to me or something? „

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"YOU'RE BLEEDING," JESS SAID. "I win."

Aries groaned and looked down at her knuckles. "Dammit. I call a rematch once my knuckles heal."

She unclenched her fist and poked around where she was bleeding a little, trying not to wince. She went over to the sink and ran water over her hands, patting them dry lightly with a towel.

"You're just gonna lose again," he teased, rubbing his own knuckles.

Before he could change his expression, she pulled up her camera and quickly started recording. "Ah! Maybe so, but you're smiling right now."

He rolled his eyes but he still kept an amused expression rather than his normally expressionless face. "You're still following me around with your camera?"

"Yes," Aries answered, "I made the decision of making a film essay and it's due at the end of this week and I'm almost done, I just need a little more."

"Huh," he muttered. Aries rolled her eyes, assuming that was all he was going to say about that, but by some miracle, he continued to talk. "What about all the stuff you're writing and sketching in your notebook?"

"What about it?"

Jess shrugged. "I dunno; sometimes you're just fervently scribbling in it and then you'll randomly look up at me. I can only assume it has something to do with me."

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

He let out a humored scoff. "It is a diary then."

"What are you talking about?" Aries said with an exasperated sigh.

Jess ignored her, pretending to write in an invisible journal and clearing his throat. "Dear diary, today Jess Mariano made eye contact with me and I swear I could've dropped on the spot because of—"

"You're intolerable," she said, throwing her handy-dandy pencil at him.

He dodged, but it did the trick of getting him to shut up.

"You don't deny it's a diary though."

"I've been denying it, but you won't believe me!"

"I have no sufficient evidence to prove otherwise," he said before glancing up at the clock. "We have work."

"Right," she said. She turned her camera off and let it hang around her neck as they made their way out of Luke's apartment. "You're not gonna ask to see my project, are you?"

"No," he scoffed. "Why? Is it actually a bunch of diary entries about me? You gonna confess your love for me?"

She rolled her eyes dramatically. "No, I was just wondering if I should say nice things about you, but I guess that answers it."

"I'm not going to ask to see yours," he said. "I don't really care what you have to say about me."

Aries nodded and pursed her lips.

"But you're not going to ask to see my project are you?" he asked warily.

Aries' jaw dropped and she gave him a big smile. "You're actually doing the project!"