Chapter eleven
Jessamyn's pov
Today I was wearing my favourite navy blue sweater with a white top underneath it, black boyfriend jeans and a pair of trainers to keep me extra warm as I put on my coat walking out of my room into the kitchen even though my bed was calling me to come back there.
Oh, how I missed my cosy bed already, not certainly feeling like eating breakfast today regarding this matter, I surged out of the room to meet my roommate Rochelle including our friend Natalia who was talking about their first class of the day together.
Sadly I didn't have any coffee in my system to keep me going on caffeine instead I bought a smoothie filled with vitamin C from the Cafeteria heading to the first class of today hoping that there wasn't going to be a small test in this lesson as I waved to my friends before stepping into a lecture hall sitting in the middle top row of the class table writing down everything that the professor said about the topic and thanking the high mighty lord for there being no test paper, in the meantime, I typed up the syllabus on my laptop doting down notes that I could reread to see if I could understand it correctly or better in my brain.
"My sleeping patterns are a mess but at least I have a photographic memory," I muttered silently under my breath to myself,
All I had on my mind was coffee now that I did regret not buying it even more than I did lying awake in my bed last night and re-evaluated my life choices then I looked to my right to catch a glimpse of him chatting with his friends on the other side of me eating their breakfast bar as he offered me a chocolate protein breakfast bar just knowing that I have skipped breakfast today.
A few paper planes flew above the air once the teacher's back was turned to us writing on the board bullet points down what we needed to learn more about the course.
I saw him turn around to face me from the same corner of my eyes with a knowing smirk of his. "Jessamyn," he said. "You didn't eat breakfast, didn't you?"
And in a moment of sudden realization that he made all my classes with him slightly more beneficial when I was feeling weak and tired from lack of sleep or eating properly because I was afraid of running late to class choosing between waking up on time or skipping breakfast but I have to choose skipped breakfast.
For instance, when I hated walking into the classroom as so many eyes of my classmates were on me made me feel uncomfortable which wasn't a risk I was willing to take.
Immediately after I started to listen to music in my earphones as he took one of them out of my ears both listening to The City by The 1975 I went through every step of the skating routine with him as he met me halfway approving my instruction while we were discussing it and then my hand had the direct contact with his chest feeling how hard or still his abs was.
"Oh, sorry about that?" I apologized to him, unsure.
Quite frankly, I pretended that none of it ever had happened resumes what I was saying when the teacher stepped out of the lecture hall to talk to another teacher so he started pretending to play with an air guitar then one of my most played songs came on through the earphones but just when I was about to change it despite of a tear nearly falling out of my eyes.
However, he wipes away the tears from my eyes shortly after he holds my hand telling me the most embarrassing anecdote about when his friend Holden was eleven Holden thought that he was invincible to fire as he got a burn mark on his chest thinking that he was the incredible hulk himself which made me feel sad yet happy laughing thinking it was cute next Asher told me an embarrassing story about getting hit with a hockey puck on his chest.
"There is no need to apologize for it." he hesitated for a second and continued to ask, "Hey, why don't we work together on this skating routine and grab some sushi after practice tonight?"
I was just in the mood for little spicy California rolls and maybe some dumplings to go alongside my lunch not wanting every meal that I had planned for this week to be a chicken salad baguette or a different type of soup because I wanted to spruce up my lunch appetite plus I had just earned some extra money from working with the hockey team so maybe, I should try to start a little figure skating side business for younger kids instead of just continuing to work help out the hockey team since they weren't going to need my help anyway so I will probably go check if it was okay with the owner of the rink.
Our first class had ended. Now we were walking out of the lecture hall together and then after a millisecond there was a huge smile on my face wondering why everything always flowed so smoothly whenever we were near each other in comparison to what Erick and I had.
"Sure why not, I will meet you by the ice rink, Ashy."I joked at the end of my sentence when he winked and strode back toward his friends.
"At first I didn't realize what Elle was saying until now-"
I instantly interrupted a Natalia smiley who was still walking towards Creative Arts class with me and said, "Wait what did Rochelle say to you." I thought about it for quite a while before I started to get what she meant by it. "Ohh yeah, you all seem to see it as something more."
Natalia opened her arms to give me a hug when she knew how much one simple gesture like a hug meant to me after what I went through knowing that she might have been through something painful herself but she didn't even hesitate to back me up anytime when someone else had mentioned my past experiences. Her exact words were always the past doesn't define who you were to me or keep going out there being the badass classy and sweet girl I was.
She was like the mom of our friendship group being filled with so much love and support for each of us.
"Anyway, Holden is coming to your party in a couple of months but I can uninvite him if you'd like me to." offered Natalia.
In bafflement, I looked at Natalia, not even sure who this Holden guy was from merely a couple of weeks ago and hockey practices had not noticed that he was on the hockey team regarding this issue between Holden and Natalia was unsolved to a point where they both hated each other.
On the other hand, Avena and Charlie came running up to me singing Time after Time By Cyndi Lauper walked up to the Creative Arts class early as we joined them except for Rochelle speeding typing a text message on her phone almost making me forget to ask them a question about who is this Holden person is.
"Who is Holden?"I asked Natalia in bewilderment.
A group of hockey players walked by the door and then one winked at Natalia who wasn't amused at all. She completely refused to acknowledge Holden McClellan a tall, dark, light skin and good-looking guy who seemed to be bothering her anytime soon as someone else mentioned his name in her presence. As I watched the whole scene unfold right in front of me while I was drinking water from a bottle to try to keep myself hydrated watching two people like them made me think about how much they have ignored their simple attraction towards each other must be overshadowed by hatred.
Fifteen minutes class started with January aka Jan art teacher explaining the finest hash of brush strokes or shading of art pencil drawing as I was taking all of this hot tea gossip enclosing this news in my mind that could finally be way that can take my mind off skating stuff and then it pummels in my head a good idea for the usage of the song option was Riptide by Vance Joy.
However, I added it to our playlist and then I realized that there was a good chance of getting the Leotard or figure skating costume in the store if only I was able to get the last few ones that were going to be sold out in a couple of minutes unfortunately, I lose the online bidding wars to five people not telling my friends about it as I chose to carry on chatting happily with them like it wasn't a huge deal.
"More importantly I love to call him McStupid," declared an optimistic Natalia.
In less than a month, the competition will be starting from the end of this month to the subsequent month.
Being the organized person that I was, I managed to schedule my next shopping spree to the Mall tomorrow morning to check if they might have something else in my size.
In all fairness, I should have been more prepared for anything else like this to happen as well as go with Asher to get him an outfit plus my last figure skating outfit had too many bad memories of it inside my mind to wear it again.
"I see, Natalia is still talking about the puck mishap accident that happened between the two of them," said Avena.
Afterwards, the classes had ended for the day, I scurried out of the classroom with a higher temperature than normal and a headache which meant a cold was coming but I decided to take care of myself back at the accommodation room since I was certainly feeling worse than last time being too weak pick up on my phone when he called me on the phone to talk to me.
The most terrible coughs and I couldn't stop sneezing while I listened to what he had to say to me knowing that I didn't show up to practice our routine or tutor him, furthermore, I looked like a mess when he decided to Facetime me everything was on my bed wasn't neat so I picked up the phone and place it facing the ceiling tying my hair in a messy bun. My phone was still pending and I decided to let out a few frustrated screams before abruptly coughing.
"Hey, Jessamyn, are you okay?" he asked me in confusion.
Only a few minutes ago, I was pretty sure that he thought that I was a normal person but then again defined what the word mundane was to me because I was wondering if I could channel all of my energy into a healthy outlet like figure skating or creative arts right now, I was just thinking about making myself a mood board on my laptop nonetheless, I just can't stop rambling when I was nervous or scared which was strange for me.
Moreover, he looked like he was trying to fight against his smile struggling between a causal smirk or a genuine smile as he kept listening to me talking around the subject of me being alright and sharing my deepest heart conversation with him even though, I was rambled on about something randomly to him but if it was Erick he would always cut me off rudely so maybe it was my fault for talking too much.
"Well describe in your own words what you think is okay."I rambled on the phone to him.
Asher truly just chuckled at me when pouted about the whole situation where I had no idea what okay actually meant to him even if I didn't get the right outfit for the first competition, got a cold, couldn't even finish reading a book properly without being sick and then I was so upset because I was tired that made me pretty much non-productive potato refusing to let him see my face for only one reason which was I didn't have any makeup on me and he could see my puffy red rims eyes.
Therefore, when I heard a noise coming from the phone I immediately assumed that it was him moving around from place to place until he looked like he had been outside in the rain for a couple of minutes eventually I noticed that he was inside of his car with a card on his dashboard then my mind started wondered where he was going in that car of his.
His next words were exactly the confirmation that I needed to find out that I had only a couple of minutes left before he got here on time.
"Jessamyn, please let me see your face before I come over there myself." He said tapping his hand repeatedly on his steering wheel waited for the traffic to clear.
In the background of his end of the phone conversation you could hear horns beeping, rain pouring and a piece of quiet music playing in the distance as he spoke more on his phone to me when the traffic stopped he started driving towards the university campus to see me then I saw a similar label that read girls accommodation soon after there was a knock on my door since Rochelle was in the kitchen getting me a glass of water including she went to go get the door open for him.
"I'm not my usual self right now but please don't make a fuss or fun-"
He interjected me by promising not to do those things and then proceeded with saying "All of the guys on the hockey team heard about you being ill, and made you get a better card." he then exited the phone call conversation with me to walk inside the room holding flowers, chocolate, books and other items in his hands too.
And then I sat up in my bed staring at the card and the gift in his hand finding it indeed thoughtful of him for giving me those things as I placed them on my desk when he took a chair out under my desk to sit in a safe distance from me because I had told him so many times that I couldn't even live with myself if I had gotten him poorly today.
"Aww, that's sweet and I must say that I did touch so many hockey players' hearts." I laughed happily as it turned into a cough.
In the millisecond, he got to hand me a glass of water on the desk right beside me as soon as I picked up my phone I saw like a hundred text messages from my friends and then Erick who kept on messaging me even though I was really bad at responses to back to people on the phone during being sick when I started sneezing out loud.
I did not have a lot of energy for badass girl vibes as my friends went into the room talking about how I didn't get my outfit done for figure skating today since it was sold out while they were informing Asher about it.
"And I promise that Your face still looks insanely beautiful whether you're sick or not," he said to me.