Willa chose the location of her and Jared’s next not-date, a small coffee shop near her house where she ordered black coffee and Jared got a caramel frappuccino.
“Honestly,” laughed Willa when she saw his choice. “You and Isaac. Your coffees are like, 99% sugar and cream.”
Jared blushed (why why why, this stupid fucking blush), before registering what she’d just said.
“When did you and Isaac-?” he began slightly confusedly, and then cut himself off because. Well. He didn’t want to seem jealous or anything.
“Bumped into him in the library. He was asleep over his books so I took him to get coffee. We chatted about exes.”
Jared blinked.
“Isaac has exes?”
Willa just raised an eyebrow at him, smirking teasingly.
“Better ask him yourself if you wanna know.”
--------o--------
Willa told him funny stories from her week and then had a good bitch about a girl who was apparently basically her archenemy before cutting herself off mid-sentence and covering her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” she said, and now she was blushing and somehow it was really fucking reassuring to see that. “I’m being so boring, whining on and on about this.”
Jared smiled at her, shook his head.
“I wanna hear,” he said, telling the truth because he did, he wanted Willa to talk to him like a friend (or you know, maybe not completely like just a friend). “Seriously. I’m great at bitching.”
--------o--------
After coffee they walked home through the park and ended up outside Willa’s house, laughing about some random story. And suddenly they were just stood there staring at each other, and then Willa reached up and pulled his head down. His heart was pounding like a rabbit’s as she kissed him quickly on the lips.
“Don’t read too much into that, okay?” she told him, blushing again, and left him flustered in the drive.
--------o--------
He’d been supposed to get the next bus back home after the date, but he felt sort of like the world had just tilted a little bit and he’d been knocked off balance. Looking round at the houses he realised how close he was to Isaac’s street- only fifteen minutes or so away. Surely it couldn’t hurt his pride that much to pop round and ask Isaac his views on that fucking sort-of kiss?
He started walking, resolutely. Hopefully Isaac’s scary-sounding parents would be out, or at least not mind him visiting. He sent a quick whatsapp to Isaac asking if he was in but it remained marked unread.
Finding Isaac’s house didn’t take too long, and before much time had passed he found himself on the doorstep, hands in jacket pockets as he waited for someone to answer the doorbell.
It wasn’t Isaac’s silhouette, however, that approached the frosted glass in the door, but that of a woman in a pale purple long-sleeved top. Jared shifted nervously. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea after all.
“Good afternoon,” said the woman as she opened the door. Her Irish accent was much stronger than Isaac’s. She was looking at him slightly suspiciously, dyed blonde hair as perfect as her carpets with not a strand out of place.
“Hi,” said Jared, wondering how he was feeling so intimidated by a woman shorter even than Isaac, whose only words so far had been ‘good afternoon’. “Is Isaac in? I’m- his friend from school. Jared Spencer.”
She stared at him a few seconds with blue eyes hard and unfriendly, before stepping back so he could come in.
“ISAAC!” she shouted up the stairs. “You have a visitor!”
There were a few horrible moments of silence in the hall before hurried footsteps sounded upstairs and Isaac appeared at the top of the staircase. He looked messy and vaguely rumpled, brown hair sticking up everywhere and glasses on like they’d interrupted him working.
“I-” he began, padding down the stairs with softer footsteps than Jared had ever seen him use. “Hi, J.”
His voice was soft too, unsure. Jared should not have fucking come here. What the hell had he been thinking.
“I just- wanted to tell you something,” he said, and Isaac attempted a smile in return.
“Sure- Mam, Jared and I- we’ll just go upstairs for a bit?”
“Offer him a drink at least, Isaac,” his mum scolded him. “There’s squash in the kitchen. Would you like a drink, Jared?”
It sounded nice enough, but Jared’s panicked mind told him it might be a trick question and he shook his head hastily. Isaac’s mum watched them as they escaped upstairs, arms folded and eyes still cold. When they reached Isaac’s room Jared breathed a sigh of relief.
Isaac closed the door behind them, leaning against it and rubbing his forehead with his hand, eyes closed.
“Sorry,” said Jared quietly. He meant it. Isaac just stood for a few seconds with his face hidden and then looked up. Jared couldn’t decipher his expression.
“Er, no. It’s fine. Um. Fine.”
He left the door, motioning for Jared to sit on his bed as he himself took a seat cross-legged on his swively desk chair.
“What’s up?” asked Isaac at last, but it sounded so forced and for once in his life Jared didn’t give two shits about his own drama when Isaac was sat there looking like that.
“Isaac,” he said, and Isaac shook his head but he ploughed on. “What’s wrong?”
Isaac didn’t say ‘nothing’, this time, or ‘I’m fine’. He just shook his head.
“Not right now,” he mumbled, and then, more firmly, “What’s up?”
Jared opened his mouth to protest and then closed it again.
“Er. I just- went on this date with Willa. At that coffee shop on Fylde’s Road?”
“Oh yeah,” said Isaac, playing with his fingers with eyes fixed to the floor. “They do the best caramel frappuccinos there. I’m like, two steps from addicted. How’d it go?”
“Er. It was- it was good, really g- I mean, it was great. And then I walked her home and she- well she sort of kissed me.”
Isaac looked up.
“Ooh,” he murmured, and a little smirk played hesitantly at the corners of his lips. “Go J, hm?”
“She said not to read too much into it. I mean, it was only like a- like a peck. It hardly counts as the first kiss.”
“It’s only the second date,” said Isaac, shrugging. “You’ve got tonnes more time for that.”
YOU ARE READING
Invincible
Teen Fiction"I didn't know you had friends like Isaac," Willa said in greeting. "I don't," muttered Jared. Isaac rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you don't. You have //one// friend like Isaac." His voice turned into this stupid mock whisper and he leaned towards Jared c...
