It had been two days since the water-dumping incident, and I hadn't attempted anything to pursue my personal assignment on Jonah yet because I had been too busy trying to get over the embarrassment he had left me with.
But that, my friend, didn't mean that I wasn't building any plan for the next steps of the said assignment. In fact, as well as trying to let my anger on him evaporate, I'd also been busy looking for thousands of possible ways to annoy him.
Now that I thought about it, I actually didn't have anything else planned once I finally managed to make him actually hate me. Maybe I'd continue annoying him in the most annoying ways possible? Would that suddenly turn his feelings from hate to love? I don't know, man. Maybe I'd just wing it and see where it would go?
I began to see the flaws in Operation Bite the Appleâonce you'd bitten the apple, what would you do? You'd continue biting into it until what was left was just the apple core, and then what next? You'd throw the core away.
Oh, God. I really didn't know what my next steps would be. Was that bad?
Meanwhile, Jonah was just being his usual I'm-angry-at-the-world-don't-touch-me-or-I'll-fucking-kill-you Jonah Gibbs self, and nothing was new. When we accidentally (really ACCIDENTALLY, people, I'm capable of making actual accidental moves that wasn't deliberately planned) crossed path in the hallway or if our eyes just accidentally met in Life Skills class, there were two ways that it could go: 1. Jonah would glare at me and I, surprisingly, would glare back, or; 2. He would just continue acting like nothing happened, and I would roll my eyes.
Really, it was going static right now, and that was why I knew that after two days of silence, I had to do something to ignite the spark again.
The spark of what, you ask? Of love? Of hate? I wouldn't mind either of those because, hah, having Jonah Gibbs feel any emotion for you was a big accomplishment, no matter what kind of emotion it was!
School ended after gym, which was the only class this year that I had with Gina. Since she was in the yearbook committee and she was having one of those so-called important meeting after school, she couldn't drive me home so I told her that I would just take the bus today.
As I made my way out of the building, I texted my dad that I would pay a visit to the diner. He'd finally hired three people; the afternoon shift barista, the night shift waiter and another midnight-through-early-dawn shift waiter. I didn't know who he had hired yet, but I was curious because a lot of people from school had applied for a job.
I knew why a lot of kids from high school was eager to snag a job down there at the dinerâthe shifts were pretty flexible for high schoolers, and the paycheck wasn't half bad, which would help those high schoolers save some money for college. The diner was also pretty decently busy every day, and the extra tips didn't hurt.
When I finally looked up from my phone, I noticed Jonah making his way toward the bus also. I furrowed my eyebrows, because I remembered that Jonah had a carâa pretty badly beat up one at that, but still a functioning car. I just shrugged and hopped into the bus right after him, even though he hadn't noticed me yet.
There was still a lot of vacant seat in the front, but I saw that Jonah chose to slide into one of the seats in the back. He, as usual, had loud music blasting into each one of his ears, and he was staring out through the window next to him. Slightly smirking to myself, I made my way toward him and sat down.
Immediately, he turned his head once he felt my presence. Upon seeing me, his face scrunched into the all-too-familiar scowl. I looked at him innocently, without a word, and leaned back into the seat.
I turned my head to the other side, feeling the tips of my ponytailed-hair brushing Jonah's face. He sighed and I held my grin, pretending to be looking for a nonexistent friend. Once I turned my head again, my hair flicking for the second time, he hissed again in annoyance.
"Sorry," I said, not meaning it at all. Since my head had started to hurt because the hairband was a little bit too tight, I let my hair loose, this time making sure that the strands of my hair didn't touch Jonah's face. Maybe I was delusional, but I could feel Jonah's eyes on me as I ran my fingers down my medium length hair, trying to loosen the knots from the ponytail. I turned my head at him and found out that I wasn't being delusional after all. I fidgeted in my seat, feeling a little bit uncomfortable from his weird stare. Uncomfortable, yes, but that didn't mean I wasn't enjoying it.
The bus began to fill up with kids within a few minutes, so I sighed and threw my head back into the seat, closing my eyes. I felt the bus starting to rumble, indicating that it was about to drive off. The sound from Jonah's earphones, however, was still so loud that even with the noisy sounds of the bus, I could still faintly heard the song, loud enough for me to know what song he was listening to.
To be honest, I didn't know the name of the song, but I remembered that it was one of the songs that my eldest brother used to listen to. I remembered how Mom used to yell at him from downstairs because he basically didn't know how to control the volume of his stereo, along with Leann banging on his door because he was disturbing her beauty sleep as well as the loud crying of then three year-old Cole, my littlest brother, due to the noise and my futile attempts in making him stop crying while my dad carried on sleepingâhe was a heavy sleeperâand my lips pulled out into a small smile.
I let out a breath, enjoying the song even though it was actually the kind of song that wasn't meant to be relaxing, but I just missed my brother so bad that even listening to the song where the singer was basically screaming his feelings out through Jonah's earphone made me lose myself in my thoughts.
"Are you crying?" a low voice spoke, startling my half-asleep state awake. I just realized then that the faint music had stopped, as Jonah had already pulled out his left earphone, the one that I was listening to the song from.
I blinked, feeling my eyes a little bit wet, but I wasn't crying. "No," I said honestly, without looking at him.
Jonah Gibbs just so had that effect on people where you could always feel his eyes on you even from a thousand miles away, so I fidgeted again in my seat, trying to shake his eyes off of me. After a few seconds he finally did turn away, putting the earphone back into his left ear, and I sighed. A different song was playing; this time it wasn't familiar, but I tried to enjoy it anyway.
My stop was almost nearing after a few minutes had passed, and I turned to Jonah to see that he was stuffing his music player into his bag, preparing to stand up. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion because I didn't remember his house being around hereâso I was a stalker, big dealâbut I shrugged it away, preparing to stand up myself.
Once the bus came into a halt, Jonah stood up before I did, so I also stood up to let him walk through into the aisle. I followed him until he suddenly stopped before stepping out of the bus.
He turned around to give me one of his stares and his infamous frown, so I frowned back.
"What? This is my stop," I said, because it was the truth. He narrowed his eyes at me before shaking his head and half-jumped out of the bus, with me trailing right behind him.
My eyebrows began to scrunch even tighter in confusion, because he was walking exactly along the way that I usually took whenever I was going to the diner. After about three minutes of walking, he looked over his shoulder at me and groaned in aggravation, turning around to scowl at me.
"Now you're just stalking me."
"I'm not!" I scoffed, because I really wasn't stalking him. Not this time, I swore.
His eyes stared hard, unbelieving.
"I swear to god!" I exclaimed, holding up both my hands. "What good it would do me if I was following you?" I told him with a tone that basically told him that he was being the ridiculous thing ever by suggesting it.
He clamped his jaw and closed his eyes before taking a few deep breaths, and then turned around to continue in his steps. I immediately rolled my eyes once he had his back on me, and continued in my own steps.
Imagine my surprise when I saw Jonah walking toward my family dinerâto be exact, walking toward the back door of my family diner.
And then my eyes widened in realization.
He was one of the people that my dad hired.
Wait, he was applying for a job here two days ago?
Oh. My. God. Things were surely bound to get interesting.
Deciding that I would come out as creepy if I also went in through the back door, I opted to just use the front door, letting the bell clank when I pushed the door open. Nat grinned at me in greetings from her place behind the register, and I saluted back at her.
"Where's my dad?"
"In his office," she replied, and then she put both of her hands on the counter, slightly jumping as she excitedly motioned for me to come closer, and then whispered. "Oh my god, you cannot believe who your father hired!"
Oh, I bet I couldn't. "Who?"
Before she could whisper out the name in the same amountâor maybe doubledâof excitement, the door that separated the diner from the kitchen opened abruptly, leaving none other than Jonah Gibbs.
He had changed into a black t-shirt and was also wearing our diner's signature maroon apron, tied around his waist.
Both our gazes followed the sullen boy who hadn't realized my presence as he made his way toward the coffee machine.
"Him!" Nat's low whisper made me snap my gaze back to the short-haired girl in front of me. "He's been working since yesterday and oh god, is he a sight to see."
I bit my lips, because I was trying not to let my own excitement show. Of course I was excitedâI've got Jonah Gibbs working for my family diner which meant that I would have a lot of fun time to spend with him here now. I fought my grin and raised my eyebrows at Nat. "I can bet that now a lot of girls are starting to come here for coffee instead of the Starbucks wannabe across the street."
Nat nodded vigorously. "Oh, you bet."
"Is he a good one at that?" I asked, my head nodding at the general area of the coffee shop-like side of the diner.
"The best so far. Even Rob's famous lattes don't compare," she said.
"Really? What's his special?"
"Dunno yet," Nat said, shrugging. "He hasn't been here long enough to have his own special, but I could say that all he makes is special."
I rolled my eyes. "How many cups of coffee have you had since he started here?"
She smiled sheepishly. "Too many?"
"Nat, you know you're a five year-old kid high on sugar jumping from one roof to another whenever you have more than two cups of coffee," I scolded her. "I know the guy's good looking, but try not to get yourself high on caffeine, alright?"
"Yessir," she saluted. We both turned our heads toward Jonah, who was wiping a cup with a dry cloth, still oblivious to the two girls talking about him (a.k.a me and Nat). "Go order something from him. Does he know yet that you're his boss' daughter?"
I stifled a laugh. I was his boss' daughter. It sounded so funny to me and I didn't even know why. "Nope, he doesn't know yet. Can he do matcha latte too?"
"Oh, he makes everything," she assured me, before giving me a gentle push toward the coffee area. "Go, go, go."
"Alright, alright," I said with a small laugh before making my way toward Jonah. He had his back on me as he was still busy cleaning the cupsâI had no idea why he was doing that since all the cups were cleanâand then cleared my throat.
He turned around with a small, polite smile on his face that startled me so bad I almost fell where I was standing. But when his eyes fell on me, the smile immediately dropped and I almost groaned in disappointment. Seriously, Jonah? That was the first time I ever saw him smile! It was not much of a smile, but it was a Jonah Gibbs smile nonetheless.
"You really were just following me," he spoke, his voice laced with his usual darkness as he put down the cup he was holding gently on the counter.
"I didn't know you were working here. Honest," I said, clearing my throat once again. I gave him a small smile, in hopes that it would make him smile again. To my dismay, though, it didn't. "Sorry for being annoying."
He seemed slightly taken aback that I was being sorry, but he brushed it off. "What do you want?"
"Can't you be a little bit more polite to a costumer? What would your boss say?" He rolled his eyes at that. "I'd like a matcha latte."
"Iced or hot?"
"Hot, please," I said in a polite tone.
I watched him as he began to work on my order, his fingers moving quickly yet carefully. Out of habit, I tapped my fingers on the counter, and his jaw ticked at that. "Stop that. It's distracting."
Immediately, I pulled my hands off of the counter, muttering a small, "Sorry."
"Whatever."
My eyes stared in admiration as he finished my order, along with a little latte art that he left on top of the cup. White swirled against green, creating a simple yet pretty pattern that I recognized as a design called rosetta. It was a common design of latte art, but seeing how it was made and how it was made by Jonah, I couldn't help but let out a sound of awe.
When I looked up, I noticed that there was a faint shade of pink tinting both of his cheeks, the one that he tried to hide by fixing the hard stare on me. I couldn't help but smile, partially still awed by his hidden talent, and also because of the blush on his cheeks. I felt my own blush fighting to appear, but I hoped to god that he wouldn't notice it.
"That'd be two fifty," he said curtly, and I dug into my pockets, giving him the money even though I technically didn't have to pay since the whole diner was, well, mine.
"Keep the change," I said, even though I had given him a five dollar bill.
He blinked in surprise, before shaking his head and muttering, "Thank you."
"No, thank you," I couldn't help but say, because I was still amazed by the art on the cup of green tea latte I was holding.
I walked away toward a table for two not far away from the coffee counter and sat down, carefully placing the cup on the table. I hesitated a little bit, feeling reluctant to take a sip of the latte because it meant that I had to ruin the art that Jonah had created. But I just shook my head, because my curiosity won and I finally let myself take a very small sip of the drink.
The warm drink startled me once it had made its way on the tips of my taste buds, and I felt my eyes widen in surprise. It was so damn good I almost moaned out loud. Just the perfect amount of sweetness to balance out the bitter, slightly grassy taste of matcha. But I held the noise in; the only sound that came out was a slight satisfied groan, but the diner was currently near empty that even Nat perked her head up to stare curiously at me. When she saw that I had just tasted a cup of heaven Jonah had made, she immediately gave me a huge grin and two thumbs up.
For the umpteenth time today, I felt the heavy stare on me before I even saw it. I slightly lifted my head a bit, catching Jonah's eyes on me. When he realized that I had caught him looking at me, he turned away, busying himself with the same cups he had been cleaning for ten minutes now.
A wide grin blossomed on my face, and this time I wasn't holding it in.