Jade West hates me and I hate her. And I've hated her for a long time.
And that, although I don't know what this hatred is based on. There is no particular reason why I should hate her, or why she should hate me. But oh god how I hate that stupid face, those fucking blue green eyes and that fucking smug grin.

And to my absolute luck, me and that fucking smug grin got thrown into a school homework assignment together.
Our assignment is to write and perform a theater scene ourselves, which is why I'm staring at her right now.

She stands in front of me while I am leaning against my locker.
At this, Jade looks as excited as I am.

"I'm going to kill Sikowitz someday," she nags as she gives me an angry look.
"Don't look at me like that. I can help it as much as you can," I growl sullenly.
"And you're sure about that? Your look just begged for me, after all. I'm sure Sikowitz took that as a sign."
"Oh keep your sex fantasies to yourself West," I reply dryly.

Jade daggers me with her gaze, and is about to say something when I beat her to it.
"My parents aren't here today, so it's just me. We'll get this over with today."
"But I-"
"You don't have time today? That's too bad. After school at my place today," I repeat, pushing myself off the bottom locker with my foot and leaving.

Jade yells something after me, protesting and angry, but I pay no attention and keep walking.
Jade knows I'm stubborn, and Jade knows that if she doesn't show up at my house today, I'll be writing the entire scene by myself. And I know that Jade likes to be in control, of everything. That's why I'm sure she'll show up tonight.

The rest of the school day passes reasonably quickly, until finally I'm standing tiredly outside my front door, picking my key out of my pocket and unlocking the door.
Yawning, I hit the light switch, drag myself toward the living room, and finally drop onto the sofa.
I take a quick look around. My house is never really messy, and even now it looks relatively clean. But still, I feel the need to get up and clean up before Jade arrives.

I really don't care what she thinks of me, or of my home.
I don't care about Jade and I don't care about her stupid opinion.

Still, I pick myself up and start beating the sofa cushions soft, folding the covers neatly, all the crappy stuff I've never done before.
I don't stop until the front doorbell rings.
I catch myself with my heart pounding loudly in my chest. But this is normal. Totally normal. I rarely have visitors, that's all.

Reluctantly I open the door, and in front of me is a bad-tempered Jade, who pushes past me into the house without saying anything.
"Yeah sure, just come on in, miss sunshine," I say sarcastically and slam the door.

"I'm sorry I didn't wait for your arrogant ass to invite me in," she snaps back. "Especially since this shit here ruined my afternoon plans."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," I say in a disguised voice. "And I really wanted to spend my Friday off with you, which is why I bribed Sikowitz to schedule the two of us."

Jade rolls her eyes at my comment.
"Save your filthy sarcasm. You're nowhere near as funny as you think you are."

I grab my chest with my hand and sigh dramatically.
Jade's gaze moves to my hand.
"Don't break my heart Jade," I sigh.

Jade contorts her face. "I hate you."

"I know. So come on, let's get started." I plop down on the sofa and flip open my laptop, which is already on the coffee table.

Jade sits down on the sofa as well, a safe distance from me. I give her a look, which she returns, and briefly we look at each other wordlessly.

I clear my throat. "So, what do we want to do with the scene?"

"Something bloody.", Jade replies. "I'd love to see you bleed."

"Wow, I love that. It's a whole different way for us to get to know each other," I say dryly.

"I'd prefer not to know you at all," she nags.

"Why do you hate me?"
I don't realize I'm saying it until it's too late.

Jade looks confused for a moment before putting on her usual bored expression again.
"You're annoying."

"And that's it? I'm just annoying?"

She looks at me with a blank expression.
"What do you mean?" she then asks.

"I don't know. If I'm annoying, you could just stay away from me," I reply, shrugging my shoulders. To be honest, I don't know myself why I'm saying what I'm saying right now.

"Obviously not, since we have to do this crappy school assignment together."

"No, I mean, in general. At school. But I can't be that annoying if you just can't leave me alone. So, what else is there. Why do you really hate me?", I ask.

She looks at me blankly.

"I hate you. You're like an accident, where you don't want to look, but you just have to. I just have to. You piss me off so much, your confidence and your arrogance, and that you think you're so smart. I hate your fucking pretty face and your fucking arrogant smile and all the words that come out of your comically perfect mouth. Every time you talk I just want to shut you up," she growls.

I stare at her before a smile forms on my lips.
"Ohhhhh."

"What?" she nags, annoyed.

"Ohhhhhhhh."

"What?" she asks, even more annoyed than before.

"I understand it now," I reply with a grin.

"What do you understand. What is there to understand?" She looks at me impatiently.

"I understand why you hate me."

"And why do I hate you?" she asks, rolling her eyes.

"You have a huge crush on me."

Jade's eyes widen. "What?"

"You heard me already," I say, grinning.
"You've got a fat crush on me."

"Where do you get that shit? How can you be so full of yourself right now. I-"

I get up from the couch and grin down at her.
"You're totally into me, admit it."

Jade stands up as well, which is why we're suddenly just a breath away from each other. Reflexively, I take a step backward, but bump into the coffee table in the process.

"You really should shut your sassy mouth," she snaps, looking me straight in the eye.
"You make me so aggressive Y/N, you really do."

"I'm going to get a safe distance of 5 feet now," I inform her as I carefully step backwards until I'm no longer hemmed in between the couch and the coffee table.

"I'd do the same if I were you," she snorts.

"You're totally into me.", I repeat again grinning confidently.

"Oh my god do I have to kiss you to get you to shut up?"
At the same moment she says that, she freezes.

I couldn't help but grin.
"So you've heard it yourself, that sounded pretty gay."

"Just. Shut. Up."

"Now you know how to make me shut up," I teased her. And that's my problem. I start and then I can't stop. But somehow I don't want to stop either. I want to see what she'll do.

And before I knew what was about to happen, Jade had gotten past the safe distance, and was standing right in front of me.

"I hate you. I can't even stand you. I hate you." she mutters, taking another step closer, but this time I don't move out of the way.

I feel her breath on my face, and I realize I want her even closer.

"Jade," I whisper.

She returns my gaze inquiringly.

"Please shut me up."
And as soon as I say it, her hands somehow find their way to my waist, and somehow her lips find their way to mine.
And we kiss, and I feel like she's completely taking me in. Jade, Jade is everywhere, my hand in her hair, her lips that taste like coffee, her hand stroking my side and gently but firmly pushing me against the wall.

Jade, Jade who has always been everywhere. Jade.