3. DON’T—Hold Hands

The Do's and Don'ts of a Friendly Relationship [Hiatus]

                “Why is it so cold today?” Jessi whined as she gripped my arm, trying to share some of my body heat.

                I shrugged. “Not my fault you decided to wear shorts. I warned you, too,” I told her.

                She stuck her tongue out at me. “Sorry, mom.” I smiled. She caught this and giggled. “Why are you so warm?” she asked, hugging my arm more tightly as a breeze swept past us. I could feel her frame shiver against my skin.

                “I think it’s something like: I am more physically active, which means I get cold less easily because my body is always ready to get active and is therefore more warm most the time,” I tried to explain.

                We walked a few steps in silence before she spoke up again. “That doesn’t make sense,” she told me. I shrugged.

                “I’m just guessing that it has something to do with me being more physically active than you,” I said.

                “Yah, so are you calling me lazy?!” she asked, challenging me with a glare.

                 “Maybe I am,” I told her.

                “Then maybe there’s a certain activity we can both participate in that is both physically straining and not time consuming,” she said, lowering her voice. I could hear her smile by the tone of her voice. It wasn’t a normal smile—it was the smile she gave whenever she was teasing me.

                I thought for a second. “Do you mean swimming?”

                “Of course,” she said, laughing. She let go of my arm, but was still holding my hand.

                To our right, I couldn’t help but notice a group of three girls who seemed to be stealing glances at us every so often. I recognized them as in the class we were headed to. I figured Jessi noticed them too and decided to let my arm go because of it, but they continued trying to innocently look sideways. “Hey, Je—Yeonnie,” I whispered to her.

                “Yeah, I see them too,” she whispered back, letting go of my hand. “Sorry.”

                “No problem,” I replied.

                “At least you remembered to call me my nickname though,” she said with a normal tone of voice.

                “Mhm,” I said as we stepped into the classroom. It was a mandatory Literature class that I frankly didn’t care too much for. At least it was an easy A.

                As we sat down, I noticed the trio that were following us enter the classroom. We made eye contact, but they immediately looked away. “Don’t worry about them,” I heard Jessi tell me. I nodded. “I think the story is something along the lines of the three of them liking this one guy, but that one guy liking me, so they want to prove that I’m not worthy of that guy because I already have a boyfriend.”

                I took a minute to absorb that information. Then, “Wait,” I said. “How do you know about this?” I asked, looking at her.

                She smiled. “I’m a girl. I tend to pay attention to gossip,” she replied.

                “I never have the chance to listen to gossip though,” I said, still confused.

                “That’s because you don’t listen closely enough,” she said, gently pushing my head with her fist.

                I rubbed that spot. “That still doesn’t make sense,” I said, frowning a bit.

                “Well also, you don’t actively listen to it. It’s hard to listen for if you’re not trying to listen for gossip,” she explained to me. That made a little more sense, I guess. Still, that seemed a bit … invasive? of another’s privacy. “And it’s not invasive because they wouldn’t be talking in public if they didn’t want anyone else to know.”

                Aish, I hated Jessi and her mind-reading abilities. She smiled mysteriously at me and motioned to the front of the lecture hall, where the professor was organizing his stuff.

                “Good morning class!” our professor said, finally seeming to have everything in order.

                “Good morning Mr. Hill,” our class droned back.

                “Alright, where did we leave off yesterday?” he asked, almost to himself as he took a second to glance back down at his stuff. “Oh look, I left notes for myself. Let’s see … ah yes, with—”

                “Two days, Apple Beach, 6:30,” Jessi whispered to me. She put away her phone back into her cardigan. I glared at her, and she smiled innocently back at me. I was about to open my mouth, but she covered it with her hand and pointed to the professor. I sighed and obliged, turning my attention to the class.

~The Do’s and Don’ts of a Friendly Relationship~

                “So who’s this girl I’m going to Apple Beach with in two days?” I asked as we left the classroom.

                “It’s a secret,” she told me, smiling. I frowned. “Aw, don’t frown. You look so much better when you smile,” she said. I tried for a smile. “See? That’s much better,” she said, smiling back. I shook my head; how could someone as playful and childlike as Jessi get a full ride into such a good college like this one?

                “What are you thinking about, Jinnie?” Jessi asked.

                “I don’t know if you want me to answer that,” I replied.

                “It’s something mean, isn’t it,” she said accusingly. I shrugged, trying to drop the subject, but Jessi didn’t allow it. “You were thinking about how someone like me could get into such a good college, right?” How could she tell? It’s not like I have a special code written on my face for what I’m thinking…does she really have mind-reading abilities? Either way, she’s one scary person.

                She smiled in triumph. “So I was right,” she said. “I’ll show you just how mature I can be later when we return to—”

                “Hey, you guys are holding hands,” I heard Tiffany say from behind us. She caught up to us, taking the other side of Jessi. Then, after processing what she said, I let go of Jessi’s hand. I guess I was so used to it I didn’t really even notice.

                “So normal friends don’t hold hands?” Jessi asked.

                “Well, do you hold hands with any of your other friends?” she asked back.

                After a moment of thinking, she shrugged. “I guess I got too used to holding Alex’s hand that I just did it instinctively as we left the classroom. I always assumed that people didn’t really mind if friends held hands; I mean, I wouldn’t assume two people are together if they’re holding hands.”

                “Maybe not two girls, I guess,” Tiffany said ponderously, “but a guy and a girl holding hands most of the time mean the two are together.”

                Jessi pouted. “That’s ist,” she said, whining.

                Tiffany shrugged. “That’s society,” she said. “So you're still sleeping alone?” she asked Jessi. I laughed a bit on that one; it was such an unusual question, yet it fit our situation.

                Jessi nodded, frowning. “It . I felt so cold, no matter how much I curled myself into a ball or how much I hugged the blankets,” she said.

                “Have you tried sleeping with pajamas on?” I suggested. Jessi looked at me as if I came from another planet.

                Tiffany, on the other hand, laughed. “What? That’s some suggestion, Alex,” she said, still laughing. Then, she seemed to remember something. Or rather, one particular morning. “Oh wait … you normally sleep ?” she asked Jessi.

                “Yeah,” Jessi replied. She turned her attention back to me. “Well, you know how I feel about that,” she told me. I nodded and let the topic slide. Tiffany seemed curious, but Jessi didn’t seem to notice. “Maybe I should get a body pillow,” she said, thinking out loud.

                “As long as it doesn’t have my face on it,” I said, cutting her off.

                Jessi pouted. “And here you were, complaining about my mind reading abilities,” she complained. Tiffany laughed, although there seemed to be something uncomfortable in it.

                “Well either you put on pajamas or sleep cold at night,” I said, deciding to try to drop the topic. “Or you get a body pillow,” I added as an afterthought.

                “Hey guys, what are we talking about?” Rachel walked up to us from my right.

                “Nothing,” we said in unison, then followed it up with our best we’re-innocent smiles. Needless to say, she didn’t look like she believed us.

                “Um…ok,” she said, thankfully deciding not to inquiry about the topic further. “So the test is on Wednesday?”

                “Yeah—next week Wednesday, not two days from now,” Tiffany said. Rachel, Jessi, and I all shared a sigh of relief. “What? You guys didn’t know?” she asked, looking around as if we were crazy.

                “He said Wednesday last week, so we all assumed it was this week’s Wednesday,” I said. The two of them nodded in agreement.

                “Wait, the test is next week?” Dan said, walking up from behind Rachel. I noticed that Rachel reached for Dan’s hand, which he accepted. No one else seemed to notice, probably because no one else could see

                “Yeah, apparently,” Rachel said. He breathed a sigh of relief.

                Tiffany laughed. “Why are you all so nervous? It’s not like it’s gonna be a hard test,” she said.

                “Isn’t there going to be the stuff we learned last week on it?” I said.

                “What—” Tiffany said, biting her lip. “I thought—oh yeah … he did say that…” she said, looking much more concerned. “Well, it’s a good thing the test is next week,” she said, half smiling.

                The four of us broke out into laughter.

                After we died down, I spoke up. “How did you know this anyway?”

                “He said at the very end of class on Friday,” Tiffany replied.

                We nodded in understanding. I saw Jessi look behind my back for a second. “What?” I asked her.

                “See? Rachel and Dan are holding hands; it’s not just couples that hold hands,” she said.

                “Oh, well we just became a couple yesterday,” Dan explained. Rachel blushed a bit.

                “Wow, congrats!” Jessi said, beaming.

                “Nice, congrats,” I said at the same time.

                They both smiled gratefully. “Thanks guys,” they said.

                Jessi frowned a moment after that. “So that does mean only couples hold hands, huh?” she said, half to herself.

                “Well, that’s why I got you two that notebook,” Tiffany said.

                So after we got home lunch, while Jessi was texting away on her phone, I added a third entry: “DON'T—Hold Hands”.

 

Hey all :D now that I'm done with all college apps (and am almost a second semester senior lel), I'll be updating more. However, that means that I'll be trying to update all my stories, and not only this one. This'll probably be updated more frequently than it used to though :D

Hope you enjoyed!

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kesujo
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Jaehyun2017 #1
Chapter 10: This story is so cute. Please continue this Author nim
xxVIPxxBLACKJACKxx #2
Chapter 10: This is so cute!!! ^^
zSecretz #3
Chapter 5: Update soon pls!!!!
tommyo9876 #4
Plz update soon!