Hailey's P.O.V.

I watched James coming out with his, I guessed, friend and couldn't help chuckling when I saw that they were looking adorable, holding hands. This made me wonder however whether they were actually more than friends, and I could feel jealousy gripping my heart. I frowned internally and shook away these feelings. James was an acquaintance and I wasn't allowed to be jealous of him and his friend, or boyfriend or whatever it was.

However, any feelings of jealousy instantly disappeared when I saw that he had noticed me standing there and that he looked totally flustered. He quickly let go of the other guy's hand and started acting all awkward, making me, internally once again, aww at how adorable he looked. How could a person look more adorable?

I always thought when I was younger that I was gay, but James seriously made me question everything that I had thought was true about me. And anyone who saw him would probably think the same: he was really the cutest and most handsome and funniest and most perfect human being on earth. After my dog of course.

I followed behind the two boys, amused at how the anonymous guy seemed intent on embarrassing James even more. Seeing how they acted with one another, I decided that my feelings of jealousy weren't justified, as they seemed to be more like best friends or family than lovers.

Or at least that's what I told myself in order to make the little green monster in me shut up and go back to his little dark corner.

I didn't really like him, it ruined my mood, always arriving at the worst of moments and making my jealousy spike up as if I had nothing else to do but sit around and be jealous. Which I, of course, absolutely never did. I was the type of girl to take matters into my own hands and make sure that the boy I liked also liked me back. I believed none of that crappy nonsense of letting the guy take the first step.

This was 2019 and the times of knights and damsels in distress were long gone. Seeing how the world went sometimes, I sometimes thought that it would be more accurate to speak of damsels and knights in distress but I was probably the only one who thought that.

However, in front of James, I was more than willing to be a damsel in distress if it would get him to notice me. Not that I would ever be that desperate of course. But my "take charge and be a powerful woman" work ethic seemed to always fall apart in front of him and I saw myself anxiously waiting for him to make the first step and come see me and declare his undying love for me.

Even if that was completety unrealistic and only happened in books and films where the two main protagonists fell in love at first sight, dated for a year, argued and broke up, got back together after a couple of months, got engaged and then got married and went on some honeymoon to some pretty tropical island.

Island which, I might add, was so expensive that I couldn't afford to look at pictures of it on the internet.

The friend looking back at me took me out of my daydream and I smiled at how they were both acting. Seeing as how he looked at me, I guessed that he was also embarrassing his friend for my benefit and I almost took pity on poor James.

Almost.

Seeing them both interact just confirmed my opinion that James was adorable and funny and amazing. Who else would let their friend treat them like that? I wondered what it would be like, to be that close to him and to be able to tease him like that and just have fun with him. Probably not for some time I realised. We didn't talk much in general, and we would first have to get through the awkward phase of building up our friendship before we were even remotely close.

I stopped when I realised we were near the university and I made myself discreet to avoid James knowing that I saw the whole act. The two boys hugged and James pulled the other one's hair, making me chuckle. That was a nice act of revenge, and I definitely approved.

He then looked around, making me feel relieved that I had hidden, and went in, probably making his way to the oh so intersting history class, that I had given up after one lesson because it bore me to death. I hesitated to come back though in order to see more of James but I didn't know if my death was worth it. I preferred studying in the library during that time, which gave me more time in the other classes and outside of class to observe my dream, and future, boyfriend. Not that I was stalking him.

When James had gone in, I came out of my hiding spot and decided to start my "Become friends with James" plan. For this, I had to approach his friend. What better way to become friends with your future boyfriend than by becoming friends with his best friend or brother, or whatever this guy was? So that's what I decided to do, and it led to me approaching the guy with the bright smile and equally bright and colourful hair. I just hoped I wouldn't regret it in the end.

He saw me approach him and smirked, probably knowing why I was going over to him. He waited in this overly confident posture and raised an eyebrow when I came near. I stopped a couple of steps from him and observed him. He didn't look like James at all now that I had the chance to actually look at him.

Was he his best friend? Just a close friend? Or was he, like I had feared, his boyfriend? This last thought made me hesitate and I just stared at him, feeling like jealousy was making it's way to the surface. It was all I could do not to jump at the guy and demand he leave James and give him back to me. That's how annoying the green monster was. But I remind stoically calm and took a deep breath, getting ready to speak when the guy beat me to it.

"Hello, nice to finally meet you, I am Jonathan, James's friend. And you are his mysterious crush whose name he never gave me."