˖ ࣪ AGAIN, AGAIN, 𖥔 ࣪ ᥫ᭡
AGAIN. . . !

━━━━━ ( 007. real life )
✶ ・・❛ DON'T REMIND ME. ❜

( ☾ )

CLEMENTINE WOULD LOVE english if she didn't constantly feel eyes on her from the back of the class. she wouldn't dread the usually easy class if she couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from and who the stare belonged to.

it wasn't as bad before, back then she'd only feel him glancing at her every now and then, but now she feels him staring at her the entire fucking time the teacher is talking. she's not sure why he's suddenly reentered her life like the two weren't pretending the other didn't exist a week ago, but it's driving her fucking crazy.

she needs him to go away so her life can resume peacefully with no disturbance and no reminders of her past. thoughts of college and having to keep her grades up all while trying to deal with jaxs constant mood swings is enough. she seriously does not need anymore stress from a person who took his own leave from her life. he left and she finally accepted it and moved on. why can't it just stay that way? why does he have to come back all of a sudden?

it's really messing with her, which is just not okay. she's thinking about him again, thinking about a past them, when she had just gotten used to not thinking about that a month or two ago. it's completely unfair. first, he just randomly decided he wanted clementine out of his life out of nowhere on christmas fucking eve and now he's just randomly decided he wants her back in it? it's unfair to her. it's such bullshit.

"clementine? hellooo?" a voice snaps her out of her thoughts, her blinking repeatedly to realize a hand is being waved in front of her face obnoxiously. she's not surprised when she finds the hand to belong to finnley, him standing up and leaning over to reach her from his desk.

"sorry, what?" she snaps out of it, glancing around and realizing everyone's doing something on their chromebooks. "what are we supposed to be doing?"

"oh, i dunno," finnley shrugs, earning a look from her in return. "i was just bored and gian and manny are actually doing their work like fucking nerds."

gian instantly sighs, not even turning to actually acknowledge him and just sighing to let him know she heard and doesn't care. finnley just grins and turns to manny who's curiously turned his head away from his chromebook. "she's always so talkative with me, don't ya think?"

"totally," manny responds sarcastically, pausing for a moment to glance around the room before suddenly coming closer to him and clementine, and lowering his voice. "also, is there something on my fucking back or something, because i swear to god i keep feeling someone looking at—"

"ohhhhh," finnley cuts him off with a small chortle, leaning back in his seat from where they leant in to whisper. "that's just chris. don't worry, he's staring at clem not you."

the corners of clementines lips instantly turn downwards and she glances up past manny to find where she knows chris and nick sit. to no one's surprise, she finds chris staring dead at her. his face is lowered to rest on the palm of his hand as nick is busy actually working next to him. his face doesn't falter as she catches him staring, he just raises his chin off his hand and leans back in his seat instead. clementine's face scrunches up at the fact that he's watching her so unashamedly and has been during the whole time she was talking to finnley and the time she was thinking about... well, him. she refuses to let him win this some sort of battle, and mouths, 'creep.'

his face falters for a moment and that is all the satisfaction clementine needs. she's about to look away when he recovers from what she mouthed and shrugs nonchalantly. 'for you,' he mouths back.

clementine's stomach does a little flip-flop thing and she instantly looks away from him and back to the people in front of her. she loses the internal battle between them, because why the fuck is chris. . . flirting with her?

manny, in front of her, notices her expression and glances back at chris who is now looking down and beginning to work on his chromebook, a slight grin to his lips as if he's satisfied from getting a reaction from her. manny's eyebrows furrow and he turns to finnley and then clementine. "so who's the guy giving you heart eyes? do we know him or is he just a creep?"

"just a—"

"oh no, no, no," finnley cuts her off with a chuckle, turning to manny as she sighs. "chris is her ex boyfriend that she's sworn to hate. also, her boyfriend, my... bud, jax hates him as well. it's a fun little hating circle which makes it a little odd that he's giving heart eyes but hey! man's brave."

"what." manny just blinks, completely confused.

"yeah, i don't understand it either," finnley sighs with a shrug. "it's funny though. love the entertainment for english class."

clementine narrows her eyes at him. "how is my ex suddenly reappearing in my life and messing shit up with jax funny?"

"uh, i don't know. it just is," he tells her dubiously. "god, i don't have the answers to every thing, clem."

clementine rolls her eyes and turns back around in her seat, decidedly done with this conversation and done with chris who is yes, still looking at her because he's a fucking weirdo. she lets out a sigh and leans forward in gians direction.

"hey, what are we supposed to be—" she cuts herself off when she's close enough to see gians chromebook. some random korean drama show with english subtitles is playing and gians so focused on it she's not even paying attention to the fact that clementine just spoke to her. "what the fuck."

( ☼ )

CHRIS WALKS TO ART CLASS with a bright grin on his face. ah, his favorite class of the day now.

he used to not enjoy the class at all after his and clementines break up, but ever since he got his head out of the gutter and realized he has to stop moping and just go after what (who) he very much still wants, he enjoys it a lot. he just enjoys seeing her.

ah, her—his girl that technically isn't his girl anymore, but will forever be his fucking girl. he doesn't care.

he walks into the classroom and his grin grows when he finds clementines table empty. her friend that sat next to her before now sits next to her partner for the project.

yeah, that's right, accept defeat, chris thinks.

he snaps out of his thoughts with a slight shake of his head and heads for his newfound seat next to clementines empty one. she hasn't entered the class yet, lucky him. he just can't wait to see the way her face drops at the sight of him, how fun!

and the time comes. chris is sitting in his seat peacefully when clementine finally walks in. she's doing something on her phone and when she raises her head to glance in the direction of her seat, her face does the thing—it drops! chris grins at her.

she grimaces at his expression and walks over to her seat all annoyed, setting her stuff down a little aggressively on the desk as well. that's his clementine, always going taking an extra length when she's upset. always so predictable.

she sits down and chris has to say something, of course, so he mentions the hoodie she has on that he immediately took notice of and how it's just a tad oversized. "nice hoodie," he speaks nonchalantly.

"fuck off."

he lets out a small, breathy chuckle. "always so sweet to me, clem."

she doesn't respond, but he notices the way she rolls her eyes from his words. he just loves when she reacts to what he says, so he just has to get her to react again. he takes hint from the slight cologne smell he got a whiff of as she sat down and says, "jax's, isn't it? has that good ole axe body spray scent."

clementines eyes clamp shut in annoyance and she turns off the phone she obviously got on to avoid conversation with him. "why are you even still speaking?" she groans, finally glancing over at him.

he loses focus for a moment. her eyes have always been so pretty. it's really nice to see them up close again, even if there's now a fierceness to them there wasn't before.

he recovers though, with a shrug. "couldn't resist," he responds easily. "saw you guys arguing earlier today. hope everything's alright." his tone is so obviously sarcastic.

from the way her eyes narrow, he can easily tell one thing. he's the reason behind the argument. it's written all over the sudden scowl present on her face. she's always been so easy to read.

her eyes burn straight through him with a fire chris has grown familiar with. "you're infuriating, chris," she tells him harshly.

chris' face drops ever so slightly but he leans back in his seat, shrugging his shoulders and staying nonchalant. "yeah and you're gorgeous but you don't see me making a big deal out of it and complaining," he responds sarcastically. he is seriously so smooth.

clementines face falters for a moment because seriously what the fuck? she catches herself though, and shakes her head to herself, turning away from him and instead leaning back in her seat, annoyance clear by her newfound posture.

aw, chris thinks as he glances over her slightly pursed lips and arms now crossed over her chest, look at him making her all angry.

she notices him still staring at her though, and quickly looks back at him with a scowl. "fuck off."

"no."

she turns away again, now with a huff and a closing of her eyes and wow, her anger with him is such a cute sight.

chris opens his mouth to start something again because he seriously can not resist, but he gets stopped by the teacher clearing her throat in the front of the classroom. he groans internally and turns forward in his seat to watch the teacher as she waits for all the students attention.

eventually, she speaks up, "unfortunately guys, we will not have class today," she tells them, clementine instantly perking up in her seat while chris' face falls a smidge. "we are actually supposed to report to the auditorium because a motivational speaker has got plenty words for our school today." she gives a kind grin, and chris wants to throw his head back and groan loudly.

after a moment where the teacher checks over the classes attendance, all of the students stand and begin making their way to the auditorium. clementine is quick to stand up and chris reluctantly does so as well. "not during my favorite class," he grumbles just loud enough for clementine to hear. her back is turned away from him and he can practically sense her eye roll.

clementine is already speedily leaving their table and chris quickly grabs his phone from the table and attempts to catch up with her. she is seriously so fast though, definitely trying to run away from him.

they walk out into the hallway. chris is still a couple long strides behind her when he speaks up with, "chill clem. it's actually crazy how fast you're walking there."

clementine though, is apparently not having it. chris is taken completely off guard when she stops dead in her tracks, spins around to face him, and comes stomping all up in his personal space. his eyes widen slightly as he looks down to her, almost losing his breath because of how close she is to him. it's clearly because she's angry and trying to make a point but he still has to force back the smirk threatening to overtake his features.

"can you fucking stop, chris?" she grits out finally. "seriously."

"what?" he breathes, too thrown off by her close proximity to him to realize how annoyed she truly is.

"can you stop calling me clem and following me around like a lost puppy dog?" she rephrases her question with a clear point, chris' face faltering from the now clear and blatant harshness to her tone. "you broke up with me on a literal christmas fucking eve."

chris goes quiet longer than he plans and it causes clementine to take a step away from him. her stepping away as if she's gotten the final word to end this snaps chris back into it. he comes up with a nonchalant, "ouch. don't remind me please."

chris' smug exterior is not doing it for clementine though, it only makes her angrier. but hey, anger is still an emotion, which is better than her feeling completely nothing for him.

"chris, i genuinely don't have a single clue what makes you so sure you have the right to suddenly try and weasel your way back into my life when you were the one that happily left in the first place—but you don't," she tells him straight-up, not missing a single beat. "i've moved on. i don't need this and i don't need you." the words cut right through chris. he watches her, unmoving as she rubs at the temples of her head for a moment. eventually, she sighs and looks him right in the eyes. "please, just do all that you've been best at for the past months, and leave me alone."

chris bites the inside of his lip hard. the words make him feel the hurt he's been avoiding facing, the regret he can't disguise with an unbothered smugness, the true pain in his heart from losing the girl he just craves to have again so badly.

he must spend too long staring at her and his expression must not hide a single thing he feels because she glances over the features of his face and her eyes flicker with something he could miss by just blinking—but he doesn't blink. he sees it, the momentary softness, the hesitance. he sees it because it's there just for him to see. he sees it because the part of clementine she's tried so hard to erase, the clementine he once knew, is still there.

so, he doesn't say anything when she lets out a small breath of relief and turns around. he doesn't stop her when she successfully walks away. he watches her leave, which gives him deja vu to a cold, snowy night he wishes he could relive and do-over, and is left with no one but himself.

eventually, he sucks in a breath and begins walking to make his own way to the auditorium. all he can think as he walks is how the hell he's going to fix this mess he created.

💌

updating this in school after a whole ass month and a half is so crazy but... hey!

i actually have so much planned for this book, i'm just trying to focus on finishing idfc rn 💔💔 i promise this fic will get all my love and attention after idfc is completed, i swear bro. 🫡

also jax not being in this chap??? so peaceful fr.

<3
jaden