~*~

Over the next few days, I kept busy with my classes. It was almost the end of the semester, which meant that both final exams and winter break were less than two weeks away.

For most college students, that meant going home to spend time with their family; for me, it meant being able to work more often and make more money to help pay off my student loans.

I didn't have the best family situation in New York, which is why I had moved to North Carolina. I did have an aunt and uncle that lived only about half an hour away from Greenville, which is why I'd moved down here in the first place: I had some family closeby as a place to go for holidays, but I wasn't close enough to them to visit them frequently.

It was fine with me.

My phone buzzed and I saw that I had a text from Jimmy asking if I was busy today. He was wondering if I wanted to hang out with them while they edited some videos because he "wanted to make up for lost time"; I figured he meant from when he was ignoring me and spending all his time with Maddy.

I was busy today, actually. It was Wednesday and I had classes from 8-11am, then I worked from 12-5pm, and then I had to start working on a final research paper that was due next week for one of my classes.

At first, I told him the truth--that I was busy.

I didn't want to seem desperate, but I was also dying to see him, so I ended up adding another text saying that I would be free after 5pm, but that'd I'd probably be working on a paper while they were editing videos.

He said that'd be perfect and he'd pick me up from work when I was done with my shift.

What was I saying about trying not to seem desperate?

Needless to say, my shift dragged on as I was nervously anticipating how tonight would go with Jimmy and the rest of the guys.

It was about 4pm and I was mindlessly taking the clothes from the rack outside of the men's and women's dressing rooms and returning them to the right section.

"Excuse me, but where can I find the MrBeast merch?" a deep, familiar voice said from behind me.

I turned around and laughed. It was Jimmy. I was shocked that he came early just to surprise me at work. "It's in the kid's section, just like the rest of your fans," I joked.

"Harsh," he replied as he put his hand over his heart, pretending to be hurt by my words.

I continued putting some of the clothes away. He was following me around as I searched the clothing section to find where certain things belonged.

He snatched a few of the clothing items from my hand. "I'll help you."

I laughed. "Free labor? I'm sure Wal-Mart will love that."

Jimmy had randomly grabbed a stack of items from my hands, and he was doing pretty good at putting them back, but one of those items happened to be a sexy, lace, black bra. He looked awkward holding it and his cheeks were tinted slightly red."Trade?" he asked with his adorable, crooked smile.

"Anything for you," I said, laughing, as I handed him a men's T-shirt and took the bra from his hands.

He definitely made the last hour of my shift go by quickly. He was such a genuinely funny person that he was even able to make putting back clothing somewhat entertaining. We were laughing loudly and goofing off, but none of the managers seemed to care.

I clocked out at work, and we exited the building. As we made our way across the parking lot, a car appeared out of nowhere and clearly didn't see us, as it was already starting to get dark.

Jimmy immediately grabbed my hand and pulled me to the side, away from the oncoming car.

His hand in mine felt so nice and warm.

When the car left, we both looked down at where our hands were still interlaced; he gave me an unreadable look as we both hesitantly pulled our hands apart.

We got into the car and started driving towards his house. The ride was quiet at first.

"So are you guys filming a video tonight or just editing?" I asked, interrupting the silence.

He smiled ear to ear. "Tonight we're just editing videos, but we're preparing to film our next video... we're going to a haunted hotel on Friday and we're going to spend the night there, if you wanted to join us."

My face fell. "Well, now's probably a good time to say that I get scared shitless of literally anything remotely scary: horror movies, haunted houses... everything."

"Perfect."

~*~

It was surprisingly fun just hanging out with the guys while they were editing videos. They were busy with their own thing, and I was busy with working on my paper.

We ordered Chinese food for dinner, and we had plenty of time to goof off and talk, which made writing my paper more fun than if I was at my apartment by myself.

"So are you in for the haunted hotel video on Friday?" Jake asked me.

"Uh... I don't know. That shit terrifies me," I explained.

Chris laughed. "Do it!"

"You can just grab hold of Jimmy when you're scared,"

Chandler joked.

I started blushing, and Jimmy looked kind of uncomfortable.

"Great idea!" Garrett chimed in.

I scowled at Chandler and Garrett, who both knew that I liked Jimmy and had promised not to say anything. Thanks, guys.

I kept my answer at a "maybe" and said I'd let them know by Friday.

Luckily, they left it at that and they all went back to editing.

I ended up getting a lot of work done while I was there with them. I was sitting cross-legged on the couch that they had in their office, using my new laptop that Jimmy had gotten me. I was so happy with the laptop.

I got distracted from writing my paper, and I started to watch Jimmy out of the corner of my eyes; he was talking with the guys about different video-related stuff.

He looked so cute. His hair was kind of messy today (in a cute way) and his facial hair had grown out a bit, which made him look a lot more masculine. He was wearing a MrBeast T-shirt, and I started to pay attention to the flexing of his arm muscles as he moved and the way his eyebrows furrowed when he was concentrating on something.

Clearly I was not in the mood to write this paper anymore.

After a few minutes of watching him, I started to get sleepy. Today was a really long day, going straight from class to work and then to hanging out with the guys. I was exhausted, so I rested my head against the arm of the couch.

~*~

Next thing I knew, I heard Jimmy's voice saying my name and felt my arm being shaken lightly.

"Time to wake up," Jimmy said in a really quiet, sweet voice.

"Nooooo," I replied groggily.

He chuckled. "Come on, let's get you home."

I was still half asleep. "But this couch is so comfy!" I argued.

He laughed again. "Do I have to carry you?"

"Yes." I was kidding, but all of a sudden, I felt myself being lifted off of the couch, bridal-style, and being carried towards the door.

I was definitely awake now. I looked at Jimmy's face as he was carrying me; he was smiling, his eyes glinting with amusement.

I was probably blushing like crazy. "Let me down!"

He couldn't stop laughing as he set me down. "You agreed to it."

"I was kidding," I grumbled.

Jimmy drove me home. Like before, he walked me up to my apartment door, and we hugged before going our separate ways.

"Good night," we said at the same time as I opened the door to my apartment building.

~*~