He Deleted My Number After 972 Messages of Love Chapter 18

He Deleted My Number After 972 Messages of Love Chapter 18

Convinced his crush was Chloe, I decided to keep my distance from him from then on.

I barely spoke to him all day.

When school let out, he slouched across his desk, blocking my way out.

“C’mon, tell me what’s up with you lately”

I stared at him, confused. “What do you mean?”

Ezra let out a short scoff. “You know exactly what I mean. You’ve been ignoring me all day, girl.”

“You brush me off when I talk to you, you turn down the coffee I buy you, you wouldn’t even let me carry your books to your next class for you.”

“What did I do to get on your bad side?”

One by one, the other students filed out, leaving only the two of us in the classroom.

I twisted the strap of my backpack and decided to just say it.

“I’ve worked out who you’ve got a crush on. I think we ought to keep some space between us from here on out.”

Ezra’s face went still, and he didn’t say a word.

This time, when I tried to leave, he didn’t stop me.

I was confused by how grim his face looked. Before I left, I offered a quiet consolation.

“Still, I hope everything works out with Chloe if that’s what you want.”

“It seems like she and Jesse really did break up.”

“I don’t like her at all, though, so if you two end up together, we’re probably better off not hanging out anymore.”

Ezra grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. “Hold up, slow down a second—what on earth are you rambling about?”

I laid out my entire line of reasoning for why I’d assumed Chloe was his crush.

He stared at me like I’d cooked up an absurdly overcomplicated story out of nowhere.

After a beat, he said flatly, “That popularity poll of yours is ridiculous. Anyone could win that thing. I don’t like her. If you start spinning up theories like this again, just come ask me upfront, don’t go making up whole stories in your head and write me off like that.”

He stood up and grabbed his backpack.

As we walked off school grounds, he kept pressing a hand to his chest every now and then.

I eyed him hesitantly. “Is something bothering your chest?”

A dry, mocking smirk tugged at his lips. “My heart nearly skipped a beat and tanked right then”

Turns out my assumption wasn’t completely baseless.

Other people had also jumped to the same conclusion, and word eventually got back to Chloe.

After class, she showed up with eyes still puffy from crying to confront Ezra.

“Do you have a crush on me? Then what if we start dating?”

Her tone was petulant and spiteful, and she glanced toward Jesse as she spoke.

Ezra said, “Did you lose your mind on the way to class?”

Chloe pressed on. “Then how do you explain you steadily pulled further and further away from me once you found out I was dating Jesse?”

“Weren’t we at least friendly before? Aren’t you just keeping your distance to avoid drama?”

Ezra thought he’d been kept landing in one ridiculous, bizarre mess after another these past couple days.

“We were never really friends. I’m only keeping my distance because my seatmate doesn’t like you.”

He delivered the line with a completely straight face. “I borrow her homework sometimes, so I’m on her side.”

Chloe glanced back at Jesse, fully expecting to catch a mocking look from him.

But his gaze wasn’t falling on her whatsoever; he was fixed on Ezra, lost deep in thought.