He Deleted My Number After 972 Messages of Love Chapter 23

He Deleted My Number After 972 Messages of Love Chapter 23

Ezra slept straight through all his morning classes.

One of those periods was math class. Our teacher passed out a worksheet for us to work on, then walked up and down the aisles.

When she passed Ezra’s desk, she didn’t bother waking him.

She just picked up his math test—marked with an 83—glanced at it, sighed, and set it back down.

I couldn’t figure out why she cut him so much slack. Ezra never seemed to study, yet he always pulled decent grades.

That afternoon, Ezra got called out by our homeroom teacher and never came back.

It was my turn for after-school cleanup, and I’d been assigned to the faculty office. I knocked and walked in—only to find two people already there: Ezra, and a sharply dressed middle-aged man standing across from him.

Something about the man’s face was oddly familiar…

I quietly started sweeping.

The teacher spoke up, her tone regretful. “Before you transferred here, I reviewed your old transcripts.”

“Your grades were excellent—top of the class across the board.”

“Why have you stopped trying since you came here? You’re wasting your potential.”

“In just three months, you’ve gone from straight A’s to barely passing. With how things are going, the school had no choice but to call Mr. Mercer in.”

Ezra listened without a word.

Then it clicked where I’d seen the man before—once, in the principal’s office.

Mr. Mercer. The biggest donor and board member of our school. Mercer, as in Ezra Mercer.

I finished sweeping and went to rinse the mop.

When I came back, Mr. Mercer was still staring at Ezra with that disappointed look.

“You’re doing this just to spite me, aren’t you? Do you know you’re my eldest son? Everything I have is meant for you someday, but look at the state you’re in—”

“Excuse me, sir, would you mind stepping aside for a second? I need to mop this section of the floor.”

“Oh—right, sorry.”

Ezra shot me a glance, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

“How can you even smile right now? Do you really find this whole situation amusing? I heard you’re doing some kind of game boosting on the side. That shady—”

“Sir, I need to get this spot too. Could you move again?”

Mr. Mercer shuffled aside. “Where was I?”

“Are you done yet?” Ezra’s tone was cold. “If you want me to save you social dignity in front of staff, then act like it. Quit putting on this stern, authoritarian dad act just to scold and lecture me like a misbehaving child.”

Mr. Mercer’s face went red. “Ezra! You—!”

“Pardon me, you’ve stepped on a scrap of paper there. Would you mind lifting your foot for just a moment??” I said, smiling politely with my mop in hand.

Mr. Mercer just stared at her, speechless.

He left shortly after. Ezra and I walked back to the empty classroom—just the two of us.

He perched sideways on a desk, watching me. “Hey, girl, you feel like hearing all the messy, dramatic family drama going on with my wealthy family?”

I stayed quiet.

Ezra’s family company was the biggest in the city. When he was in ninth grade, his father’s extramarital affair and younger paternal half-brother from that relationship. His mom divorced him and moved abroad alone. Ezra couldn’t forgive his dad, so he went to live with his grandmother in a small town.

Three years passed. His grandmother’s health got worse, and the town didn’t have good medical care. So Ezra finally agreed to transfer back—it was the biggest compromise he’d make.

He’d started doing game boosting in freshman year and had saved up his own money. He never took a cent from his dad—rented his own place, lived on his own.

On his first day at our school, his dad told him: “Study hard. Look at your little brother—he’s always so diligent. Don’t fall behind as the older brother.”

That comment disgusted him so much that he hadn’t listened to a single class since—out of pure spite.

“Anyway. Pretty wild backstory, right?”

I ignored his teasing. After a long pause, I looked up at him seriously.

“Ezra.”

“You actually like math, don’t you?”

He blinked, slowly turning to meet my gaze.

“I saw you pick up that extra math competition paper I left on the podium. You worked through every problem on it. That was the most focused I’ve ever seen you. You smiled when you solved the hard one.”

“Bigger than when you hit three straight threes on the court.”

He tapped his fingers against the desk, eyes lowered, unreadable.

I pressed on. ” Though you solved it slower than I did. Pretty slow, honestly.”

Ezra let out a quiet laugh. “I haven’t studied in forever.”

“Still slow.”

He shook his head. “Alright, you got me.”

“Your dad did get one thing right earlier. Don’t sabotage your own passions and future goals just to get back at him out of resentment.”

“You love math enough that you’ve probably thought about studying it at a top school—surrounded by people as smart as you, or smarter.”

“You’ve imagined going head-to-head with them on problems, haven’t you?”

I stepped closer. “Ezra. What if we buckle down and focus on our academics side by side from now on? I don’t think skipping class and wasting your potential is who you really are. And I don’t think you’re happy living like this either.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’ve got me all figured out, huh?”

I held his gaze. “So? Will you do it? Let’s study together. We’ll get into Harvard together.”

He kept his usual lazy demeanor, stretching a hand out toward me. “If you reach out and hold my hand right now, I’ll say yes to your whole plan.”

Idiot.

My palms were getting sweaty. Whatever. One quick hold wouldn’t kill me.

I started to reach out.

He pulled back. “Nah. Just messing with you.”

I stared at him.

He glanced at my expression, clearly amused. “What? You were actually gonna do it? Oh, my bad, I had no intention of doing that at all.”

He leaned into his shameless tone. “Trying to make flirty physical moves on me when we aren’t even officially dating yet? You must assume I’m the sort of person who gets flustered and overly receptive that easily, girl?”

I was so annoyed I could’ve playfully strangled him on the spot.