I Heard His Thoughts While Chasing Him For A Year Chapter 09

I Heard His Thoughts While Chasing Him For A Year Chapter 09

I remembered my first day at Briarhaven High.

A basketball hit my head before I had eaten breakfast and sent my blood sugar crashing.

I crouched on the floor. A large hand settled on my head.

I was ready to curse whoever touched me until I looked up and saw Everett.

The words vanished.

For a moment, I thought the impact had filled my eyes with stars. He looked like he had stepped out of a graphic novel.

He was unbelievably handsome.

Everett was the basketball captain. Although someone else had thrown the ball, he accepted responsibility and carried me to the nurse.

He moved carefully while I clung to his shoulders, and he stayed until the nurse said I was fine. That quiet responsibility had impressed me as much as his face.

She gave me two peppermint candies.

Even now, that brand brought me back to our first meeting.

I had been young enough to call the feeling confusion. Later, I understood it was love at first sight.

For weeks afterward, I kept the candy wrappers in my pencil case.

They became ridiculous souvenirs from the moment my entire senior year began revolving around him.

When senior-year schedules placed us in the same homeroom, I thought fate had intervened.

At first, Everett treated me normally.

Then one day, he became cold.

His answers shortened, his expression hardened, and every casual conversation became difficult.

I never knew he had begun playing the kind of male lead I once claimed to want.

Zoe said he must hate me and warned that forcing myself closer would only make things worse.

I never confessed. I feared losing both my crush and a free tutor.

That was the practical excuse.

The real reason was simpler: I could survive wanting him from a distance, but I did not know whether I could survive a direct rejection.