I Heard His Thoughts While Chasing Him For A Year Chapter 11

I Heard His Thoughts While Chasing Him For A Year Chapter 11

If Everett and I ever dated, fate would deserve credit for welding us together.

But two people who refused to speak could not build anything.

I had chased him for a year. He could take the next step.

The following morning, I copied his aloof act.

Anyone could play the ice-cold heartthrob.

When Everett felt me withdrawing, his thoughts boiled.

I answered him with the same brief nods and flat tone he had used on me. The performance was satisfying, although maintaining it required more effort than I expected.

[What did I do? Why is she ignoring me?]

[Was breakfast wrong?]

[Why is she asking someone else for help? Am I invisible?]

[I can’t sit here.]

“What kind of explanation is that?”

Everett snatched Caleb’s pen.

“This takes three steps, not an entire page.”

He wrote the solution and pushed the paper toward me.

I gave a flat acknowledgment and returned to my work.

I wanted to see how long he could endure.

One day passed, then two, then three.

Everett became increasingly attentive while his thoughts filled with question marks.

I enjoyed every second.

He brought breakfast, waited outside class, and inserted himself into every study question. The colder I acted, the less convincing his own cold persona became.

He handled misery differently from normal people. When unhappy, he solved problems furiously.

Even with his thoughts in chaos, he occasionally noted that an equation was easy.

If I had half that discipline, I could accomplish anything.

His notebooks filled at an alarming speed. Heartbreak might have ruined my appetite, but for Everett it apparently improved mathematical productivity.

After school, I packed my bag and prepared to leave alone.

Everett finally found courage. He caught my wrist.

“Wait for me. I need to tell you something.”

At last.

I frowned at the appropriate moment.

“Fine.”

[She really thinks I’m annoying. She’s so cold.]

[Didn’t she say she supported aloof billionaire heroes? Didn’t she say she liked chasing cold men?]

[Maybe my performance isn’t convincing. But I have spent three days not clinging to her.]

[This hurts.]

I searched my memory and could not recall saying any of that to him.

The other students left. Soon we were alone.

Everett sat at the desk in front of me with both hands gripping the chair back.

His serious expression made me more nervous than he looked.

“Tessa, why haven’t you spoken to me for three days?”

“I have.”

“No. You avoid me, and you ask everyone else for help.

Tell me what I did wrong. I can change.”

“Nothing.”

“I like you.”

My brain stopped.

The sentence was so plain that I almost missed its weight. There was no strategy, elaborate setting, or prepared speech, only the truth he had hidden for a year.

I expected this coward to ask why I was cold. I did not expect a direct confession.

I stared without knowing what to say.

“Tessa, answer me.”

“What am I supposed to say?”

“Say you like me too.”

No one had ever confessed so aggressively.

Still, the words came as if he had cast a spell.

“I like you.”

“Then promise we’ll both get into Eastbridge. Say yes.”

“Yes.”

Everett seized my hand.

His palm was warm and slightly damp. The boy who had looked untouchable from across the classroom was more nervous than I was.

“No backing out. I’ll supervise your studying, and we’ll push through this final month.”

It felt less like a confession than a pregame pledge.