I Heard His Thoughts While Chasing Him For A Year Chapter 12

I Heard His Thoughts While Chasing Him For A Year Chapter 12

I finally asked every question I had kept inside.

Everett was an idiot, but the misunderstanding had begun with me.

I used to obsess over billionaire-romance novels. Once, I told Zoe I wanted a cold, untouchable hero of my own.

Everett overheard.

He researched the characteristics of those heroes and concluded they needed money and an unbearable attitude.

Worse, when Zoe said I kept chasing someone who acted uninterested, I told her that was exactly my type.

I even claimed I would not value a man who approached me first.

Everett remembered every word and had dangled me for a year like the villain in a romance novel.

I had created my own disaster.

He had never understood that my comments were exaggerated jokes between friends.

I had never imagined anyone, especially Everett, would use them as literal dating instructions.

On the walk home, he linked his little finger with mine. My heart raced the entire way.

Everett looked up.

“The stars are bright tonight.”

I blushed.

“They are. The stars are…”

Stars.

I remembered the cafeteria. His thoughts had called Zoe’s star accessory cute.

I tore my hand away.

“You liked Zoe first. You only chose me because she wanted someone else.”

Everett denied it immediately.

“No. I noticed you the day you transferred.”

“Then why did you think Zoe’s star clip was cute?”

He looked lost.

“I never said that.”

“When the three of us shared a cafeteria table.”

“I meant you. Did I say it out loud without realizing?”

His uncertainty gave me no time to think.

“I wasn’t wearing a star clip.”

Everett pointed at my chin.

“You had a little star there.”

My chin?

It had been a star-shaped acne patch.

The original heartbreak had begun because he noticed a sticker on my face. Zoe’s hair clip had never entered his mind.

“Then why did you always look at Zoe while tutoring us?”

“Because I was afraid to look at you.”

The answer emptied every argument from my head.

His quick explanations for Zoe and his tangled ones for me had never reflected preference. Nervousness had made the smartest person in our class incoherent.

It made humiliating sense.

Everett became wounded by the end.

“I pretended to be cold for an entire year. I started hating myself.”

“I wanted to talk to you so many times, but I kept reminding myself to stay in character.”

“Tessa, I have more than one side. Will you take time to know all of me?”

I tried to listen for his thoughts, but the silence remained.

Then I understood.

I had only heard what he had been unable to say.

Once his heart was spoken aloud, there was nothing left for me to overhear.

The silence did not frighten me. For the first time, Everett was willing to say what he felt before I had to discover it in secret.