Nico Vaughan, the junior class "Nice Girl" wants to be free from her abusive and obsessive ex-boyfriend.
Valen Henford, the school's resident "Rich Guy meets Bad Boy" wants to spend his senior year with the girl he's been in love with for years.
W...
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"Doubt thou that the stars are fire; Doubt thou that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt that I love." (William Shakespeare).
|◁ II ▷|
Valen's fingers brush over my hair with feather-light gentleness, sending a weird shiver through my spine and an odd feeling in my stomach. I can't breath. I can't function. All I can think about...
Lately, my mind has been wandering to him. It's... interesting. Very interesting.
Do I have feelings for him? Am I starting to get feelings for him?
I don't, right? I'd know if I did.
Oh, no. There's the doubt.
Crap. If this is what I think it is, I'm at level three, which is one step away from a crush. This is bad.
Is it bad?
No...
Right?
What happened to swearing off men? What happened to being cautious and throwing away my naivety? What happened to just getting rid of Hunter?
Honestly, what happened to being stubborn about the whole "cliche," "romance-book" thing?
I snap myself out of it. The book isn't going to be a good distraction right now, either. When Ms. Plynto announces time to work on the project, I take a deep breath.
I'm good. I can do this.
"You've worked on this project quite a lot, Nico," Valen smiles, resting his fist on the side of his head as he leans on his desk.
"I have," I start, opening my binder and flipping to my work. "And you haven't done much to help, as I recall."
Valen's smile drops. "Wha—I—I have helped. I thought—Is there a better way for me to—"
I laugh, cutting him off. "I was kidding, Valen."
Yeah, we're good.
Let's just see where this takes us. Go with the flow. I can do that. Yeah.
We go over more of the project, adding more to make it flow better. Valen adds some very helpful suggestions, and part of me is impressed and the other part is surprised.
And we get side-tracked. Oh, well. The project is almost done, anyways.
"So you've got your future planned out, yeah?" Valen teases. "What a nerd."
"Haha," I deadpan. "Hey, if having dreams about the future is nerdy, then I'm fine with that."
Valen stares at me, his eyebrows low and smile wide. "Nico, you've planned too far out. You know things can change, right?"
