30 Days

Prologue

" the heart has its reasons
which reason knows not "

;

"There are forty-two days left, Parker. Forty-two! " My voice is rough, agitated. It's not hard to tell that I didn't get enough sleep last night.

"Hell yeah, dude. We're out of here in forty-two days. Can't wait," Parker replies, casting me a sideways grin.

I groan. "No, that's not the point. There are forty-two days left of high school and I haven't said a word to the girl I've basically been in love with for seven years. Not one word."

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Parker nodding his head. I keep looking ahead of me, knowing that she'll be coming down this hallway any moment.

She, as in Kiera Mae. As in the most beautiful girl in the world. As in... well, there's not much else good to be said about her. At least, from what she appears to be on the outside. However, I'm convinced there's something deeper and better about herself she's not sharing.

"Hello? Are you listening to me?" Parker's voice is clear in my head but I don't bother responding. She's walking towards us, talking loudly to the girl next to her.

"I heard she slept with him, too. Can you believe that?" She and her friend laugh, and I deflate a bit. No one ever listens to me when I say there's more to her than that, and this is why. Because if you don't pay attention to her as much as I do, there isn't anything more to her. She's a rude bitch who's dated every jock in the school for no longer than a week and then throws them out like they're garbage.

I'm about to respond to Parker when it hits me. Well, she hits me. Literally.

Books fall to the ground, and as I scramble to pick them up, I hear her mutter something under her breath, but I can't quite make it out. I stand up slowly, careful not to make eye contact as she takes her books back. But then it happens. Her eyes lock with mine, and I'm speechless.

"I said, watch it." Her voice is normally soothing to listen to, but now it's cold and hard.

It's all I can do to spit out, "I'm sorry," before she turns her back to me. I'm about to turn my back to her as well, defeated, when she stops abruptly. She spins around to face me again.

"You're that kid who's really good at science, right?" she asks, tilting her head and taking another step closer to me.

I nod slowly. "Yeah, I guess I'm okay at science—"

Her face lights up, and she immediately pushes one of her books into my arms. "Good! My science homework is the all the questions on page 287. Don't forget to do the bonus. He always checks the bonus."

With that, she turns back around, and this time continues walking. It wasn't the most pleasant encounter, but my heart is still racing.

"Congrats, man. You talked to her." Parker hits me on the back and grins. I can't help but grin myself. Though all I said was I'm sorry, and I probably sounded like an idiotic loser when I did so, I still talked to her. And she talked to me. She knows I'm good at science. "Now come on. We're late to lunch."

I can't stop smiling like an idiot, even after we've sat down at the lunch table.

"What's up with him?" a female voice asks in a hushed tone, and I know Emilia's talking about me.

Parker's booming voice replies, "What do you think? He talked to her today."

Emilia immediately slides over to me, her eyes wide. "Why didn't I hear about this?" she exclaims, obviously waiting for an explanation.

Emilia has been the only girl in our friend group for a long time. The last girl that we hung out with decided we were too uncool for her and proceeded to ditch us for some popular girls. Emilia, on the other hand, is really one of us. I met her when I was struggling with some of the work in Spanish class in eighth grade and she was able to help me, since she's fluent in the language.

"Em, I don't have time to explain. I have homework to do." I don't look up from Kiera's textbook as I speak, but I can just imagine the agitated look on Emilia's face.

She shrugs and slides back over to where Parker and Andre sit. I raise my head up to apologize, but she's already dove into conversation. I've always admired her independence and the fiery excitement she always brings with her wherever she goes. It's one of the things that makes her so great.

I continue working on Kiera's homework. This feels wrong- cheating always feels wrong- but it's getting Kiera to notice me. I'd say it's definitely worth it.

"I don't see what he sees in her. He keeps saying there's something more to her, but how would he know? She's a bitch to everyone. A stupid bitch, at that. All gossip and making out with hot guys in the hallways to make other hot guys jealous. I don't see what he sees in her." As hard as I try to tune it out, Emilia's voice still breaks through my focus.

"What do I see in her?" I say, raising my voice. "I see her act. She wants to be cool. And that's what you do when you're cool. You gossip and you make out with hot guys in the hallway."

"So what? That doesn't mean there's anything good about her. Dude, you have to get over her." This time Andre speaks, the first thing I've heard him say all period.

"I—" I pause for a moment to gather my thoughts. "I saw her once. She was in a big group of friends in the hallway. They were all laughing and happy and she looked it, too. But then she excused herself from the group and turned the corner into the hallway that I was standing in, and she closed her eyes really tight. She looked like she was about to cry."

"Probably because they were gossiping about something she did." Emilia rolls her eyes and takes a bite out of her sandwich.

I move closer to them. "No, Em, you don't understand. She looked hurt. She looked... broken. Just in that moment. And then she opened her eyes, put a big smile on her face, and then went right back to her group. It's an act. That's how I know there has to be something else to her."

"You know what?" Em blurts, her eyes wild. She composes herself again, and continues. "You think you know her? Prove it, Chase. Prove it that she's got some beautiful interior behind that horrid exterior. You have thirty days. You have thirty days to give us some kind of proof that she's not the slutty bitch we all think she is."

Three sets of eyes are all on me. It makes me uncomfortable for a moment, and I can't figure out how I should respond. What if I can't prove it? What if I've been wrong about her this whole time and she isn't any better than they think she is?

But I know there's only one thing I can say after seven years of obsessing over her.

"Challenge accepted."

-

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