The three fundamental laws of Northwood High were clear.
A rumour in motion tends to remain so unless asked to shut up.
The amount of respect you receive equalled popularity.
And the third, and the most supremely infallible one, Wilder Collins was...
By the time we had the basic framework, it was dark outside and I was ready to curl into a ball and fall asleep. Preferably in Wilder's lap. I took in deep breaths, his comforting, familiar scent setting me at ease. I gazed silently at his hair, recalling how it had felt between my fingers, his strong jaw, his enticing, perfect lips. Wilder had been the subject of many of my journals before, pretty embarrassing ones I would say.
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He sighed deeply and combed his fingers through his hair, gazing at me with sunken eyes. "This is why I gave up coding. A fucking semi-colon makes you want to cry."
I chuckled at the indignation in his voice. "Yep, but it's pretty rewarding."
I looked at the screen which now had the simple layout of a website, the name written in bold letters. 'Heady' in a soft blue and 'Lines' colourful. He had added a section for the introduction which I had been too lazy to write just yet. He had also added an index and a link, but it still looked like a webpage from the 2000s. Something that wouldn't change till he applied CSS. I looked at him, my cheeks burning at the proximity. "Um...thanks."
He was quiet before he shut the laptop and glanced at me, a soft smile on his face. His eyes travelled to my hair and my heart jumped to my throat when he reached for it, playing with my curls as his eyes lit up mischievously. "How the fuck did you get that glue out? Sounds like an ordeal."
I had to remind myself to breathe. Was this normal? Did Wilder play with other people's hair?
Maybe.
"Conditioner," I replied, my voice strained and shaky. "Yeah, it was gross."
"For the record, I do think you were incredible there, Evans," he said. My heart sunk a little when he didn't call me by my first name. "I...I would never have the courage to do that. Just stand up straight and...walk away smiling like that. It was such a slap to their faces. A 'mic drop' moment if you will."
I felt my cheeks heating up. I hadn't thought of what I had done as incredible. I just knew that they wanted me to run, or be angry, maybe even pick a fight. But I had never been good with fights and it had just seemed better to make fun of myself before they made fun of me.
Self-deprecation was actually an under-appreciated ninja technique.
He gazed at me intently for a while before turning his face away. Before he did, I thought I almost saw a dark shadow behind his eyes, a twinge of pain pass across his features.
He glanced at his wristwatch, his eyes widening slightly. "Whoa. It's past dinner."
I gazed at the time on the monitor and saw that it was eight. I realized with a jolt that I had spent well over two hours just staring at Wilder and realized with an even greater jolt that I would love to continue. He slowly rose to his feet as my heart sunk and I spoke without thinking, "You could have dinner here."
