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𝑇𝐸𝐶𝐻𝑁𝐼𝐶𝐴𝐿 𝐷𝐼𝐹𝐹𝐼𝐶𝑈𝐿𝑇𝐼𝐸𝑆

─────⊰ ✦.*🥀*.✦ ⊱─────

　　 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐒𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈 𝐀𝐑𝐄 standing at my locker, and he's mid-lecture about calculus—his voice carrying that mixture of excitement and urgency that only Chase can manage. He's rattling off theorems and proofs with his hands moving in sharp, precise gestures, like even his fingers are trying to solve equations.

I nod at the right moments, but truthfully, I'm not listening to the numbers. I'm listening to him. To the way his voice dips low when he's confident, and climbs higher when he's almost giddy with discovery. His passion for something as cold and structured as math makes me feel warm, like I'm watching fire through glass.

And I can't stop staring at him. At the clean angle of his cheekbones, the faint dimple that appears when he speaks too fast. His eyes—those caramel brown eyes—are alive, flickering like they're lit from the inside. My gaze drifts inevitably down to his mouth. His lips are soft, quick when they move, impossibly kissable. I know because I've kissed them in the middle of one of these lectures before. He'd stuttered, blinked, and then kept talking, though I noticed him touching his lips afterward like he was cataloging the sensation, filing it away under something important.

Maybe I bit his lip and it hurt. Or maybe it really did mean something.

'Addilynn?' His voice cuts through my haze, and I blink to realize he's looking at me knowingly, amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth. 'Stop staring at my lips.'

I smirk, caught but unashamed. 'But they're so pretty.'

His laugh is soft, rich, the kind that vibrates against my chest when he's close. He slips an arm around my shoulders and I lean into him instinctively, like gravity's pulling me where I belong.

Across the hall, Davenport is showing Leo the new tech he's installed for the school. Sleek tablets replace the battered textbooks, and the walls practically hum with upgrades. I'll give Davenport this—he outdid himself. In one week, he turned this falling-apart place into something futuristic.

And then... chaos.

A robotic version of Principal Perry struts out of her office, followed by the real Perry. It's like watching a nightmare crawl into reality. 'She's beautiful,' Perry sighs with alarming devotion, planting three exaggerated kisses on her robot double. Her eyes glaze over with something disturbingly close to romance.

'Make it stop,' Leo groans, clamping his hands over his eyes.

I glance up at Chase, lips twitching. 'You never tell me I'm beautiful with that much passion.'

He presses a kiss into my hair and chuckles. 'I don't think anyone can be more passionate about someone else than Perry is about herself.'

'Wrong,' I tease, giving him a pointed look. 'Have you met Davenport?'

Chase raises his brows, conceding. 'Touché.'

Meanwhile Leo looks like he's seconds away from clawing his eyes out, but still somehow smiling through the pain. Perry, however, is in heaven, cooing at Robo-Perry like a deranged twin sister. 'I always wanted a cute twin! Oh! I'm going to buy us matching bikinis.'

'And I'm gonna burn my eyes out,' Leo mutters, his voice cracking under the weight of his horror.

Chase finally snaps, pulling Davenport aside, his arm still brushing mine like he can't quite let me go. His jaw tightens, and I feel the frustration radiating from him. I give his hand a small squeeze, hoping my touch will steady him, but this—this is one of those things I can't shield him from.