As it turns out, getting that information was not as easy as he would have liked. It had been days since that meeting and he had yet to run into her. And no. He had not been moping because of it, no matter what Nina tried to infer.

  He was just curious. So what if he’d tried to skip css to see if he could run into her again in the hallways? That didn’t prove anything. All it showed was that despite Tyler’s best effort, there was very little to learn. And not for ck of trying.

  When he’d asked Nina about her, she’d just pointed out that they didn’t interact much in css because their teacher had been going heavy with the content for the past week. She’d also promised to see if she could find out more, but so far her efforts hadn’t borne much fruit. Thus, he was left to wandering around school in the hopes of running into her again.

  Which he admitted was kind of creepy, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He’d almost missed several csses because he took more time than necessary to get to css. Even going as far as walking past the arts department although he’d never been one to focus on that sort of thing.

  It had gotten to the point that even Lia had started to notice and pulled him aside to ask why he was so fixated on this. Of course he’d denied any such thing and told her he was just curious because everything about her was so mysterious. But if he were being honest, he wasn’t even sure why he felt the need to get to know her.

  Especially since it made no sense. His own feelings confused him. And at the risk of sounding as sappy as the protagonists of Nina’sromcoms, he just felt like he needed to do it. Or he would regret it forever.

  Resisting the wince that came from that thought, he focused back on eating the pasta he’d brought for lunch. But even as he recoiled from the sappiness of the sentiment, he could feel an impatient itch under his skin to do something about it.

  Foot tapping on the ground, he lets his eyes wander over the people sitting in nearby tables. The others had yet to arrive, but that wasn’t a surprise since their csses were on the the other side of the school. It just made it excruciatingly boring for him when they took as long as they did.

  Honestly, couldn’t they walk faster? Why was it they only did things quickly when it directly benefited them. He sighed, taking another bite of his food before he froze. His spoon falling back into pce, brown eyes focusing on a table not far from the entrance.

  It was her. Tyler could hardly believe his eyes, fists rubbing them as he watched her talking to the girl beside her, Ally if he wasn’t mistaken. The other girl was a little familiar to him as well, she’d had some csses with him. His eyes narrowed on the back of her head, willing his memory not to fail him now.

  Brooke. That was the name. Satisfied, he let his eyes wander back to her. Her hair glowed gold under the sun, and his ears perked up in an effort to hear her voice. Then he realised what he was doing and recoiled, turning around and putting the spoon in his mouth to hide his wince.

  Jesus Christ, he really was starting to become a creep. He shook his head, determined not to do anything else that would earn the title. But momentarily his resolve would weaken, and he found his eyes wandering to her table. Then he would catch him self and hastily turn back.

  Luckily a heavy sigh as someone slumped into the seat in front of him distracted him. Tyler was gd Lia was here to save him from being belled a creep in truth. He internally winced at the thought. Maybe he should have just gone up and talked to her.

  “So, I asked around about our Mystery Girl,” she says, pulling out her lunch.

  “And?” He leaned forward in anticipation.

  “And nothing,” she sighed, snacking on a carrot stick, “No one can tell me anything.” Her lips thin, an unsure glint entering her eyes. “Although I did have another css with her the other day.”

  “You did?” His brows raised before furrowing into a frown. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “Because you were acting like a creep,” she tells him straightforwardly, “I didn’t want to feed into that.”

  Fair enough. He wouldn’t have wanted to give himself any information either. “Still, you could have told me.” Then he leaned back and sipped his juice.

  Lia rolls her eyes. “Anyway,” she gives him a pointed look, “I did notice something strange during the css. And Nina told me she was feeling the same as well.”

  “What?” Tyler interrupted her dramatic reveal, earning himself a gre. But he really wanted her to get to the point.

  “Killjoy,” she mutter with another gre, then sighs heavily when she catches the look on his face. “She kind of seems like she’s avoiding us. I tried to talk to her this time, but she only stayed for a little while before excusing herself. And Nina can’t get her to talk either.”

  She seemed more than willing to talk to him. Even if she hadn’t asked for his name, he hadn’t gotten an avoidant vibe from her. But then again, he’d barely been able to catch sight of her right after. So, maybe the girls were right and she was avoiding them.

  Except, he couldn’t think of a single reason why she would do that. He would have remembered if they’d met. And although the blue in her eyes did seem strangely familiar, he honestly couldn’t say they had. He sighed, leaning back in his seat, but thenLiakept talking.

  “And another thing…” She trails off as the others finally join them, Nina huffing as she puts her newest romance novel to the side and slumps into the seat beside him. Zach sits on the other side, leaning his guitar against the table carefully before turning to them with a curious gleam in his eyes.

  He ignores it. “And?” But it’s Nina who answers.

  “She doesn’t really talk to many people either.” A sigh. “And I know Math isn’t the best pce to do so. God knows I can barely understand it without the expnations, but she’s still seems a little too quiet for me.”

  “Yep,”Liaadds, “I didn’t see her talk much with people in English either.”

  “I’m confused,”Zachcuts in, “Who are talking about?”

  “Vicky,” They all say at once. Tyler’s eyes stray back to her table. She doesn’t seem so quiet right now. In fact, she’s smiling a lot while talking to those girls.

  “The girl Ty’s obsessed with?” The incredulity in his tone along with the words has Tyler turning to him with a gre. He points an accusing finger at him.

  “I am not obsessed.” Maybe a little. But he’d die if he admitted any such thing to Zach.

  He was shit at keeping secrets and he didn’t need the entire school finding out about it. It was also the reason why he sucked at espionage and ended up getting in trouble so often. Tyler had had many headaches from Zach bbbing their pns before they could put them into motion.

  “You kind of are,” Nina cuts in. “And don’t give me that look, you’ve been wandering the school like a creeper for a the st two days trying to find her. What exactly am I supposed to extrapote from that except your obsession?” It was actually the st four days, but he’s not about to correct her.

  From that gleam in her eyes, he knew she would take it the wrong way. And besides, he had decided to stop already. Even if it was mostly because he didn’t want to seem any crazier than he already was.

  “I just want to talk to her,” He says lightly, nose wrinkling in distaste. “I wouldn’t call that obsessive. And get that look off you face, this isn’t one of your romcoms.”

  “Killjoy,” she says in parody of what Lia said before. “That’s no fun. But,” she gets that grin on her face that Tyler does not trust at all, “If you were to decide you’re madly in love with her, I do have a few suggestions.”

  “Your suggestions are more likely to get him arrested,” Lia says accusingly, “I still haven’t been able to get the flowers out of my favourite jacket after the st pn you had.” She shudders dramatically, before turning to him again. “If you do happen to be that, remember not to listen to Nina and her pns.”

  Tyler has to cover his mouth to stop himself from ughing as Nina flips her off before taking a bite of the sandwich. He remembered the flower incident. Lia’s ex had made her mad, so Nina suggested he make a dramatic gesture to make up for it. A stupid idea really, but what else would you expect from a girl obsessed with romance.

  The flower rain they created took weeks to clean up, butLiadid forgive him afterwards. But they still broke up weeks ter because of unreted reasons. He could still remember the earfulLiahad given her after, and thankfully Nina hadn’t tried anything too dramatically after.

  “She’s too pretty for you anyway,” Zach suddenly says, also trying to hide a smile lest he get smacked for it.

  Pretty seemed an understatement, but he had more pressing questions. “How would you know?”

  Zachgrins. “I had Music with her just now. She’s very good at pying the piano.”

  “And you didn’t mention this before because?” He was a little annoyed it hadn’t come up in conversation before.

  The accused holds his hands up in mock surrender. “Hey. It’s not like I was trying to hide it or anything. She transferred in today. From the snippets I overheard, she decided Art wasn’t for her anymore.” Then he puts them down with an exaggerated sigh, “Besides we’re talking about you right now?”

  “What about me?” Somehow, he didn’t think he was going to like the next words that came out ofZach’smouth. They were undoubtedly going to be stupid. And sure enough, his premonition was correct.

  “That Vicky’s too pretty for you,” he shrugs. “So, you have no chance.”

  “What do you mean I have no chance?” Honestly, just when had he said he wanted to date her? All he wanted was to get to know her right now. But the asshole made it seem like it was an impossible action.

  “Well, obviously she’d never date you.” Zach was now at the top of the list of people he wanted to punch. And the way the idiot grinned at him as he kept talking only made his annoyance build. “You have like zero retionship experience.”

  What the actual fuck? “That’s only because I’m too busy stopping you from nding your ass in detention or worse killed,” he tells him, then shoots him an irritated gre. “Besides, it’s not like you do. You’ve only had a few retionships and they broke up with you remember?”

  Honestly I don’t bme the girls for breaking up with him with his tendency to run his mouth. What’s even worse is that a lot of the time, he doesn’t evenrealisehe’s said something wrong. Of course, that only sts until Nina learns of it and smacks him for it, but by then it’s too te.

  Zach shrugs. “Still, I have some experience. You don’t have any.” The singsong in the st sentence grates on his nerves.

  “I think that’s a lot better than what your has ended up as. And I could definitely get a date with her if I wanted to.”

  “I bet you couldn’t,” he says emphatically, “Even if you had until of the end of the year, it would be impossible.”

  Tyler’s eyes narrow, ears ringing a little from the force of his annoyance. “I bet I could do it within a month.”

  “Are you willing to shake on it?” The words are a clear challenge, and he’s not one to back down from it.

  “Of course,” he says quickly, shaking the proffered hand.

  “Well,” Lia says right after, “That escated quickly.” Nina’s buried her head in her arms, body shaking with silent ughter.

  Zach grins at him, looking over his shoulder. “When you lose, you’re getting me a new py station.”

  “It won’t happen, but fine. When you lose,” he says, “You’re going to have to finally give me back all the games you stole from me.”

  “I didn’t steal them, I borrowed them,” the shameless man he unfortunately call a friend says, “but alright.”

  And so it’s settled. The rest of lunch passes without incident, conversation drifting to other areas. When it’s almost over, herealiseshe could go up and talk to her again, but she’s not there anymore. Having had enough of being teased for the day, he does something he almost never does and actually gets to css early.

  But as the day progresses, something starts bugging at him. It tugs at the recesses of his memory, a feeling that something’s wrong. He tries to figure out what it is and only barely hear what his teachers are saying. However, he still can’t put his finger on it.

  It’s only when he gets home that herealiseswhat it was. And it makes him fall face first onto his bed with a groan. No wonder Nina was ughing so much. They had basically reenacted a trope from her books. Agh. He doesn’t want to think about it, it’s so embarrassing.

  Granted, this one was more Zach making fun of him and not mean spirited like some of them are, but it dawns on him that it was a very fucking stupid idea. Tyler decides he’s going to bmeZachfor this one, but he feels like adumbassfor going along with it. Did his stupidity screw up his brain cells?

  Where was the common sense voice when he needed it? He could have used it before he’d gotten caught up in the moment and agreed. There was no backing out now or else he’d have to forfeit and cough up money for a py station. He grits his teeth, but the embarrassment catches up with him and he has to try very hard not bang his head on the wall.

  Alright, he decides as he walks into school after the weekend. There’s no point worrying over spilled milk, he’ll just have to prove Zach wrong. And if he were being honest, Tyler noted as he sees her from a distant, the idea isn’t really unappealing.

  Far from it. If he were as sappy as Nina, which he wasn’t, he’d even say he was looking forward to it. He had wanted to get to know her better and he liked her when they had me. She seemed fun.

  So when he saw her talking to Brooke and Ally at the start of lunch, he didn’t hesitate before walking towards her. He wasn’t about to waste the opportunity this time. A smile pulled up his lips subconsciously as she turned towards him as soon as he was near.

  Here goes nothing.