Getting Nolan to hear me out proved to be a near impossible task.

During classes, he stayed in deep slumber. He didn’t wake up for anything or anyone, leading me to wonder if he was merely putting on an act when Mr. Jameson hurled another textbook at him in English.

When classes ended, he was out of the room before I could get more than two words out.

Finally, we were in the last period of the day.

As usual, he was sitting beside me, his head resting face-down on his forearms.

“Nolan,” I tried whispering again, because class was going to end in ten minutes, and I still hadn’t gotten to talk to him yet. “Nolan, wake up.”

No response.

As I sat in my chair and stared at Mr. Peterson, who was gesticulating excitedly about a chemistry concept, I tried to think of how I could make him stay for long enough to hear what I had to say.

All I’d tried so far was talking to him. Maybe it was time to put my words into action.

Glancing back down at him, I mentally braced myself for what I was going to do once the lesson was over.

The moment Nolan pushed his chair back, I stood up. I’d packed before the bell rang, so my bag was already slung over my shoulder.

I was hot on his heels as he strode out of the classroom with big, sweeping steps.

“Hey, Nolan, I need to talk to you!” I called out, afraid to take my eyes off him for even a second.

He was an expert at slinking off and then vanishing from sight.

“Sorry, I’m busy,” he said without slowing down.

I narrowed my eyes. “What are you busy doing? Going back to your room to sleep?”

“Yes,” he said, still not looking my way.

The pain in my chest went on a rampage, wrenching and yanking at everything it could get its hands on. I wasn’t sure if he had ever once looked at me since the day after I’d discovered his secret.

“Then I’m sure you can spare five minutes,” I said hotly, sticking as closely to him as I could.

“I can’t, actually. See you.”

At his response, I gaped like a goldfish. He abruptly began walking faster than he already was—I had to break into a slight jog in order to keep up with him.

“Hey! It’s important! Are you ever going to stop avoiding me?” Apparently, I had gotten loud enough for other nearby students to shoot glances at us.

Nolan sped up some more. I didn’t know people could even walk that quickly … right, he wasn’t exactly normal.

His silence was as good as an answer.

I was not going to let him shake me off. I’d already prepared myself for what I was going to do if it came to this—I would just have to chase him down.

I dashed after him, and he began jogging. He was just so fast, and it didn’t seem like it was taking much out of him.

“Leave me alone,” he snapped, turning back for once to look at me.

Although he did that to glare at me, I was thankful all the same that he finally stopped behaving like I was invisible.

“Why are you running from me?” I snapped back. “You’d think I’m some kind of serial axe murderer!”

“Hey! No running in the hallways!” someone—probably a teacher—yelled, but then we turned a corner, and the rest of his shouting became mostly unintelligible.

“I don’t want to talk!”

“Why? At least give me a reason!” I was full-out sprinting now, and I’d never been more thankful that my stamina had increased so much over the past several months. “Nolan!”

“Quit shouting!” His voice was hushed and angry, but I simply rolled my eyes.

“Why? You act like you can’t hear me when I’m trying to talk to you normally, anyway!” I continued, undaunted by the looks other people were giving us. “You totally ignored me the whole of today!”

“Maybe I was doing that because I wanted you to leave me alone!” He wasn’t exactly doing a fantastic job of keeping his voice down, either.

“Yeah, but why? I just want to talk to you!”

We raced past classroom doors, hurtled down the stairs, and sprinted past several locker sections.

My lungs were burning, and my legs were aching. I was almost out of gas, but Nolan hadn’t broken a sweat yet.

We turned the last corner before the main building entrance. I noticed him picking up the pace even further. There was no way I could keep going like he obviously could. If I didn’t do something fast, he would leave me in the dust.

“At least hear what I have to say!” I yelled, and then I reached out and grabbed his arm with both hands.

My feet stuttered on the ground for the next few seconds as he inadvertently pulled me along, but Nolan soon slowed to a stop.

“What are you doing?!” He stared at my hands with wide eyes, which was the most reaction I’d gotten out of him all day.

“If you want to continue running, you’re going to have to drag me along!”

Despite not glancing around, I could sense eyes on me. Murmurs floated down the hallway, but my focus on Nolan made it difficult to make out any of them. We were probably causing a huge commotion in the foyer, and I absolutely didn’t care.

If this was what would get Nolan to slow down, then I’d take it.

“Are you insane? All of this, just to talk to me?!” he whispered, scowling hard at me.

“It’s not like I had a choice,” I said, returning his scowl with an equally fierce glower. “Up until five minutes ago, you were acting like I didn’t exist!”

“Then you should’ve taken the hint!”

The urge to pull at my hair was overwhelming. “What is wrong with you? We were fine just a few days ago, and now you’re treating me like I’m your enemy!”

“Because a few days ago you—” He drew a deep breath and peeled my fingers off his arm. “You want to talk, fine. As long as it gets you off my back.”

The words stung, but I stubbornly refused to let it show on my face. “Fine! If you still don’t want to talk to me after that, that’s fine by me too!”

If I was being honest, that wasn’t alright for me, but I couldn’t exactly force him to stay my friend.

“Fine,” he said stonily.

Without giving a second glance at our little audience comprised of captivated and nosy schoolmates, Nolan turned around and practically stomped down the hallway. I followed him, trying not to give too much thought to the giant upheaval in my stomach.

We walked and walked until he eventually led me up to the same staircase landing where I’d confronted him about entering the forest several months ago.

“What,” he said, crossing his arms and staring at me, “do you want?”

“What is your problem?” I blurted out, balling my hands into fists. “I thought we were friends, but you’re suddenly acting like you hate me!”

“Maybe the obvious conclusion to draw here is that I don’t want to be friends anymore! Have you thought about that?”

“Just because I found out that”—I lowered my voice—“you’re a vampire?”

He scoffed. “Just? So it’s no big deal to you? It didn’t look that way Thursday night.”

“Well, of course I was shocked,” I snapped. “Wouldn’t you be a little bit afraid if your friend turned out to be a vampire who could possibly eat you?”

“And yet you’ve chosen to be here alone with me. Great life choices, Chelsea,” he deadpanned. “Is this the part where I’m supposed to clap?”

I hated how cold his attitude was. “What is wrong with you? I’m here because I know that you wouldn’t do anything to me!”

“Was this all you wanted to talk about? I’m leaving if you’re done.”

“Wait! I’m not done yet.”

“Then what do you want? Get to the point.”

“Do you … do you drink human blood?” I whispered, glancing around to make sure that there was nobody in the vicinity, although we would’ve seen them if they approached.

“Why?” His facial expression didn’t change.

I gaped at him. “What do you mean by ‘why’? Don’t you think that’s an important question to ask?”

A wry smile made its way onto his face. “Did you think I would ever say yes either way?”

My stomach flipped. “What do you mean? Does that mean you do?”

“Does it matter? Look,” he said, putting a hand on his forehead as though he had a splitting headache, “just forget that I ever existed, okay? I’m working on being gone by next month. You don’t have to worry about seeing me around anymore.”

If I’d thought I was gaping earlier, that was nothing compared to my jaw dropping now. “Gone? Where are you going?”

“To another school.” He gave me a funny look, like I was the one saying something ridiculous. “I’m transferring.”

The ground underneath my feet felt like it was tilting. “What? Why?”

“You already know why.” Nolan sounded annoyed.

With my mind wiped blank, I scrambled for my next words. “But—but I haven’t told anyone! Why do you have to go?”

“And I really appreciate it,” he said with a flat stare. “Thank you. Now can you stop blocking the stairway?”

“But—you’re still leaving? Why? I haven’t told anyone!” My mouth was working like a broken record.

If he really transferred schools because I found out his secret, I’d never get to see him again.

“For now, right? If it ever slips out one day, I’d still have to leave.”

Head spinning, I grabbed onto the staircase railing nearest to me.

“But I won’t let it slip! I won’t tell anyone, so don’t go!”

The promise flew out from my mouth, which was running faster than my brain at this instant. Up until now, the idea of telling someone else had still been something I hadn’t completely ruled out.

Now that it was out, however, I realized that I really did mean it. Nolan had been keeping to himself the whole time in school, and actively avoiding interactions with others. I just couldn’t see him as a threat that needed to be reported.

“Don’t tell me you wouldn’t feel better if I left,” he said, ignoring what I’d just said. “Excuse me.”

Gently but firmly, he pushed my other arm, which was stretched out to prevent him from leaving, down and walked past me.

“I wouldn’t feel better! I’d feel horrible!” I cried, following him down the stairs. “Can’t you stay? You don’t need to go!”

“Yeah, I do.”

“But why? I already promised that I wouldn’t tell anyone, didn’t I?”

We reached the staircase landing for that floor. Scowling, Nolan came to a halt and didn’t go down the next flight of stairs. Instead, he turned back to me with an impassive expression.

“You know what? We’re no longer friends. Leave me alone.”

I knew I was going to sound desperate with my next words, but I didn’t care.

I had thought that I would have all the time in the world to talk to Nolan about all of this. Knowing that there was now a time limit on our interactions changed everything. I couldn’t imagine never seeing him again.

“But why? We were fine until I saw, you know, the thing!”

“I like you, okay?” He practically spat the sentence out, as if he hated saying every single bit of it. “I really, really like you. So if you ever thought of me as a friend, forget my existence, and leave me alone.”

What?

Did I really just hear that?

My whole body felt frozen in place.

I could barely move my mouth to speak, but he whirled around to continue walking, and I had to say something before he left.

Unable to take a step forward with my numb legs, I raised my arm instead to catch the corner of his hoodie before he was too far out of reach.

“But,” I said, feeling slightly faint, as he tilted his head back to glare at me, “what if I like you too?”

LotteStarburst

not exactly the ideal confession spot, but it is what it is, hah. tbh, i had originally planned (back in the vague story outlining days) for them to confess to each other in the forest, but in an atmosphere similar to this chapter's. but ah well, my characters were just too stubborn :I