“What?” he said.
The irritation on his face faded into confusion.
“I like you too,” I repeated, barely hearing my own words over the rush of blood in my ears. “Please don’t go.”
Nolan actually said that he liked me.
He liked me!
I wanted to squeal and do a little victory dance right there on the staircase landing.
“What are you—You know what I am, and you still—What?” It was his turn to stare at me.
“I liked you before I knew you were, you know,” I said defensively. “It’s not like I can just switch off my feelings on command!”
His reaction was discouraging, because I’d kind of been hoping that he’d sweep me up in his arms and tell me that he’d changed his mind about leaving. At least he had stopped trying to stomp past me.
Nolan had finally turned his whole body to face me, and his eyes were intently studying my face. With how hard it was pounding, my heart was going to leap right out of my mouth and fall to the floor, I was sure of it.
“Aren’t you disgusted that I like you?” he said, making my jaw drop again.
“No?” I frowned in disbelief. “Of course not? I literally just told you that I like you! I’m happy that you like me.”
“But I’m—Aren’t you afraid of me?”
Fighting back a groan, I said, “I told you before, didn’t I? I’m here because I know you wouldn’t hurt me. You could’ve attacked me and gotten away with it during all the times we were in the forest with no one else around, but you didn’t. I never once thought I was in danger when I was around you. I trust you.”
As he kept his steady gaze on me, the silence between us stretched on into minutes.
Eventually, the restlessness got to me, and I shifted my weight from my leg to the other one.
“So, um, are you going to say anything?” I said, hugging myself.
“I don’t know what to say,” he said.
I tried making puppy dog eyes at him. They no longer worked on Ashley, but hopefully Nolan wasn’t immune to them.
“Say that you won’t transfer schools anymore. Please?”
Hesitantly, he said, “Do you really like me?”
“What kind of question is that?” I gave him the most unimpressed glare that I could muster. “Yes. What would I gain from lying about something like that?”
“Good point,” he said. “Do you really want me to stay, though?”
What was with all the doubt?!
“Do you seriously think I chased you down because I didn’t care whether you stayed or not? Of course I want you to stay! I literally just begged you to, like, five minutes ago!”
He made a shushing motion with his finger. “Okay, I get it. Keep it down, otherwise someone’s going to hear us.”
“It’s not like any of what I said actually made it into your ears when I was whispering just now, anyway,” I said, crossing my arms.
“Okay,” he said, looking down at the ground. “Okay. I’ll stay.”
Tears of relief instantly sprang to my eyes, and the urge to hug him surged through me.
I didn’t bother resisting it—I basically launched myself at him and flung my arms around him. At first, Nolan tensed slightly at the contact, but then he slowly wrapped his arms around me too.
He was hugging me back. He was actually hugging me back! The shock and happiness were almost overwhelming enough to make me forget what I wanted to say. Almost.
“No more transferring? You promise?” My words sounded muffled through the fabric of his shirt.
“No more transferring. Promise,” he said.
“I’m so glad!” I cried, albeit quietly so that we wouldn’t draw attention. “I’m glad. I don’t know what I’d have done if you really left.”
He simply pulled me closer to him.
Being held in Nolan’s arms was so comforting. All my previous worries and fears faded away in the face of how secure and safe I felt. He was so comfortable to lean into, it was like I was hugging a sturdy stuffed toy that could hug me back.
Basking in total bliss, I sighed happily.
I could stay in this position forever.
Suddenly, the realization of what I’d just done hit me like a lightning strike. I promptly released my hold on him and drew back.
“I-I didn’t mean anything by hugging you!” I said, flailing as I tried to pull back from him. “I-I was just relieved that you’re not transferring anymore!”
Instead of letting me go, he held on tight and laughed.
“It’s okay,” he said, sending me a soft smile. “You don’t need an excuse to hug me. I like you too, remember?”
My face burned with heat. Hearing him say that the first time was a total shock, but now, without the fear and anxiety from earlier to distract me, the embarrassment was really kicking in.
“R-right ….”
His smile twisted into a teasing smirk. “Why are you blushing? You weren’t shy when you were running after me earlier in the front of the whole school.”
“That’s different,” I said sternly, finding myself staring at his chin. “I was just trying to confront my friend who was acting weird.”
“Thank you, Chelsea.” His voice took on a more solemn tone. “I don’t know if you’ll regret it in the future, but … thank you for asking me to stay.”
“Why would I regret it? I’d regret it if I didn’t at least try,” I said.
Shrugging, Nolan used a finger to brush aside a stray lock of hair that had fallen onto my face. “I’m sorry I was so abrasive. I was trying to make you hate me so that you’d let me go.”
At his gentle touch, I practically melted into a puddle in his arms. “I’m starting to realize that now. Too bad you failed, huh?”
“Yeah, I forgot how persistent you are.” He finally let go of me and took a small step back. “I have to go now, get my father to cancel the paperwork. I’ll see you tomorrow? We can talk more then.”
“Oh.” Knowing now what I did, I shouldn’t have been disappointed that I wouldn’t see him at dinner, but I was anyway. I mean, he could still sit with us even if he couldn’t eat, right? We didn’t get to spend much time together outside of classes otherwise. “Oh, yeah. See you tomorrow.”
Instead of turning around to leave, Nolan gazed at me like the answers to our next math test were written on my face.
“W-what?” I asked.
“Or do you want to meet tonight?” he said. “I need to take a nap after I talk to my father, so I can only hang out after that. Sorry.”
Wait, was my disappointment that obvious?
My cheeks warmed up again.
At the thought of getting to see him later instead of having to wait until tomorrow, my pulse began racing. I couldn’t wait.
“Sure,” I said. “That’d be nice. What time were you thinking of?”
“Maybe eight. Will you be done with dinner by then?”
“Yeah, definitely, but isn’t it too early for you? Don’t we usually meet after twelve or one?”
He shot me a small but amused grin. “Yeah, but that’s because we were sneaking out into the forest. If we’re just hanging out in school, then we should do it before curfew. I don’t think you’ll want to stay up that late when tomorrow is a weekday, right?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” I admitted. “But if you’re usually awake around that time, why haven’t we hung out after dinner before?”
“I need to catch up on my schoolwork. It’s my studying time,” Nolan said, shrugging. “If you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly pay attention when I’m in class.”
“Oh, right. How does your sleep cycle work, actually? Do you have to sleep in the day? Is that why you’re always asleep?”
Fishing his phone out of his pocket, he glanced down at the screen. “Yeah. I’ll share more about this later because I really should get going. Eight, okay? I’ll text you.”
“Okay,” I said. “I should go, too.”
He began walking down the stairs, and I followed after him.
Since we were supposed to study together today, Ashley was probably wondering where I was.
I pulled my phone out from my bag to check my notifications. There were a couple of texts from her, but she hadn’t started spamming me yet. Immediately, I started typing out a reply.
“Also, for the record, I’ve never drunk human blood,” Nolan said, casting a sidelong glance at me. “That question was seriously insulting. Animal blood is disgusting enough.”
I had almost forgotten I had asked that question. Despite that, an immense wave of relief crashed over me upon hearing his late answer. At least I wasn’t crushing on some murderer.
“Oh. That’s good,” I said. “I didn’t know. You could’ve just said that.”
He shrugged. “I just wanted you to leave me alone. I didn’t want to waste time discussing the details of my life. I figured I’d be out of here soon, so it wouldn’t matter anyway.”
I winced. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I just wanted to make sure.”
He shrugged again. “I know. I don’t really blame you for asking. If it were me, I’d probably want to know too.”
When we finally reached the bottom of the stairs, I glanced up at Nolan and gave him a tiny wave.
For some reason, I was too embarrassed to make eye contact, so I settled for staring at his nose. “I’ll … see you later, I guess.”
“Yeah. Remember to check your texts,” he said.
Confused by the obvious amusement in his voice, I forced myself to really look at his face. He was wearing a half-smile as he gazed at me.
“What’s so funny?”
“You are,” he said.
“Excuse you—” I started, but he cut me off.
“You’re cute when you’re being this shy. Alright, I’ll see you later.”
I opened my mouth, but the only sounds that came out were choking noises.
Leaving me to gape at him like a goldfish as my brain short-circuited, Nolan turned around and sauntered off.
This is straight up adorbs. Now it's gonna be a game of if they'll tell people or keep it seceret
Ahahahha, yes! Nolan, my boy, you did good. Tease her more!