“After befriending Blue, my recovery—sort of, anyway—sped up a lot. Soon, my therapist determined that I was probably ready to tackle school life again. He said that I needed more social interaction than I had been currently getting, and that spending too long away from other peers my age could cause me to become even more reclusive than I already was.

“My father agreed, too, since I’d mostly stopped freaking out about the changes in my body. Within a few weeks, I was officially transferred to Fairwood as a student who was completely unrelated to him. I have my nonexistent stepfather’s name on my student documents and all that.

“He basically allowed me to skip gym since he knew that I couldn’t be under the sun anymore. He also understood that I had trouble staying awake during the day, so we had a simple agreement between us: for as long as I kept my grades up, I could go ahead and sleep in every class.

“All the studying I did during that gap year I took paid off. I had no trouble keeping up with the classwork for a while, especially on the topics my tutor had already covered with me. I kept reading ahead, too.”

So he was technically ahead of the rest of the class when he returned to school. Well, that was another mystery solved—at that time, it was bizarre to me how he managed to keep his grades up while visibly not paying any attention in lessons.

“I totally thought you were a genius,” I said. “I was actually jealous of you, you know.”

“Jealous?” There was a tinge of slight confusion in his tone. “I thought your grades were good too.”

“Yeah, but I have to work for them. I thought you didn’t have to, since, you know, you were always asleep in every class.”

Nolan grinned. “I get what you mean. This must be news to you, but I had to work for it too. And anyway, it’s not like I really had quality sleep in class. Teachers were always furious that I had the audacity to nap while they were talking.”

“But they got used to it after a while,” I pointed out.

His grin turned sardonic. “Yeah, after several months. In the meantime, I had no peace during my naps.”

“I mean, I can’t blame them,” I said, making a face. “They’re just doing their jobs.”

“Yeah, I know. They don’t really know anything about me. I try to keep a low profile, anyway, and try to be as unnoticeable as possible.”

I stared at him. “Oh. You’re pretty … noticeable as far as that goes, though. Apart from the teachers, obviously.”

He frowned. “I am?”

“Well … You know that you’re fairly well known, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“Um,” I said. “You’re quite famous as the guy who’s always asleep in classes. I think most of the people in our grade know your name.”

His frown deepened. “Are you serious?”

Cue my confusion. “Wait, do you not know?”

“Know what?”

“That everyone knows who you are?”

“Why would they?”

“You’re the only one who can sleep in class without landing detention.” I shrugged. “Unless it’s Mr. Jameson’s class, that is. All the teachers have given up on trying to make you stay awake. You have to admit that it kind of makes you special and very noticeable among the students.”

“Oh.”

“You’re also famous as the guy who doesn’t talk to anyone,” I added. “Well, you were, anyway, before you started talking to me.”

He was just staring at me in disbelief now, and I felt the corners of my lips twitch upward.

“I guess you didn’t know that.”

“I really didn’t.” He paused again. “But famous? Really?”

“But hey, it’s okay! You’re not alone.” I patted him on the shoulder. “I’m almost sort of famous in school too, you know!”

“You are?” He shot me another bemused stare. “What are you famous for?”

I laughed. “Yeah, people recognize me as the girl who wakes you up. You know, because I sit beside you all the time.”

He coughed. “I feel like I should be apologizing for that.”

Grinning, I waved airily at him. “And I totally would’ve demanded one from you back then. Waking you up was such a pain! But if I hadn’t been widely acknowledged as your alarm clock, I wouldn’t have been sent to find you when you skipped gym to sleep in the darkroom, and we wouldn’t be here now.”

He gave me a reluctant smile. “I guess it all worked out, huh?”

“Definitely.” I put my head on his shoulder, and he turned to kiss the top of my head. “Hey, do you remember when I said hi to you the day after I shined the flashlight in your eyes?”

“I could never forget; I was really annoyed at you,” he said with a soft laugh.

“You asked me who I was. Be honest—did you genuinely not recognize my face at all until that day?”

His reply came after a few seconds. “Yeah, I don’t really bother remembering the faces of most of my schoolmates.”

Well, he really meant ‘all’ instead of ‘most’, but okay.

“I woke you up all the time, though,” I protested. “You glared at me every single time! How could you not remember?”

“Sure, my gaze might have landed on you, but I was still half-asleep. Do you know what’s on my mind whenever someone wakes me up during the day?”

“How to make them regret it?” I ventured.

Nolan snickered. “No, but good try. When people wake me up, the only thing I can think about is going back to sleep. That’s it. I’m not focusing on the person in front of me. I wasn’t really looking at you, if you know what I mean. Besides, after a series of naps, I tend to forget the details of what happened during the intervals anyway.”

“So, you don’t remember anything?”

“I was at least aware that someone—I hadn’t even paid enough attention to know if it was the same person or not—was waking me up almost every day in English. That’s hard to forget, especially when it’s accompanied by one of Mr. Jameson’s lectures.”

Raising an eyebrow, I said, “You just didn’t recall that it was me.”

“Yeah. When you spoke to me like I was supposed to know who you were, I got confused. Of course, it didn’t help that I was still disoriented from the day before,” he said pointedly.

I cleared my throat. “Okay, I get it! Anyway, that’s why you’re well known as the guy who sleeps all the time.”

“So much for trying to be inconspicuous,” he said, shaking his head.

“But haven’t you noticed people trying to talk to you sometimes?”

“I really don’t recall. I tend to ignore everyone regardless. Unless we’re working on a group project.”

“Oh, right, I don’t know why I asked that.”

He snorted. “I didn’t want to make friends, remember? I wanted to make as little an impression as I could on the people here. I stayed in my own room as much as possible. I mean, it’s not like I can go out in the sun anyway, so it all worked out.”

“What about the extra stuff that you can’t get in school? You know, like mints and stuff.”

“I can’t leave the school grounds during the day unless there’s no sun at all, so I normally tell my father whenever there’s something I need him to get for me.”

“Wait,” I said, realization dawning on me. “That book you got me for my birthday?”

One corner of his mouth lifted up as he nodded at me.

“No wonder you refused to tell me how you managed to get it on such short notice!” I hadn’t known about his father yet, so of course he couldn’t say anything.

“Looks like I ended up telling you anyway,” he said.

Abruptly, I was reminded of a question I’d wanted to ask a long time ago but never did, because I was sure Nolan wouldn’t answer me. I had a feeling he would be more open to answering it now.

“Hey, you know what you told me about your birthday?” I said. “About how no one celebrates your birthday? Doesn’t your father celebrate it with you? I mean, you’re in the same school and everything now, right?”

Although I had no idea what kind of person our principal was, I didn’t think he was someone who could be so cold to his own son.

“My father sent me money on my birthday every year after the divorce. He didn’t come over to spend time with me or pick me up for a dinner or anything like that. My mother simply handed me a gift every year, depending on how good my grades were. Actually, I’m surprised she even remembered. I don’t know when either of their birthdays are. We never celebrated theirs, and they never told me.”

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

Shrugging, he said, “I’ve grown up with it, so it’s all I’ve ever known. It’s no big deal. This carried on to when I enrolled in Fairwood—my father just hands me an envelope with money in it on my birthday. That’s all, but in a way, he acknowledges it. I’d rather he doesn’t give me anything, to be honest.”

His tone had dropped from neutral to despondent, and my chest constricted. I wanted to hold him forever and never let go.

“Why?”

“I don’t—I don’t like my birthday,” he said, looking away. “The fact that I was born on that day—I don’t like it. I don’t like being reminded.”

Using all the strength that I had, I wrapped my arms around him.

“Please don’t say that,” I whispered. “I like being reminded of you. It puts a smile on my face whenever I am. I’m so, so glad you were born.”

He turned to face me, his eyes locking on mine. They were so bright and so green under the moonlight. The silence of our surroundings somehow seemed to grow louder. As I held his gaze, the world around us seemed to fall away. I couldn’t register anything but his presence right here in front of me.

“I love your blue eyes. I feel like you’re the only one who can really see me.” His words were so quiet they were barely audible, but I caught a hint of his minty breath skating lightly across my mouth. “I love you.”

His eyes flitted a little further down my face, and my heart skipped five beats.

Nolan leaned in, cupped my cheek with one hand, and kissed me.

The rush of blood through my ears was almost deafening. Returning his kiss, I reached up to put my arms around the back of his neck and pull him closer to me.

Slowly, his hand slid to the back of my head. His thumb lingered on the shell of my ear, the touch warm despite the coldness of the night, and I shivered. Tingles danced across my skin wherever his skin had just been in contact. Fireworks exploded in my chest when he tilted his head to the side and angled his mouth more comfortably against mine.

His lips didn’t taste like anything in particular, but at the same time, this kiss was the sweetest thing I’d ever tasted. My heart, on a thumping rampage, just about broke free from my ribcage.

When he pulled back, he brushed aside some of my fringe that had fallen into my eyes with a finger. The gentle look in his eyes was so affectionate, the warmth in my cheeks grew even deeper.

“It’s a good thing I’m sitting down,” I mumbled. “My knees are jelly now.”

His mouth curved up into an endearing grin as he let out a laugh. “Don’t worry, I’d catch you if you were standing.”

The words just slipped out. I hadn’t been thinking of saying them, but they rolled right off my tongue and out of my mouth: “I love you.”

Nolan blinked.

Shocked by myself, I gaped back at him.

Somehow, that seemed like a huge thing to say.

Love was a big step up from like.

Did I really know what love was? Did I really know what it meant to be in love? I couldn’t speak for Nolan, but I wasn’t sure if I knew for a fact what exactly romantic love was.

“I wasn’t really expecting you to say it back,” he said. “I just wanted to tell you how I felt.”

The longer I sat there, however, the greater my certainty grew in me that I meant it, at least in how I felt towards Nolan. I thought about him all the time, and I always wanted to spend time with him. Almost everything he did made me want to smile, and his little idiosyncrasies—such as rubbing his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie every time he woke up from a nap—that I’d been noticing more of lately were adorable to me.

This was the first time I had never felt this way about anyone.

“Actually, I think I do,” I said earnestly. “I think I love you.”

“I know I love you,” he said, offering me a soft smile. “I’ve never shared the details of what Eri did to me to anybody before, and I was never comfortable enough to until you came into my life. You now know more about me than anyone else does, including my father.”

After hearing all that he’d been through, I completely understood why he would’ve found it difficult to tell someone else. I probably would have found it impossible.

Shyly, I smiled back at him. “Thank you for trusting me. I know it must have been hard for you to share all that with me.”

Nolan took my hand and laced his fingers through mine. “No, not really, because you made it easy. Thank you for listening.”

LotteStarburst

thank you for reading! i'm actually amazed that my story has accumulated 6k 4k reads considering that this genre isn't super popular on scribblehub. thank you so much for your support! take care and stay hydrated, everyone! <3