Page 11 of The Boy

This isn’t how I expected my day would go. As it turns out, it’s about to get worse.

I don’t have any appetite for lunch, so I decide to grab coffee and a croissant instead. The chill in the air bites at my skin as I stand frozen on the sidewalk across from my favorite cafe.

Jordan sits at a table by the window, but he’s not alone.

He’s with someone who looks my age, but the similarity stops there. This girl is beautiful, sexy, and confident—all the things I’m not, all the things I’ll never be. She looks so at ease with him, like they’ve known each other for years. She fixes her short red bob in the reflection and leans in as she laughs at something he said.

He’s laughing too. That loud, unguarded laugh I know so well.

A strange mix of hurt, betrayal, and disbelief swirls within me. I can’t move. I can’t even walk away. The wind whips at my face, and I finally blink. I run away before either of them can see me.

I rush back to the campus and bump into a guy in the hallway. “Oh, sorry,” I mumble.

I look up and see Toby. He stares at my face, my tears falling freely now. With a scowl, he guides me to the nearest empty classroom. “Hey, you okay? Should I call Jordan?”

“No!”

His face hardens. “Did he do something to you? Did he hurt you in any way?”

He already saw me crying, so what the hell. The words tumble out of me before I even realize. “I saw him with someone.”

His forehead creases. “Where? What were they doing?”

“At a coffee shop. She’s hanging on to his arm, laughing.”

“And him?”

Remembering what Jordan looked like brings fresh tears to my eyes. “He looked at her lovingly, also laughing.”

Toby scratches the back of his neck, doubt and confusion lining his forehead. “And you’re sure this is Jordan?”

“I’m not blind.”

He opens his mouth, then closes it, and opens it again. “I’m not saying you are. It’s just that … he’s been obsessed with you since the semester started. You know, that first day in class when you both responded to his name. He charmed Mrs. Kim from the admin office so he could access the student files, and he printed your photo off it. He’s been keeping it in his wallet. Which I wasn’t on board with.”

“What?”

Toby smiles softly. “Creepy, right? I’ve known him for twelve years, and he’s never done that. Every time you said no to him, he would come home dejected. It was hella weird seeing him like that.”

I want to feel happy at this revelation, but I can’t. I’ve seen Jordan with my own eyes. That doesn’t explain any of this. “So why? Why would he do that?”

Toby pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. “I don’t know. Listen, tell me what the girl looks like.”

Just like that, my gut clenches. “She’s beautiful, and they look like the perfect match.”

“Don’t say that.”

“I-I have to go. Thank you for whatever this is.”

“Jordyn… Talk to him, at least.”

“I will.”

For the record, I hate confrontations. I hate talking to someone when I’m still marinating in anger. I feel like if I open my mouth when I’m still seething, I will end up saying things I’m going to regret later.

This is going to suck; I just know it. The day will most likely end with me bawling my eyes out in bed and stuffing my face with ice cream and chips.

My palms are sweaty, and my jaw is clenched. The irrational part of my brain tells me to stop while I still have a chance and go home and sleep it off. The rational part screams at me to get this over with.

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