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“You know what I think?” he murmurs, drawing so close his mouth skims my ear, his cruel face blurring in my vision. My breath catches. Goose bumps rise over my bare skin. “I think you’re obsessed with me, Sadie Wen.”
Rodger that ;)
“What’s so funny?” Abigail yells after them, because she’s never been afraid of confrontation. “Your new bangs?”
Queennnnnn
I hate needing anything from anyone.
Real
“Can you stop that?” I snap, whipping my head around.
YESSSS you tell em, like who is you
as if I’m the source of the banana smell.
HAAAhhahahahhaaha
Most of the time it seemed to me that I was only pretending to be smart, like an actor who has to play a neurosurgeon. What mattered was convincing other people I was intelligent.
…
It was one of the most satisfying moments of my life.
Gurllllll
“Nothing. I’ve just . . . never seen you with your hair down before.”
Awwwww
as you have already observed in the past.
HHAHAAAHAAHAAHH KING
“Why are you massaging the wall?”
Nahhhhhh
I haven’t had the chance to do something so ridiculous in a while, to behave like a child.
My shala
but his eyes fall on my face first, and he glimpses something there that changes his demeanor at once. His gaze sharpens. His shoulders tense. “What is it, Sadie?” he asks again, but in a different way. Lower, more serious. Urgent.
“That handwriting is hideous,”
Clocked it
It’s giving me a headache, watching you run up and down the school,
We love a delusional king
I had sworn then that I wouldn’t cry, ever. I wouldn’t add to her sadness, wouldn’t drag her even further down. I would be the good daughter, the strong one, the one who kept everyone afloat.
“Well,” Julius says from behind me, “it’s a very uninspired choice of words. Such a basic pejorative denotes low intelligence.”
I canttttt
His entire left eye is swollen shut, the skin around it a vivid purplish-blue.
Yayyyy
Because beneath my apprehension is the stronger, deeply ingrained need to be liked. To be accepted. To be forgiven. To be recognized as good. I’ll do anything to redeem myself. The words on the bike shed flash through my mind again, and my chest contracts, like all the air has been sucked out of the room.
Fuckk them unemployed
of absorbing other people’s anger.
“I hope, um, you miss the train home and . . .”
Legend activity
“Oh, I know you. You’re the other captain, right? My little brother talks about you all the time.”
You say that again!?!?
brick-sized fantasy novels,
Give me 14 of them right now
“And he’s always going on about how intimidatingly smart you are. How hard he has to work to keep up with you.”
RODGER THATTTTTT COPER
“he got really sick last summer,
My shalaaa
luo song tang—”
Ima ceap that in mined
Ju‑zi?”
Huhhhh
herbal infusion tea that I thought people only pretended to like in theory to convince everyone else they’re on a health kick.
Realllllll
With a sigh, Julius pushes off his chair again.
Sit your as back down boy
I can’t think about anything except him.
lawyer,
job
data analyst.
Job
blue mascara
O la laaaa
“Okay, then . . . Do you like anyone?”
So goddamm predictable
“Who’s to say I wouldn’t know?”
Offf clocked itttt
“I really can’t stand it when people are angry at me. Like, I know it might be simple for others, but I can’t focus on anything else. I can’t just forget about it and go on with my own life. It’s like there’s something hard wedged inside my chest. I’ll always feel guilty. I’ll always want to make amends.”
I resist the urge to rip it into shreds. To hug it to my chest.
Because having one parent is enough. Until it isn’t.
“Okay, no, actually, I take it back—I’m not sorry. At all. About anything.”
You go girlllllll
“Be quiet.” I clamp both my hands over his mouth. “You’re prettier when you don’t talk.”
“Well, Julius Gong. It sounds like you’re the one obsessed with me.”
“Not as cold as you,”
Dammmm
“Because,” he says quietly, a curious expression on his face. I’ve never seen him so serious. So sincere. “You’re the only person worth paying attention to.”
Wow
I’m only meant to absorb what others feel, present the best side of myself, sit still and swallow my own emotions.
Except for now, this is my whole world. The people I sit next to in class, the faces I have to see at school every single day, the teachers who determine the grades that get sent to the university that determines the trajectory of the rest of my life.
“I never wanted you to have to grow up this fast.”
It’s like spending years of your life training for a game only to realize you understood the rules all wrong.
“On the—on the bus?” I repeat, blinking. “How did you . . . How is that even . . .” “I think I was sitting down,” she says. “And?” “And then I stood up,” she says somberly.
HHAAHAAHA
“Screw the others,” he says fiercely. The heat in his voice shocks me. Burns me to the core. “I don’t care about them. I only care about—”
“I’ll run it for you.”
Gentalmen behavior
Next to them, Julius moves with the calculated quiet of a predator.
