Total pages in book: 215
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199344 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 997(@200wpm)___ 797(@250wpm)___ 664(@300wpm)
So why the hell do I still miss him so much?
He was beautiful. Breathtaking even. I’ve gone out of my way over the past few years not to look him up, not to delve into his world, but as his popularity grew, it’s almost been impossible not to know him from afar. Aunt Maya had told me how tall he’d gotten, how he’d filled out, those once boyish muscles now prominent and toned, but nothing could prepare me for seeing him in the flesh.
He was everything I always thought he’d become . . . physically at least. His dark hair was messy and too long, falling into his eyes, but it was always that way. Noah hated getting it cut; he always said it was a waste of time, but really he just hated how everyone would fawn over him and tell him how handsome he was.
I could see the defined ridges of his muscled pecs beneath his black shirt, and while I’ve never been that girl to go boy crazy and want what I can’t have, I wanted so desperately to reach out and touch him.
I can only imagine how that would have gone down.
This chisel-jawed version of Noah is a complete stranger to me. I don’t know him, and honestly, I’m too scared to try. All I know is that there’s a little boy buried deep inside of him—a little boy I once loved with all of my heart—screaming to get out.
Noah Ryan is stuck living in a hell he created for himself, pushing away anything that could possibly force him to feel, and for the first time in three years, I find myself questioning if I have it in me to save him.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I hear the rush of students outside the bathroom door and realize it’s probably time to pull myself together and get on with it. Tarni, Abby, and Cora should be here any minute, so if I don’t go and stop by my locker now, there’s a good chance I’ll be late for homeroom, and I’m not starting my junior year with detention.
Wiping my eyes, I check my reflection in the mirror, hating how red and puffy my face looks after spending the last twenty minutes bawling like some kind of pathetic loser. On the plus side, I need to make a shrine for my waterproof mascara. It held up beautifully.
Hoping to the Hemsworth gods that I can somehow get out of here unscathed, I raise my chin and push out into the packed halls. But the moment I settle into the crowd and head toward my locker, I realize just how foolish I was to hope for a miracle like that.
The halls are buzzing with the news of Noah’s transfer, and a heavy sense of dread sinks to the pit of my stomach. My gaze shifts through the corridor, constantly on guard, terrified of seeing him walk around the corner and pretending I don’t exist.
Reaching my locker unscathed, I let out a breath of relief, and my hands shake as I program my code. 0228. My birthday. It’s barely even eight-thirty in the morning, and I feel as though I’ve lived a whole lifetime in the past half hour.
Diving into the empty locker, I toss in my things before finding my class schedule and double-checking where I need to be for homeroom, unable to escape the constant chatter about the amazing Noah Ryan coming from behind me. Getting what I need for my morning classes, I close my locker just in time to hear my best friend’s voice rising over the hum of the crowd. “Well heyyyyy biiiiitch,” she hollers, Abby and Cora at her back, gossiping animatedly and barely sparing a second to glance up.
I plaster a smile across my face when Tarni flies into me, and as her arms wrap around me, her momentum pushes us both against my locker. “Where the hell have you been all morning? I’ve texted you like four hundred times. I was gonna grab you a coffee, but then it was like you fell off the face of the earth, so I didn’t bother.”
“Ah, shit, sorry,” I say with a cringe, slipping my phone out of my pocket to find an array of texts, most of them are from Tarni, but two are from Mom telling me she loves me, and one is from Aunt Maya checking in to make sure I made it through my morning alive. “Thanks anyway. I’ve been a little caught up this morning. I haven’t had a chance to check my phone until now.”
Tarni scoffs and settles against the lockers, her gaze shifting over the crowd as Abby and Cora creep in to say hello, hovering in front of us. “What were you doing anyway?” Tarni questions. “And don’t even think about telling me you were studying because classes haven’t even started yet, and I know that’s not true.”