Better Off

6

Two weeks later, my life has somewhat gone back to normal.

My parents still bug me about college. I make up with Saige, deciding to pretend that my outburst never happened. I move on with life the only way I know how to: by acting invisible. At this point, I've decided to just accept the fact that that's who I am. Like Saige said a few days ago, people never really change. You can't change who you are.

Right?

The only thing that hasn't gone back to normal is life with Thorne. Girls obsess over him in the halls. Boys more or less avoid him altogether, very obviously envious of all the attention he's been getting since starting back at Day View.

Something inside me has shifted. These days, I find that I don't just sit and keep to myself. I find my eyes unintentionally looking for the boy who likes to annoy me in chemistry, shifting over the seas of students until they spot him. I notice that my heart races uncontrollably when I'm around him. I feel strangely at ease in his presence.

I didn't mean for it to happen. I didn't mean for my eyes to train themselves to spot him in a crowd. I definitely didn't mean for my heart to race or to feel comfortable around him. And now that it's all happening, I find myself wishing that it would stop.

In this exact moment in time, I'm sitting in the cafeteria with Emmie and Saige by my side. It's raining out, so we can't sit at our usual place in the courtyard. Emmie's telling me and Saige a story that I don't bother listening to. Because my eyes have done that thing again, where they unintentionally find Thorne—a needle in a haystack.

There he is, across the room, leaning his back against the cinder-block wall as he talks to Asher Owens, Emmie's sort-of boyfriend. He looks good today, as usual. His dark hair sticks up in odd places, as it's evident he's been running his hands through it. He wears the same black hoodie he usually wears, paired with dark jeans and matching sneakers. Black is like his signature color, or something.

When my gaze lifts from his shoes and back to his face, I'm only half surprised to find that those startlingly green eyes of his are on mine. How many times has he caught me staring at him? Too many to count, I believe. The smirk on his lips tells me that he's thinking the same thing I am, and I can feel my cheeks turning red.

He must have the same problem I do. His eyes must unintentionally find themselves staring at me, too. That's the only way to explain the fact that Thorne Baxter is the only person in the world to spot me, the invisible girl, out of a crowd.

When he winks, I'm expecting it. What I'm not expecting, however, is for him to tilt his head toward the double doors of the cafeteria and gesture for me to follow him. Even more surprising: I find that I kind of want to go.

"I'll be right back," I mumble an excuse to Saige and Emmie. "I've gotta use the bathroom." I don't wait for a response. My feet are already on the move, leading me toward the boy that—for some reason—I haven't managed to get out of my head since the first moment I laid eyes on him.