LOGINTyler“You don’t get to screw this one up, Tyler.” Sadie paused. “This is a second chance.”I stilled.My eyes staying on Sadie as she looked back down at the worksheet like she’d only commented on the weather.But there was no point asking what she meant. Or how she could say those words so easily.I already knew.“You think so?” I asked instead.“Come on.” She rolled her eyes. “You’re way past this stage already.”I just let out a low scoff and turned away.But when I looked up again, the lunch bell echoed, and half the class were on their feet, walking towards the door.My eyes found Sydney weaving through the crowd toward the door.The tension had left her shoulders. But something had taken its place.This deep scowl, like the one she’d worn the first day I’d confronted her about Dean.Anger.Mixed with something else.Something I couldn’t quite figure out before she disappeared into the crowd.My hand curled into a fist as I turned toward Dean.“Hey! You’re just going to leave me
Tyler I noticed it before first period that morning, but I told myself to give it time. Mom’s words and Coach’s were still doing a number in my head, and I still couldn’t shake the look Mom had given me before I left the house that morning. Like she was giving me one last chance to come clean about Sydney. Maybe tell her about the stupid text I’d sent. The one I’d regretted almost immediately. “Fuck,” I’d muttered into my empty room, realizing how I might have made it worse by sending something so short. But in that moment, that was all my brain could come up with, still stuck on the way she’d looked at me when she asked that question. “What are you afraid of?” I swear I’d wanted to answer. Tell her the truth. Make her understand. And maybe that’s why I’d sent the first thing that came to my mind. But she never replied. I’d checked my phone like every ten seconds for almost three hours before finally giving up and accepting that I’d managed to screw things up
SydneyThe tightness in my chest eased.Just a little.“Thank you.” I muttered.But Maeve studied me for a second. “You know you’re still going to have to talk to him somehow.” I just shrugged, shifting my eyes to my food. “I don’t know.” “Eventually.” She added. Then glanced over my shoulder and scoffed. “God…he looks so oblivious.” “Right?” I asked before I could stop myself, pushing back that look on his face in the hallway.Right before I shoved his hands off me.“Maybe…” Maeve forked a piece into her mouth. “...you should actually let him explain.” “No,” the word came too fast. “He’ll probably just deny everything and keep leading me on.” “What if he doesn’t?” Maeve asked, waiting for me to catch the small frown on her face. “You’ll never know if you don’t talk to him. And you’ll just keep hurting yourself, Sydney.”My lower lip trembled.“I really hate seeing you like this.” Her voice softened. “And ignoring him isn’t going to help, Sydney.”Her words lodged somewhere in my
SydneyThe cafeteria was noisy as usual when we got there. Even looking slightly more crowded than normal. Or maybe it just felt that way because of how hard I’d gripped my tray so hard as we walked to a table while all those people just stared.When all I wanted was to be alone and clear my head or something. Because somehow, despite everything I’d told Maeve that morning, I’d somehow ended up angry all over again because of Tyler.Or Dean.Both.And I hated it.I wasn’t even trying to defend Tyler. It just came out because Dean wouldn’t shut the hell up about him and I already knew Tyler had been staring.Because that’s all he ever does.Stare.Give me mixed signals and then make me feel some kind of way when I try to hold myself back.“Are you okay?” His voice replayed in my head.In the midst of our classmates trying to get to class, his voice calm in that way that would have made the butterflies in my stomach flutter around.But this time…they didn’t even dare show up.Because
Sydney“Alright,” Dean said, rubbing his palms together as he dropped onto a lab stool beside me. And I slid off mine, keeping a safe distance as Mr Hayes finished reading out the pairs.Dean scoffed. “Scared?”“Well,” I tucked my hair behind my ear without looking at him. “Only one of us clearly knows what we’re doing. And I’m not going to sit down doing it.”“Fair.”I just kept my eyes on the tray in front of us—three small bottles and plastic droppers, mentally counting the time till this day was over and I could be in the safety of my room.And away from the one person every part of me kept screaming I had to yell at…Or forgive.“Alright,” Mr Hayes’ voice echoed through the lab again. “You may begin.”I immediately pushed the worksheet towards Dean.“You read. I’ll do the practical.”He picked it up without much hesitation. “Rodger that, fatty.”I just rolled my eyes, took a steadying breath, and reached for the first dropper.“Place one drop of the patient’s sample into each re
SydneyThe first two classes went exactly the way they normally did.And somehow, I managed to convince myself that staying quiet was the only way I’d survive, basically the rest of the week.So, just like yesterday, I kept my head down. Tried to tune out every other voice and focus on the teachers’.Mentally repeating my plan over and over: Stay away from everyone and just get through the day.Don’t think about Tyler Sinclair. And definitely not Brooklyn’s words.And honestly…it worked. For the first two periods. Then…the bell for biology echoed through my bones.“Don’t forget your upcoming test! Read the entire term!” The teacher’s voice called over the loud scraping of chairs, conversations, and the usual groans as everyone made for the biology laboratory.I shut my book when half the class had moved out and stood, my eyes catching the time. “Shit,” I muttered. “Mr Hayes.” I grabbed my biology textbook and hurried toward the door.Then I stopped.Tyler was standing a few feet a
Tyler“Your dad won’t be able to make it tonight.” Mom said that morning, a glass of wine balanced between her fingers. “He had an emer—”“Emergency at work.” I finished for her. “Cargo problem. Has to be in Miami by midnight. The world ends if he isn’t there.”“Tyler.”I looked at her for the firs
Tyler “Sydney Walker,” I’d repeated all day in my head. And the moment Brooklyn yelled my name, running toward me on the basketball court, and I found out that that curvy genius she hadn’t stopped blabbing about all week was her sister— Everything shifted. I swear I’m not a bully. I’ve neve
“Okay, rule number one,” Maeve said over the noise in the cafeteria. “Don’t challenge Tyler Sinclair in algebra.” I tried my best not to look around. "Why? He was wrong.” Maeve picked up a food tray and stopped in front of me. "I'm not blind, Sydney. And no one else in that class was. We all saw
Sydney Being Sydney Walker had never been easy. Not when I was little. Not now, as you’re reading this. At first, I was just that antisocial, nerdy girl who never put up her hand in class even when she knew an answer, who never looked anyone in the eye in the hallway, the girl who ran home the s







