Chapter 54 TYLER
God, I had never wanted to kiss a girl this badly.
And it wasn’t just any girl. It was Harper. The one girl who could drag me out of my own head without even trying. The girl who’d somehow become the only place my brain went when it needed to breathe.
Just one smile from her and every shitty thing in my life shut up for a second.
Yeah. I wanted to know what her lips tasted like.
But I wasn’t stupid.
I wasn’t about to do something that would blow up whatever fragile, ridiculous, unexpected friendship we’d built. If that meant strangling whatever insanity was going on in my chest, then fine. I’d deal with it.
We’d managed to outrun Coach Turner, but Harper was right—nineteen students disappearing wasn’t exactly subtle. Now the entire group was slumped in the school’s waiting room, waiting for the principal to come decide our fate.
I glanced at Harper. She wasn’t smiling anymore, and her leg kept bouncing like she was trying to drill into the floor.
I reached over and put my hand on her knee.
She flinched slightly, then looked up at me with those startled wide eyes.
“My mom is going to kill me, Tyler.”
“She’ll forgive you,” I said.
“No, she won’t.” Her voice pitched up just enough to make me grin. “She’s always busy with work, but if she found out I ditched class? She’d call me non-stop, lecture me over video, and make me write a full report on why I thought skipping was a good idea.”
I tried. I really did. But a laugh escaped before I could stop it.
She glared. “It’s not funny.”
“It is.” I squeezed her knee gently. “But only because you get all flustered when you panic.”
Her cheeks heated, and she looked down for a moment, biting her lip.
Damn it. That tiny gesture alone had my mind venturing into places it definitely shouldn't.
Before I could say anything else, Peter slumped into the seat on my other side with a dramatic groan.
“We’re doomed,” he announced. “Turner’s already pacing the hall like a rabid goat. He’s practicing his speech. I heard him. He said—and I quote— ‘unacceptable display of insolence.’ Insolence, Ty.”
Harper winced.
I grinned. “We’ll survive.”
“Sure,” Peter muttered. “You will. You’re the school’s golden boy afterall. Me? I’m getting expelled.”
“You tripped the fire alarm last week,” I said, raising an eyebrow. “Kind of makes this look tame in comparison.”
Peter groaned dramatically. “It was just one time!”
“One time that caused half the school to evacuate and Turner to nearly lose his mind,” Harper muttered, trying not to laugh.
Peter shot her a mock glare. “I trusted you."
She tried to stifle her giggles, failing miserably. Hell, the sound was so cute it should’ve been illegal.
I shook my head, trying not to get distracted. “You guys seriously freak out over the smallest stuff.”
Before Peter could argue, the door creaked open. Principal Kade appeared, arms crossed, posture stiff enough to snap in half. He surveyed the nineteen of us like we were a pack of feral raccoons who’d escaped a dumpster.
“Inside. Now.”
We filed into his office like we were heading to trial.
Harper’s shoulder brushed mine. She immediately shifted away like she’d been caught doing something wrong.
I shouldn’t have found that adorable, but too late.
Harper, I and Peter claimed the three seats in front of the principal while the others shared the benches that had been moved in.
Kade sat, folding his hands on the desk. “So. You skipped classes.”
No one breathed.
Racquel flipped her hair. “Sir, to be fair—”
“Don’t,” Kade said without looking at her.
She sank back down.
Harper pressed her lips together in a tight, nervous line. Her fingers kept twisting in the hem of her skirt, as if she were tying invisible knots.
I nudged her foot lightly with mine.
She looked up at me.
I mouthed: Breathe.
Her shoulders loosened instantly.
When the meeting was over—thirty minutes of lecturing, two weeks’ detention, and a threat to call everyone’s parents—we stumbled back into the hallway like battered war survivors.
“That was…” Harper exhaled. “Terrifying.”
“You did good.”
“I sat still and tried not to cry.”
“Exactly.” I grinned. “That’s impressive for your first offense.”
She shoved me lightly. “Shut up.”
Peter caught up to us, already pulling out his phone. “Alright, now that the drama’s over,” he said, “are we grabbing lunch? Or are you two still doing the whole session thing?”
“Yeah, we’re going to Tyler's house now,” Harper answered at the exact same time I said, “We can take a break today.”
We both paused.
She lifted her face to me, brows raised, and I just shrugged with my good shoulder.
“It’s officially our day,” I said lightly. “You know… kind of like when you get married and you drop everything else for the entire day.”
Her cheeks flushed a soft shade of pink, warm and stupidly distracting.
I had to look away before I did something stupid. Like stare too long. Or think about how her hand felt on my chest earlier.
God, that moment. Her stepping between me and Racquel like she owned the ground I was standing on. Her fingers curling into my shirt.
Her mouth so close to my skin I could literally feel her breath.
I’d replayed it a hundred times in my head already, and it hadn’t even been two hours.
I tried not to look at her as we walked out of the building, the hallway giving way to the glass doors and the warm spill of afternoon light. The change in brightness hit instantly, harsh and golden.
The sun was so strong that Harper squinted. She reached up to shield her eyes, and a tiny streak of eyeliner smudged under her lashes.
I reached out before thinking, my thumb brushing lightly beneath her eye.
“There,” I said, keeping my voice easy. “Fixed.”
Her breath hitched—barely, but enough that I caught it.
And yeah, I felt the closeness. Felt it a little too much. So I forced a small half-grin, like the whole thing was casual. Normal. Not messing with my head at all.
“Can’t have you walking around uneven,” I said softly.
She didn’t back away. She just looked at me, quietly appreciating the gesture, like it mattered more than I could know.
Then Peter honked his car horn so violently we both jumped.
“COME ON!” he yelled out the window. “I’M STARVING!”
Harper laughed under her breath. “We should go.”
“Yeah,” I said.
She walked ahead of me toward my car, her hair bouncing softly against her shoulders.
I watched her for a second too long, then shook myself and followed.
When I opened the passenger door for her, she didn't look surprised this time. She smiled, quiet and radiant in a way that went straight to my chest.
“Thanks,” she said gently.
And something inside me shifted out of place before I could stop it. Something I wasn’t supposed to feel, not this soon, not this much.
This girl was going to ruin me.
And I already knew I wasn’t going to stop her.