Page 3 of Wallflower

Dare's smile was fierce. "Furious."

"Man, you look way too pleased about that."

"You've got to take pleasure where you can get it."

Ty shook his head. "You really should be more careful."

"I know," Dare said deadpan. "If I get injured, who's going to work with you on your crap dribbling skills?"

Tyson scoffed. "One, my dribbling isn't crap—yours is just better. Two, I'll probably be the best soccer player in Korea. That's a whole country, man. And three, you're going to miss me so much when I'm gone."

"Pretty sure they call it football over there. Might want to work on that before the big move."

The two laughed good-naturedly. Tyson and Dare had been BFFs since freshman year. Best friends to the core, brothers on the soccer pitch, as talented and handsome a duo as there ever was. But it wasn't their beauty that made me sigh. It was the bond they seemed to share. As someone who was usually content with being a loner, I had to admit it left a pang in my chest.

Hearing my sigh, Dare looked over to me once more. "You okay there?"

"Yeah, fine," I said. Shaking myself out of it, I gazed at Ty. All that talk of moving and Korea made me refocus and remember my purpose. With a deep breath, I dove in. "I wanted to talk to you about something, Ty. If you have a second."

He looked surprised, but said, "Yeah sure."

I gave Dare a look, and he raised his hands palms out. "Okay, okay, I'm going. Jeez flower, save the frown for someone else." To Tyson, he said, "See you in few."

Tyson and I watched as Dare finally—finally!—walked away and met up with Whitney at the other end of the hall. The two stopped there to talk, and Dare threw us one last look, but I hoped they couldn't hear our conversation. I didn't think they could—which was good since I was already dreading this.

"Flower?" Ty asked, and I could hear the grin in his voice.

With an eyeroll, I turned back to him. "It's just something he says. Pretty sure he does it to annoy me."

He nodded then, "Hmm, so what did you want to talk about?"

Swallowing hard, I looked up at Tyson, my secret crush whose bright eyes and way-too-beautiful face were currently making it hard to form coherent sentences. And I hadn't even said anything yet. Awesome. "Um…I just…well, I-I wanted to tell you something."

"Okay," he said slowly.

"I mean, it's nothing really, but if you could just let me finish before saying anything that would be great."

"No interruptions. Got it."

His good looks made me want to look away, reconsider this crazy plan and just turn tail and run, but I didn't.

"I know we've never really talked. But since it's senior year, I'm trying to be brave—at least this once." I laughed to myself. "And you're moving this weekend anyway, all the way to Korea, so I figure this is my last shot."

Ty had opened his mouth, but I held up a hand. Now that I'd started I didn't want to stop for fear of chickening out.

"I like you Ty," I said in a rush, feeling my face get hot, but forging ahead. "I like you a lot. I think I may even love you.And when you love someone you should tell them. I believe that with everything I am. True, it's probably a result of reading too many romance novels, watching too many romcoms and K-dramas, but who cares." I smiled at him. "I love how you're an athlete and a member of the art club. I love that you drive a van instead of some overly expensive, souped-up ride. I love that you cut the crusts off your sandwiches before you eat them. I love that you like reading books. I love that you don't even try and your hair looks fantastic. Ireallylove that you love dogs. I do, too. You are so kind and beautiful, and I just thought you should know that. Before you leave for Korea, and I never get to tell you. I just…yeah, I wanted you to know."

My heart was pounding as I looked up at him, my words having run away with me. I wasn't even sure I remembered half of the things I said. But the point was I'd said them. They were out there. I'd confessed, and I felt lighter like a weight had been lifted from my chest. I was feeling good, awesome actually…

…for about a minute.

Then Tyson spoke.

"Wow, that was…unexpected," he said. "Thank you for that, Viola. I really appreciate it—oh, and I'm actually not moving until May."

My eyes darted to his. "What?"

"Yeah." Tyson shrugged. "My mom and dad talked it over, and they decided to go ahead overseas while I stay here with my aunt. They wanted to let me stay at Durham High for senior year."

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