Page 41 of Starstruck

Maybe tonight, if I found a quiet moment, I’d try again. But thethought alone made that giddiness start to turn heavy. The pressure to get it right and not embarrass myself in front of the first boy I had the time to crush on solidifying in the pit of my stomach.

Once I’d stolen some breaths and was sure that enough time hadpassed for Henry to be in another building entirely, I left, turning the corner and tapping my way across the stone floor, and this time, I let myself admire the details of the tracery, not caring that the October breeze was snatching out the heat in my body.

The view of the green from this floor was ethereal, making mecrave a warm autumnal drink and want to spend all day just existing there, catching up on notes. The leaves in every shade of red had now fully blanketed the floor, leaving the branches of the tree that was the focal point of the whole place all bare and spindly.

The buzzing inside my bag stole away my attention, and soon enough,my phone was in my hands, and I was scrolling through every notification I’d missed since I’d left the dorm. The ones from the group chat, bursting with questions about what the general consensus for outfits was tonight, were what I scrolled first, as my steps took me back down the hallway and towards the exit that spat me out into the main courtyard, just behind the library.

I was halfway into the hallway when a certain English accent caughtmy attention as it called my name.

“Gold’s!” Tristan called, and as I turned around to face him, his smileseemed to grow. “What you doin ere’?”

My lashes fluttered as I looked up at him, uncontrollably so;whether it was a physical reaction to hearing him call me ‘Gold’s’ that had caused it, or whether it was the happy tone of his voice that only seemed to slip out when it was just us two, I didn’t have the headspace to question.

So instead, I simply set my eyes back on him and nodded. “Oh, wejust finished our presentation with Etiolle.”

His chin nodded at me as his smile peeked. “Oh yeah? Owd’ it go?”

“It went well, actually.” I nodded at him, tucking the grown-out endsof my curtain bangs behind my ears. “What about you? When was yours?”

The shrug and the careless look that flew to his face told me all Ineeded to know. Tristan had been open about not wanting to be here, and as someone who had known what it was like for her parents to want to manhandle her future, I didn’t blame him.

Although, I didn’t know how I’d feel if his presence simply vanishedfrom this place. Almost as if the thunderstorm that you didn’t expect, didn’t anticipate, but had you pressing your face right up against the window to watch it, was switched with a clear sky.

It would be weird not to see him stroll around campus, with a lookthat resembled a storm cloud, come to think of it, or choose the seat at the very back of the class, hoping he’d somehow blend into the darkness.

But with a presence as strong as his, as intriguing, that dream wasimpossible.

The way he cleared his throat snapped me out of my thoughts.“Fine, I guess. It was early yesterday, and things went as smoothly as they could after…”

“Oh,” I mumbled, the memory of what I’d stumbled upon in thelibrary darkening my thoughts. “Good. That’s… really good.” I cleared my throat. “But hey, it’s over now. Which means we can celebrate.” I shimmied my shoulders as I said that, which pulled a laugh out of him, and a smirk that seemed to be his favourite expression.

“Which reminds me,” He chuckled, the noise bouncing off the stonewalls of the hallway like a jagged rock.

Whatever he was doing made the butterflies in my stomach flaptheir tiny wings, which always seemed to happen around him, but this time they soared higher than they ever had, reaching their peak when I noticed the yellow envelope now in his hand.

“Happy Birthday, Sunshine.”

Sunshine.

Was my heart going to melt each and every time he uttered thatnickname? Part of me hoped so, and part of me worried for my heart’s health.

And unlike when I felt giddy every time Henry looked down or me,or spoke to me with that big golden smile stretched across his face, everything felt different with Tristan. Whatever feelings were coursing through my body felt heavy. Earth-shattering. Making whatever I felt towards Henry look like it was coloured the prettiest shade of platonic.

No, this felt new.

Henry’s stare felt like basking in the sunshine. Tristan’s made mycheeks feel as though a match had been struck across them, a scorched trail of embers marking my blush for the world to gaze at.

Henry made me want to giggle every time he looked at me.But Tristan… when he set his eyes on me, all I wanted to do wasfreeze time, so I had the rest of eternity to study whatever was hiding behind his stare, all the while he could do the same with me.

He stretched out his hand with the envelope tucked betweenhis fingertips as I glided mine up and took it from his hand, as my eyes traced the way ‘Goldie’ was neatly scribbled in the centre, a doodle of a sun cornering the G.

My head bobbed up. “You didn’t have to.”

“I wanted to.”

After a few seconds, his watch caught his attention. “Listen, I’vegotta go, but I’ll see you tonight, yeah? At Marco’s?” His words crumbled together as he brushed past me, one of his hands gliding across my shoulder as he did, and like my cheeks, that part of me suddenly started to burn too.

I nodded as he got lost in the crowd that was pouring out of a nearby room, before I regained my thoughts and tucked the envelope into my bag, the colour making the inside of my bag adopt a sunny hew that powered my smile all the way home.

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