You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

59

"What?" he said.

The irritation on his face faded into confusion.

"I like you too," I repeated, barely hearing my own words over the rush of blood in my ears. "Please don't go."

Nolan actually said that he liked me.

He liked me!

I wanted to squeal and do a little victory dance right there on the staircase landing.

"What are you—You know what I am, and you still—What?" It was his turn to stare at me.

"I liked you before I knew you were, you know," I said defensively. "It's not like I can just switch off my feelings on command!"

His reaction was discouraging, because I'd kind of been hoping that he'd sweep me up in his arms and tell me that he'd changed his mind about leaving. At least he had stopped trying to stomp past me.

Nolan had finally turned his whole body to face me, and his eyes were intently studying my face. With how hard it was pounding, my heart was going to leap right out of my mouth and fall to the floor, I was sure of it.

"Aren't you disgusted that I like you?" he said, making my jaw drop again.

"No?" I frowned in disbelief. "Of course not? I literally just told you that I like you! I'm happy that you like me."

"But I'm—Aren't you afraid of me?"

Fighting back a groan, I said, "I told you before, didn't I? I'm here because I know you wouldn't hurt me. You could've attacked me and gotten away with it during all the times we were in the forest with no one else around, but you didn't. I never once thought I was in danger when I was around you. I trust you."

As he kept his steady gaze on me, the silence between us stretched on into minutes.

Eventually, the restlessness got to me, and I shifted my weight from my leg to the other one.

"So, um, are you going to say anything?" I said, hugging myself.

"I don't know what to say," he said.

I tried making puppy dog eyes at him. They no longer worked on Ashley, but hopefully Nolan wasn't immune to them.

"Say that you won't transfer schools anymore. Please?"

Hesitantly, he said, "Do you really like me?"

"What kind of question is that?" I gave him the most unimpressed glare that I could muster. "Yes. What would I gain from lying about something like that?"

"Good point," he said. "Do you really want me to stay, though?"

What was with all the doubt?!

"Do you seriously think I chased you down because I didn't care whether you stayed or not? Of course I want you to stay! I literally just begged you to, like, five minutes ago!"

He made a shushing motion with his finger. "Okay, I get it. Keep it down, otherwise someone's going to hear us."

"It's not like any of what I said actually made it into your ears when I was whispering just now, anyway," I said, crossing my arms.

"Okay," he said, looking down at the ground. "Okay. I'll stay."

Tears of relief instantly sprang to my eyes, and the urge to hug him surged through me.

I didn't bother resisting it—I basically launched myself at him and flung my arms around him. At first, Nolan tensed slightly at the contact, but then he slowly wrapped his arms around me too.