➸featured on the What's Hot list
➸winner of The Most Addictive Story in The Writers Awards 2017
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❝ i'm going to woo you;
piece by piece,
word by word,
letter by letter. ❞
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In which Nova Hart, a star badminton player and hopeless roma...
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THE SPRINGFORMAL
The gym was nicely decorated, balloons and streamers in vibrant colours to mark the spring season, and there was a boy going around with colourful flyers in his hand.
There was a long table against one wall of the gym, covered in a beige tablecloth and laden with fries, pizza rolls, cheesecake and fruit punch. Nova knew it was safe to consume the drink; their school was very strict regarding the spiking of drinks with alcohol during school dances.
As Addy and her moved closer to the table, she noticed there was also a bowl of cheese dip and a tray of potato wedges next to it. Nova smiled, the first one she'd worn since she left her house and stepped foot in here.
She tried not to think too much about the possibilities of why Graham had lied to her about Monica being the one to call things off with him, but her thoughts wouldn't sway to her will.
"You're awfully quiet," Addy remarked, drinking a cup of the fruit punch. "Are you really that nervous about meeting him? I thought you'd be happier."
"I thought I'd be happier too," Nova sighed. Back when she'd been completely entranced by the notes and hadn't spared a second glance at Graham, she thought she'd die of happiness the day she got to meet the mysterious boy.
Now though... Now, so much had changed.
Now, Nova's heart wasn't here with her, in the gym, at the spring formal. She'd left a piece of it at chemistry class, another piece at the ice cream parlour, a piece at the house where that parry had been held, one more piece in Graham's kitchen and then the final piece back in her own kitchen.
"Nova?" Tyler's voice floated to her ears above the music and Nova turned to her right to see him walk towards her.
"Hey, Ty," she smiled. The boy going around passing flyers handed one to Nova and she absentmindedly took it.
Ty frowned in reply, "you're here?"
She blinked in surprise, "of course I'd be here, where else would I be?"
He looked baffled for a moment. "But he said he was going to —" he paused, as if realising something. "That idiot. The stupid, stupid dumabass. He must've chickened out at the last minute and —"
Nova held up a finger, thoroughly confused now. "Wait, hold up. What are you even going on about? And who are you even talking of— gimme a minute, Addy," she shook off Addy's hand that was frantically tapping on her shoulder.
"I'm talking about Graham," Tyler groaned, as if he was fed up and wanted to throttle his best friend right now. Nova thought she'd like to strangle Graham too.
"What about him?" She asked with an air of nonchalance, trying to come off as she couldn't give a damn about him. As if he was just another boy.
Tyler shot her a dry look. "As if it isn't obvious," he scoffed, "I told him if there was anytime to come out and confess, tonight's probably it, but he didn't do it, did he?"
"Do what?" Nova's heart was in her throat, unwilling to let herself hope. Dare she think it? Was Tyler saying what she thought he was saying? "He dropped by at my place. He was still there when I left but —"
"He came by?" Tyler's jaw dropped open. "You're telling me he came all the way to your freaking place and then chickened out? God, the people I have to call my friends."
"Yeah, but I still — oh, quit it Adelaide!" Nova snapped, throwing an annoyed glare towards her friend who was nudging her violently now, before turning back to Tyler.
"Nova!" Addy's voice was urgent, horrified even. "Nova, just look!" And something in her tone made Nova obey.
Worried, she turned to see Addy gesturing wildly at the flyer in her hands, the one that Nova had taken from a boy without giving it a second thought. Come to think of it, she didn't even see who the boy was.
"What the..." Tyler's voice trailed off as he stared down at the flyer in his hands too.
"What's so interesting about these..." But Nova didn't get to finish her sentence because her eyes recognised the words printed on the flyer in her hands.
She recognised the words because they'd been written to her, for her. In little pale blue notes. In emails.
Swallowing, Nova snatched Addy's flyer. It was a print of an excerpt of another one of her chats with John.
She crushed it into a ball, hands shaking and grabbed Tyler's flyer. On it was a printed excerpt of a different exchange of emails with John.
"What the hell is this?" Nova hissed under her breath, her hands growing even more shaky as anger and humiliation boiled in her veins.
