(✔) 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙗𝙤𝙮 ↳ (𝔃.𝓭.𝓱)

twenty-six !

Everly chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully, her eyes gazing blankly at a spot in front of her.

Was she wrong to have a crush on two people at the same time? From her experience, that wasn't a good thing, especially if one of those crushes was someone she had never met in real life before. For all she knew, Tyler could be a fifty year old creep living out the rest of his days in his mom's basement.

But they had established that a long time ago; Tyler was a junior in high school, just like her, he was seventeen too, just like her, and he ran a freaking One Direction fan page for Pete's sake. What fifty year old pedophile would run a One Direction fan page with over a thousand followers? (Everly had even checked to see if the supposed page was real, and it was.)

Tyler had self esteem issues, as he called them, so they never really showed each other photos of themselves, so they didn't know what the other looked like. But Everly would like to meet him, of course she would. He was one of the closest friends she had ever had, besides Zach. Everly's heart sank. Oh yeah. Zach.

She was utterly bewildered with her feelings for him. She didn't know whether she liked him or not. He was so sweet to her, helping her through so much, and even though she knew he didn't, Everly finally felt the love that she had lacked from her parents when she was with Zach.

She closed her eyes gently, shaking the thoughts out of her head. She couldn't like him, he was out of the question. He had Lavender already, didn't he? But he didn't have Lavender. They were never dating, and according to Zach, they were just in the same friend group, and their friends just always liked to set them up together because Lavender was into him. Zach had even admitted that he didn't like Lavender that way at all.

Hope lingered in her chest at the thought of that, but Everly forced it away as quickly as it had come. Even if nothing happened with Lavender and Zach, Zach would never be interested in Everly. Ever. He probably thought of her as a friend, maybe even a sister, and nothing more than that.

But what about the tulip he gave you? A little voice pressed in Everly's mind. She pursed her lips tightly together. It's just a fucking flower, Everly. Any friend could give that to her if they knew she liked it.

But what about that garden he showed you? That seemed like a special place that was very dear to his heart. He wouldn't just show that to you if you were just a friend, her subconscious taunted her.

Everly gave a firm shake of a head to dismiss the hopeful thoughts crowding her mind. She needed to stop getting her own hopes up only to be let down again. But her subconscious wouldn't listen. If there was a place that was very special to you, you would only show it to somebody special wouldn't you? Not just to anybody, it protested.

Everly ran her fingers through her hair, her eyebrows furrowed. She didn't know anymore. Would she do that? She p—

"Everly? We're at school already." Zach's voice snapped her out of her reverie. She jerked up, looking around her dazedly. They were at the back of the school again, with the brick walls and bicycles. "Huh? Oh." Everly dismounted the pastel bike that Zach owned and swung her bag over her shoulder.

Zach looked at her in an odd way, his head slightly tilted to the side. "What's wrong?" Everly asked curiously, questioning his expression.

Zach just shook his head. "Nothing. You've just been acting kind of quiet this morning I guess," He replied, shrugging.

"Oh. Sorry. I'm just really tired," Everly offered with a feeble smile.

He nodded and swept his hair from his forehead absentmindedly. "Okay. We should get going, we're about to be late," He said quietly and they made their way into the school building.

Everly watched him walk slightly ahead of her with a pondering frown on her face. "But you were the one who was acting cold towards me today," She whispered beneath her breath. He didn't hear her, just continuing to make his way to the school grounds.

Since this morning, Zach had barely spoken a word to her, not even over breakfast. He didn't even give her a smile. Normally, Everly would pester him and ask him what was wrong, but not today. It was probably because she was feeling jumpy around him ever since yesterday's conversation with Tyler. Now that she had told someone about her "crush", it felt more real and it scared her a little bit.

She just decided to give Zach a bit of space; maybe he would go back to his normal self by lunchtime. She didn't want to bother him right now. He didn't seem to want to engage in conversation. Perhaps he was just tired, just like Everly had said she was.

They entered the hallways, walking past the senior classrooms which were bursting with people and noise. Soon, Zach left to go to his math class and Everly kept walking to her World History classroom. Watching her sneakers move along the linoleum floor, she suddenly felt a buzz in her back pocket from her phone.

Hurriedly, she fished it out of her pocket, hoping it was a Direct Message from Tyler. But it wasn't. When she saw the screen, her face scrunched up into a befuddled frown.

unknown
stay the fuck away from
my boyfriend