The next day, Nolan was sitting up in his seat when I got to my first class.

Pleasantly surprised, I grinned as I walked to my desk. Did he finally decide to sleep early last night or something? He was normally only awake in-between classes.

"Good morning," I said as I reached my desk. "Had a good night's sleep?"

Pulling out my watch from his bag, he handed it to me. "Here."

"Oh, um, thanks," I said, startled by the abruptness of his action.

Why was he returning it to me now? I wanted to ask him but the thought of him changing his mind made me decide not to.

Before I could ask him if he wanted me to delete the photos now, Nolan put his head down on the desk, facing away from me.

"Good night, I guess," I murmured, fiddling with my watch.

That was weird. He usually answered my greetings.

Deciding that maybe I was overthinking things, I slipped my watch around my wrist and fastened the strap.

The next thing I lost would definitely not be my precious watch.

Nolan slept through the entire first period, which wasn't strange on its own. What was weird was that the moment we were dismissed, he got up and left the classroom before I could say a thing.

We had the next class together too, so it didn't make sense that he wouldn't wait for me.

Questions swam around in my mind at his abnormal behavior. Was he actually avoiding me? Did that have anything to do with why he returned me my watch earlier?

I didn't even know what I could've done to warrant his avoidance.

As I stood up to leave the classroom, I frowned down at my watch.

What was going on?

-----------------------------------------------------

"Mm, this is so good," Melissa said, closing her eyes as she savored the meatball she was eating. "I can't believe it took the school this long to put meatballs on the menu."

Grimacing at her, Ashley said, "Couldn't you have said that after you were done chewing? I don't really need to see half-eaten food in your mouth when you talk."

"I thought you already knew that she lives to gross you out," Derek responded, and then promptly jerked away from her. "Ow! Why did you kick me?"

"You deserved that!" she said, glaring at him.

He rolled his eyes and deftly nabbed a meatball from her plate. "What, for speaking the truth?"

As Derek popped it into his mouth before she could do anything about it, Melissa stared at him with fury in her eyes.

"That was my second last meatball!" she snapped, looking about two seconds away from throttling his neck.

"And you deserved that," he said, his smile so wide I could see Melissa getting even madder because of it. "Or maybe I should eat your last one too, huh?"

"You guys, stop provoking each other," Ashley cut in, dropping her own meatball onto Melissa's plate. "Aren't you playing soccer together later? Don't put strain on team relations and all that."

Seemingly appeased by Ashley's tiny gift, Melissa sniffed and turned away. "We could just play on different teams. Evan is better at passing than him, anyway."

Derek spluttered, looking like he had just gotten slapped. "Excuse me? How is he better than me? You're just saying that because he strokes your ego the way you like it. He's more interested in hitting on you than actually playing soccer!"

"Please, you're just jealous because he's better than you." A smile played on her lips as she stared right back at him. "There's no need to bring up the fact that he has good taste."

"The whole reason he joined us was because you were playing with us!" he said, his expression aghast. "He said it himself!"

"Like I said," she said, flipping her light-brown hair over her shoulders, "you don't have to keep mentioning his good eyesight. Didn't he steal the ball from you on Saturday?"

"And I already said—on Saturday—that it was a foul," Derek said.

"Yeah, determined by you," she said, propping her chin up with the back of her hand. "That wasn't how Michael saw it."

"He probably forgot his contacts that day—"

"Seriously, guys," Ashley said, frowning at them. "Aren't you getting a bit too heated over recreational soccer? Chelsea, say something."

"What? Uh ... stop fighting, guys. Please," I added an afterthought.

Melissa snorted. "What a compelling request."

"Hey, at least I tried," I said.

The tension in the air seemed to diffuse slightly as she snickered.

"Are you okay?" Ashley said, studying my face. "You've been kind of quiet this whole time."

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, mustering a smile at her.

"Did you eat something bad?" Derek asked.

Melissa glanced down at my plate. "You've barely touched your food. Maybe you should go see the school nurse?"

That was because my stomach wouldn't stop churning.

"No, I'm okay," I managed. "I just feel like ... Nolan's avoiding me. It's nothing, really."

"Nolan?" Ashley tilted her head. "Why?"

"I don't know," I said with a helpless shrug. "We usually walk to our next classes together when I'm not with you guys, but today he's just been leaving without waiting for me. And he hasn't spoken to me at all today."

Except for a single word, and that was to return my watch.

Derek hummed, a pensive look on his face. "It wouldn't be strange if you were someone else, but since it's you ... yeah, that's a bit weird."

"Did you two argue?" Ashley asked. "Or did something happen?"

"No, and not that I can think of," I said. "He just suddenly started acting like this today. I know it probably sounds unbelievable to you guys, but we talk a lot. We're pretty close."

"No, we know that," Melissa said. "That's why I wanted you to talk to him in front of us when he came to swimming class that time."

For some reason, I felt my cheeks grow hot. Was it that obvious to everyone around us?

"Are you sure you guys didn't argue?" Derek said.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. "Yeah, I'm a hundred percent certain we didn't. It's pretty hard to mistake an argument for a friendly conversation, don't you think?"

"Maybe you should ask him," Ashley said. "Corner him after school."

"I'm not sure I could do that," I said slowly. "He's really fast."

Nolan could definitely outrun me any time of the day, even if I had been getting better track times during gym now that I was actually trying.

"We could back you up, if you want," Melissa said, shrugging. "We could form a wall to block him or something."

In spite of the gloominess hovering over me, I laughed at the ridiculous image her suggestion conjured to my mind. There was no way I was going to form a human wall with all of them just to block Nolan from leaving. Besides, he would likely just climb over us. Maybe.

"Thanks for the offer," I said, "but it's fine. I'll think of something."

"You finally smiled," Melissa said, beaming at me.

"Wait, so you only said that to make me smile?"

"I meant it," she reassured me. "I'm just happy that it came with an additional benefit of cheering you up. If you still want the wall, I'm definitely in."

Ashley laughed. "Count me in, too."

"Thanks," I said, smiling reluctantly at them. "You guys are the best. Really, I'm okay. It's not a big deal."

Only the sinking feeling in my heart told me that it really kind of was, and I had no idea how to deal with it.

After lunch, the second half of the school day continued in much the same way.

Nolan left his seat and exited the classroom at an incredible speed in every period as soon as we were dismissed. I always only managed to get a word out before he was out the door. He was always asleep when I got to class, even when I attempted running—and got yelled at by a few teachers in the process—to reach the classroom sooner.

The worst part was that I felt like I couldn't even call him out on it, because he did acknowledge me when he was awake. It wasn't even like he pretended I didn't exist like he did our other classmates.

"Hey," I would say when I managed to catch him awake right after class, fully intent on continuing my sentence.

He would say "Hey", nod at me, and then brisk walk out of the door.

Ignoring the extremely likely possibility that he wouldn't reply, I texted him after dinner tonight.

'Why are you avoiding me?' I sent, biting my lip and hoping it wouldn't ruin everything.

To my surprise, he replied almost instantly.

'What are you talking about? I'm not.'

Oh, so he was trying to keep up with this dumb charade. I narrowed my eyes at the obvious lie on my phone screen.

'You're not? Really? Last I checked you speed-walked out of every single class we shared.'

'I've just been really tired these few days. I have to go to class early to sleep.'

'Is that why you haven't been talking to me before class too?'

'I told you, I have to sleep.'

Groaning, I glared at my phone and threw it onto my bed. I was clearly getting nowhere with that line of questioning. If he wanted to play stupid, he could do it. I wasn't going to play along.

A part of me was secretly thankful that at least he was trying to act like nothing was wrong.

I wasn't sure what I would do if he ignored me entirely.

------------------------------------------------

Over the next few days, Nolan continued with his blatant avoidance of me.

I continued working hard in gym class, and I even managed to climb the rope in the gym five times in a row, but I couldn't help wondering what the point of the whole thing was if Nolan was going out of his way to escape my presence.

He hadn't texted me or told me when he was planning to go to the forest next, and it had already been almost a full week. It was Thursday, and I had thought that we would be going tomorrow.

I had been really looking forward to our next outing, too. The idea of feeding Blue had me all hyped up, and I was also just excited to be in the forest. It was the first time in a long while since I had been able to be around trees without being terrified of a potential insect swarming. After all, having Nolan with me was even better than spraying myself with a full bottle of insect repellent.

All I could do was sigh as I flopped down on my bed. It was already half past ten, but I didn't feel like sleeping yet. I could barely even think of sleeping when all I wanted to do was to find Nolan, grab him by the shoulders, and shake him hard.

He had been replying to my texts, but all my attempts at conversation had been quickly killed by his short responses. It didn't help that I had never really been that good at keeping up a conversation over text.

I opened up my phone again.

I should at least ask him when he was intending to go again.

The thought of seeing Blue beckoned at me enticingly. I also wanted to look at some of the other trees I had seen upfront.

What if he didn't plan on bringing me along anymore?

My stomach lurched again. At this point, I didn't even care about blackmailing Nolan with the photos—I really wanted to go to the forest again, and this time it wasn't just because I was worried about him.

I couldn't believe that sneaking into the forest at night had become less of a cause of concern and more of a source of excitement for me.

'Hey,' I typed, 'when are you going to the forest again?'

'Why?'

'What do you mean 'why'? I thought we agreed that I'm going with you. Besides, I can't wait to see Blue.'

'I don't think you should come with me anymore.'

'Why not? Is it because I whine about the insects all the time? Because I can stop if it's getting on your nerves that much.'

'I don't care about the insects. It's just not a good idea.'

What was going on with him? Why was he evading the topic?

'But I really like going there with you. I've only been there twice, but they're easily the most fun two nights I've ever had. I was really excited for this week, too. Seriously, Nolan. What's going on?'

'Are you sure you should be saying that? Won't your boyfriend mind?'

My eyes felt like they were about to fall out of my sockets and roll down my bed.

WHAT?? I typed furiously. What is that supposed to mean?!

Who? What? How? When?

When did I somehow get a boyfriend without me knowing, and who did Nolan think was my boyfriend?! Also, why did that matter at all?

'Nolan! Answer me!'

'Stop pretending like you can't see my messages!'

I spammed him similar messages. When he still didn't respond, I tried calling him. It rang several times before going to his voicemail. I was having a hard time believing he'd somehow just fallen asleep.

Despite my repeatedly closing eyes, I forced myself to stay up till past midnight waiting for his answer. Nolan never replied.

Gritting my teeth, I got under my covers.

How dare Nolan shock me with such news—apparently, I somehow had a boyfriend I didn't even know I had—and then leave me on read right after?

I was going to take Ashley's advice. I was going to corner him and make him talk to me.

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AN: yep. don't worry we are still nowhere near the main 'mystery' at all. but hey, i told you i'd make it obvious once nolan gets jealous. XD i'm still thinking about which other day i should fix for regular updates. friday? since it's close to the weekend and you guys would have more time to read it...idek LOL any suggestions? thanks for reading and voting, everyone! see you soon(ish?) ꒰⁎˃ ॢꇴ ॢ˂⁎꒱➴ෆ⃛

thank you so much for reading and always leaving such encouraging comments Sarngy I genuinely just get so happy when i see your name pop up in my notifications ♥（ﾉ'∀'）i appreciate you so much!