Chapter 6 Birthday surprise
EIGHT MONTHS AGO
Lisa
A full week had passed since I’d stood in the middle of the hallway and told Tobias Thomas exactly what I thought of him, and for the first time since sophomore year, school had become… ordinary.
Wonderfully, gloriously ordinary.
He hadn’t called me Mouse once. He hadn’t blocked my path, interrupted my conversations, or found another clever way to turn me into the punchline of someone else’s joke.
It was as though I’d become invisible overnight, and I couldn’t have been more grateful for it.
I still avoided him on instinct, of course. If I spotted him walking toward the south corridor, I found a reason to head north. If I heard the unmistakable rumble of his motorcycle pulling into the parking lot before first period, I’d linger in the library for another few minutes until I was sure he’d already disappeared into the building.
Old habits weren’t something you simply unlearned in seven days.
Every time I caught sight of him surrounded by his teammates, my shoulders still stiffened before I could stop them, my palms dampened with nervous sweat, and my heart insisted on beating just a little too quickly.
Fear, I told myself. It had to be fear. Whatever strange knot still formed in my chest whenever our paths almost crossed meant nothing. He never looked at me anymore anyway. Not once. Not even by accident. It was exactly what I’d wanted, exactly what I’d prayed for, and little by little I found myself remembering what it felt like to simply be another student at Clever High instead of the girl Tobias Thomas had decided to notice.
I had a boyfriend now. The thought still felt strange enough to make me smile. Daniel wasn’t the sort of boy girls whispered about in hallways or fought over at football games.
He wasn’t effortlessly charming or devastatingly handsome in the way Tobias was.
Daniel was… safe. Sweet. Earnest.
The kind of person who remembered deadlines without reminders and got genuinely excited whenever he solved a difficult chemistry equation. We weren’t wildly in love, not yet, maybe not ever, but I liked being around him. He made me laugh. He listened when I spoke. He looked at me like my opinions mattered, and after months of feeling like nothing more than somebody else’s entertainment, that alone felt extraordinary.
Besides, graduation was only months away. We both cared more about getting into good universities than becoming the king and queen of Clever High, and I liked that about him.
The only thing I still couldn’t outrun was everything waiting for me outside the school gates. My father was still lying unconscious in a hospital bed, my stepbrother was still making home feel anything but safe, and my uncle… was even more useless than a comatose patient.
Daniel’s birthday had given me an excuse to spend nearly three evenings working on something I knew most people would probably consider ridiculously small.
I couldn’t afford an expensive watch or the latest headphones the football players gave each other, so I’d bought a plain leather notebook from the stationery shop downtown, carefully covered it in dark blue paper, and filled the first few pages with tiny handwritten notes about every ridiculous argument we’d had over history, chemistry and cafeteria food since we’d started dating.
I’d even tucked a cheap fountain pen inside because he’d once mentioned always wanting one. It wasn’t much, but it was mine, and somehow that made me hope he’d like it.
We’d agreed to meet in our mathematics classroom during the short break before fourth period since everyone else would already be heading toward the cafeteria. By the time I reached the room, the hallway outside had almost emptied, leaving only the distant echo of footsteps and lockers slamming shut somewhere downstairs.
Daniel was already inside, pacing slowly between the rows of desks with both hands shoved deep into his pockets. Relief softened my face the moment I saw him.
“Happy birthday,” I laughed, hurrying across the room before wrapping my arms around him. I rose onto my toes to press a quick kiss against his cheek, but instead of hugging me back the way he always did, his body remained stiff beneath my arms.
His hands never left his pockets. He offered a smile that barely reached his lips before quietly stepping out of my embrace altogether.
My own smile faded almost immediately. “Daniel?” I searched his face, suddenly uneasy. “What’s wrong?”
He looked everywhere except at me. At the blackboard. At the windows. At the floor. Anywhere but my eyes. The silence stretched until it became unbearable.
“Daniel…” I repeated more softly. “Did something happe?”
His jaw feathered before he finally spoke. “I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
For a second I genuinely thought I’d misheard him. “What?” My voice came out almost as a whisper.
“I said…” He swallowed hard. “…I don’t want to do this anymore.”
The gift slipped lower in my hands. “Did… did I do something?”
He shook his head too quickly. “No.”
“Then why?” I took a hesitant step closer. “If I’ve upset you, tell me. We can fix it.”
His face twisted with something that looked painfully close to guilt before hardening again, almost like he was forcing himself to stay cold. “Not everything needs fixing, Lisa.”
I stared at him. “People don’t just wake up and stop liking someone overnight.”
"Maybe I did.”
“You’re lying.” The words escaped before I could stop them.
His shoulders slumped for the briefest second before he straightened again. “Look…” His voice grew sharper, harsher, like every syllable physically hurt him. “Maybe I just realized I don’t want to spend my senior year dating… someone everyone laughs at.”
It felt like being slapped. I actually rocked back half a step.
Daniel’s face crumpled almost instantly. “Lisa, I didn’t—” He broke off, dragging a shaky hand through his hair. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said it like that.”
My eyes burned. “Then why did you?”
He said nothing.
“Daniel.” My voice rose despite myself. “Look at me.” Slowly, reluctantly, he did. “Tell me the truth.”
He shook his head. “Please don’t make me.”
“Tell me.” The room fell silent except for his uneven breathing.
Finally he whispered, “Tobias came to see me yesterday.”
Every muscle in my body went rigid. “What?”
“He found me after practice.” Daniel’s voice shook. “He didn’t threaten me exactly… not directly. He just…” He laughed bitterly without humor. “He asked if I was really stupid enough to think dating you was a good idea. Then his friends started laughing, and he kept asking questions until everyone else stopped pretending not to listen. He said if I wanted to spend the rest of senior year being known as Mouse’s boyfriend, that was my decision.” He closed his eyes briefly. “I tried to ignore him.”
“No, you didn’t,” I snapped, tears stinging my eyes now. “You listened.”
“Lisa…”
“You listened.” Anger crashed into the heartbreak so violently I could barely separate one from the other. “Do you know what the worst part is?” My voice trembled. “It’s not even that you broke up with me. It’s that you let him make the decision for you.”
Daniel flinched. “I was scared.”
“I know.” I nodded once. “And I understand that.” I took another step back, clutching the neatly wrapped notebook so tightly the paper crumpled beneath my fingers. “But understanding doesn’t stop you from being a coward.”
His eyes filled immediately. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I.” I placed the birthday gift carefully on the nearest desk between us. “Happy birthday, Daniel.”
His head jerked up. “Lisa, wait.”
I turned before he could reach me. “Please, just let me explain.”
“You already did.” I didn’t look back again. Behind me I heard hurried footsteps and my name called once, then twice, but I kept walking, my heartbeat thundering louder with every step. By the time I pushed through the classroom door, the tears had dried into something far hotter than sadness. Tobias Thomas had taken enough from me. This time… he was going to answer for it.
