“If you change your mind on the competition—”
“I won’t.”
“The deadline is this Friday,” she continued as if I hadn’t interrupted.
“Okay.”
I heard her chair screech as she came to a stand. “I really think you should enter. You have so much talent.”
I turned to look at her over my shoulder. “Have you been talking to my mom lately?” I teased. “Next you’re gonna tell me how much potential I have.”
Her lips curved up in amusement, but she wasn’t about to be thrown off.
This stubbornness right here? It was what made her an excellent reporter.
It also made her a pain in the butt.
She glanced toward the darkroom door, where I’d admittedly spent way too much time, considering the last bell had rung. “I’ve never seen you put so much time or energy into...well, anything. So if you’re passionate about these photos of Hazel—”
“Ugh, again with the sounding like my mom. I’m not passionate, she just...she’s great to photograph.”
Mischief sparkled in her eyes as she said. “So she’s your new muse?”
I rolled my eyes, but I didn’t reply because...maybe, yeah. I couldn’t help it that she was fun to watch, exciting to capture. That was why I’d had a crush on her since the moment I’d spotted her in history class last year.
It had been crush-at-first-sight the moment I saw her some-might-call plain features light up over something her friend Emma said.
The expression had been there and gone so fast I’d wondered for a second if I’d imagined it. In the next second, I’d cursed myself for not having my camera handy to catch that moment.
From that point on, I’d been paying attention. Watching. The girl was fun to watch. Interesting, intelligent, with a sense of humor few people noticed aside from her closest friends.
She was also crazy driven, and something about her fierce, competitive edge was so freakin’ sexy.
Weird? Maybe.
Maybe I was the crazy one for feeling that way, but it annoyed the crap out of me that Justin didn’t.
I was also selfishly relieved that he didn’t.
I knew he didn’t feel that way about Hazel because I knew people. I studied them with a critical eye. Call it a side effect of my hobby, but I tended to view the world like I was looking at it through a lens, and nothing about Justin’s expressions or his body language said ‘I like you.’
At least, not as anything more than a teammate.
But would I tell her that?
No. It wasn’t my place.
“You okay, Will?” Max asked. That was when I realized I was still standing there, close to the door but not quite leaving, my thoughts distracted by Hazel.
“Yeah, fine.”
Her look said she didn’t believe me.
I shifted and wet my lips. “I just don’t want to see her getting hurt, that’s all.”
Max stared at me. “Because she’s nice.”
She said it like a confirmation, but it was obvious she was kind of mocking me. I couldn’t blame her, really. I’d be outright laughing at me right now if I were her.
I was behaving like a moron. I’d gotten used to having a mild crush on Hazel from a distance. That had been...fun. She’d given me something to look forward to at school. But now…
Well, after our outing the other night, nothing about this felt ‘mild.’
It felt distinctly not mild. It actually kind of felt...intense. Like my senses were heightened, and my mind had been hijacked with thoughts and memories and what-ifs…
“Why do you think she’s going to get hurt?” Max asked.
I thought about how much to tell her. Clearly Max didn’t know who the crush was, and I wasn’t about to let out Hazel’s secret. “I think I know who the mystery man is, and I don’t think it’s gonna happen.”
She winced. “That sucks.”
I nodded. Pretty much. And yet, I couldn’t exactly bring myself to shed tears over the fact that Hazel and Justin wouldn’t be making out in the hall anytime soon.
“Have you told her your opinion?” Max asked.
“No. It’s not my place.”
She nibbled on her lower lip, and I waited, oddly disturbed at seeing Max Fields hesitant about saying something. Anything. The girl didn’t do meek and mild. She was a tiger with a long blonde braid.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s just…” She sighed, seemingly having come to some conclusion. “She’s never put herself out there before with a guy. I’m a little worried that if she’s hurt by all this...well,” Max shrugged. “That she’ll get hurt.”
My chest tightened painfully for a second at the thought of strong, brave Hazel being hurt...by anyone. “I won’t let that happen,” I said.
“How?”
I smiled as I held up my camera. “I’ll make sure she sees how beautiful she is, how…” Undeniable. Sexy. Amazing. “How likeable.”
We both blinked at my supremely lame understatement. I shrugged it off first, finally making it all the way to the door as I said, “I’ll keep up this ruse of remaking her social media image, and by the time she finds her crush is a blind idiot, she’ll have realized that she can do so much better.”
I was feeling pretty freakin’ great about this plan until Max’s voice stopped me. “Hey, Will?”
I stopped and sighed loudly. “What now?”
“You could help her with her image, or….”
I waited impatiently for her to finish, like my future happiness depended on what she was about to say.
“Or...you could just ask her out.”
I sighed and headed out, my mind racing ahead of me to imagine how that would go down.
Having the girl I liked outright reject me?
Yeah...I didn’t think so.
7
Hazel
I ran into Will on my way to swim practice the next day and tried to deliver the speech I’d prepared, but I hadn’t expected to do it in the crowded hallway outside the locker rooms.
But, the sooner the better, because I didn’t want him to think I wasn’t grateful.
Whether I liked the guy or not, he’d gone above and beyond what he’d said he’d do. Every time I remembered Justin’s words in the hallway the day before I felt that much more grateful to Will.
He’d done it. He’d gotten Justin to take notice of me as something other than ‘one of the guys.’
“Hey, Will,” I said, calling out to him as he headed toward the exit that led to the football field.
My guess was he’d be taking shots of the homecoming preparations for this weekend. The marching band and cheerleaders had been practicing nonstop for the big event, and the rest of the school was buzzing over who would be going to the dance with whom.
He stopped and waited for me, that perma-smile fixed on his face.
“I just wanted to say thank you,” I said. “Properly.” I took a breath to continue with my speech, but his laugh interrupted me.
“Properly, huh? What does that mean?” He arched his brows. “Does it involve a kiss?”