ALEX.
I avoided Niko from the moment we stepped into the school compound.
It wasn’t intentional—at least, that’s what I told myself—but every time I felt his presence behind me, every time I sensed his eyes on my back, my chest tightened and my steps quickened. I kept my gaze forward, focused on the tiled walkway, on the sound of voices and laughter around us, on anything that wasn’t him.
Still, I noticed.
I noticed the way he looked at me like he was holding himself back from pouncing with the anger, hunger, confusion I was sure he felt, and something raw simmering beneath the surface. I noticed the stiffness in his shoulders, the way his jaw clenched whenever I laughed at something someone else said.
And I wondered, yet again, why he was giving me so much attitude. If anyone should
