you’d had a crush on jimmy hopkins since… well, probably the first week he got to bullworth. it was impossible not to notice him. the kid who marched into school like he was already tired of everyone’s crap, the one who could stare down a prefect without blinking, the one who socked a jock twice his size in the jaw without even stepping back.

but having a crush was one thing. acting on it was another.

bullworth academy had… examples. cautionary ones. everyone remembered eunice. everyone remembered the way she chased jimmy through the halls, clinging to him, demanding attention, smothering him with affection in the most public, impossible-to-escape ways. everyone also remembered the way jimmy would tense up, the way he’d suddenly remember he had “somewhere to be” the second he saw her coming.

your worst nightmare was ending up like that, loud, embarrassing, obvious.

so you kept your crush locked down. you were friendly, sure. everyone liked jimmy, even the people who pretended they didn’t. you talked to him, laughed with him, sat near him at lunch when the opportunity arose.

but you never lingered too long. never touched him first. never let the smile stay on your face for more than a moment in case someone saw too much.

except jimmy wasn’t dumb. in fact, jimmy was annoyingly observant.

he noticed the tiny things other people never clocked: the way your smile faded the second eunice waddled into a room, all perfume and heavy breathing. the way your shoulders tightened whenever someone made comments about looks, weight, or attractiveness, even if they weren’t aimed at you. the way you sometimes laughed but never seemed relaxed when people teased you and jimmy in the same sentence.

and, most of all, he noticed that you weren’t like eunice at all. you weren’t throwing yourself at him. if anything… you acted like getting too close might lose him forever.

one afternoon after gym, the locker room smelled like sweat and cheap deodorant, and everyone else had filed out, either to dinner, to hassle the nerds, or to get into fights outside the school gates.

you sat on the bleachers, one foot propped up as you tried to un-knot your shoelaces. you were thinking about homework, or whether you’d have the energy to shower before bed, when you suddenly felt the bleacher dip beside you.

jimmy had dropped down next to you. backpack slung over one shoulder, gym shirt damp against his skin, eyes narrowed in that way that meant he’d been thinking too much for too long.

“you ever gonna tell me what your deal is?” he asked, blunt as always.

you froze halfway through tying your shoe. “…huh?”

he leaned forward, elbows on his knees, giving you a look that was way too direct for comfort. “you act like i’m radioactive or somethin’,” he said. “did i do somethin’ to you?”