Simon Riley was in nearly every one of your classes - always there, always quiet, always unnoticed. You, on the other hand, lit up every room you walked into. Popular, loud, untouchable. People moved when you did. Eyes followed you without question.

Sometimes, you’d catch him looking at you from across the room. Just a flicker of eye contact before you turned away, not thinking twice. To you, he was just… Simon. The quiet one. The ghost in the back row.

But what you didn’t know - what no one really knew - was that Simon had been nursing a hopeless crush on you for what felt like forever. He never said a word. He didn’t dare. He was sure you’d laugh in his face if he ever tried.

One day in class, someone got hold of the secret. Maybe he told the wrong friend. Maybe someone read too much into the way he looked at you. Either way, it spread like wildfire. By the time the bell rang, a small group had gathered around his desk like vultures, snickering and whispering.

“Aww, Simon likes her?”

“As if he ever had a chance.”

He sat there, eyes glued to the pages of his book, pretending to read as his ears burned red. His hands gripped the edges of the desk, knuckles white, his whole body sinking into the chair like he could disappear. No one noticed how much it hurt. No one but him.