THEN:
At age thirteen Logan Stanfield already knew about bad timing-- his parents got divorced, he moved to a new town, and was forced to start his life over again from scratch. But when he walked into the classroom that first day and laid eyes on M...
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LOGAN
Not long after that party the nods and smiles in the hallways just stopped. Maisy did her best to avoid me, pretending not to see me as we passed by each other on the way to class. I still didn't understand what I'd done, but obviously it was something, so I didn't push it. I respected her wishes and ducked my head down from then on whenever I saw her.
After Christmas year things with Laura had run their course. We ended up breaking up when she cheated on me on a family vacation in Mexico. I didn't really care. I suppose I was angry, but I wasn't really broken-hearted or anything, and being a senior I found a string of underclass girls who were more than willing to hook up, even if it was only for the weekend. So that became my thing for the rest of the year, hooking up at parties and keeping away from any girl who had that look in their eyes like they might have wanted more.
The rumor mill claimed that Maisy was still dating Justin and that she even had plans to join him in Berkley next fall, but every time I saw her that year more and more of her spark seemed to disappear. Something was going on with Maisy, but I couldn't ask because we weren't even friends.
That second semester senior year was the first time I ever shared a class with her. I wasn't shocked by how bright she was, but I was surprised at how passionate she was about learning. She constantly raised her hand whenever a question was posed, and often argued different points of view whenever the class would get involved in a discussion. She was quick-witted, funny, and had a great memory, able to recall passages from texts that we'd read months ago and recite them almost verbatim.
It was impressive to see and I spent much of my time in class that semester just observing her. She still ignored me of course, but I didn't mind. That meant she wasn't paying attention when I stared at her biting down on her lip as she finished up a test, or when I watched her ass as she wrote something on the board. I couldn't help myself. Thanks to that class I was back to obsessing over Maisy Jacobs from afar.
Will thought I was crazy. He was the only one who knew about my feelings for Maisy, and couldn't wrap his head around having a crush on someone for that long and never doing anything about it. There was no way I could make him understand. Shit, I didn't even understand it myself half the time. It just was what it was.
The month before graduation Maisy and I were assigned a project together. I still remember the scowl on her face, defeating my elation when the teacher called out our names. Her shoulders stiffened and she turned her body away from me so that l couldn't see her face. I knew she was going to keep avoiding me if she could, so I sucked it up and approached her after class.
She was shoving her books into her bag and didn't look up when I stepped over to her desk, but I could tell that she knew I was standing there because she tensed.
"When do you want to meet up to do this?" I asked, cutting to the chase, not wanting to make this anymore painfully awkward then it needed to be.
Maisy brought her green eyes up to me. Her face was impassive as she shrugged.
