With love Simon

Girl, I call her when I leave home

POV JUNE:

"I can't wait to find out your secret, June," he says.

"Me too, Simon."

She walks out of the theater and I think I just ended up on Simon Kelleher's blacklist. Before leaving, he turns around and gives me a smile. Fuck, I ended up being fed to the king of the Savannah in an instant.

June, you had to stay away from him.

He is a "living walking monster."

The truth is, he doesn't look like a monster to me. The truth is that I feel something stronger than appearances vibrate in him. When I saw Simon slumped on the ground in the throes of an allergic reaction, I saw something real and... very beautiful.

I've never seen anything like it.

His eyes, his hand stuck in mine. While everyone else was screaming in fear, it was just me and him.

Mine and hers.

The shining eyes of those who can't breathe.

The shining eyes of those who desperately needed to be saved and those of those who would never forgive themselves for losing him.

I'm still stunned in the room, reflecting on everything that's happened.

Nora's voice wakes me up from my thoughts: "June, are you okay? You just saved Simon Kelleher's life. If I just think about it, I'm freaking out. He promised that the year wouldn't be boring and I think he kept his promise."

"As I understand it, he's good at delivering on his promises." I say, looking up in the air.

"June, listen to me," he pauses, looking me carefully in the eye, "You need to stay away from him. You don't have to look at him, you don't have to talk to him, you don't have to breathe the same air as him, and you don't have to allow him to get close to you. " he tells me in the most convincing and persuasive tone ever.

And how do I tell him that I'm going to his father's campaign party tomorrow night?

How do I tell him that it will be totally impossible that we will not speak to each other anymore?

"Promise me, June!" she says, hugging me tightly.

I don't answer, I don't have the courage to lie to her. I just hold her tighter, I know these words are dictated by her concern.

Nora adjusts the tufts of tousled hair and regains a thread of lucidity: "So, I want to know every detail of what happened!" she tells me enthusiastically.

"Um, actually, it all happened by chance. He had an allergic reaction to a substance that was in his glass. He had forgotten his allergy pen, no one had found them even in the infirmary and I ran to my backpack and took mine. And nothing, I saved him."

I rightly omitted all the details most... Cute.

Who knows if I was the only one who imagined them or Simon also noticed. I'll try to find out tomorrow night.

"Is that all? I imagined a scene from a movie."

Nora, it was a scene from a movie, but I'm omitting it so as not to anger you.

" Well, those four assholes are still there like pretty figurines?" he asks me and I remember that Cooper attacked me after saving Simon's life.

"That's right, Nora, they hate Simon but they cried like kindergarteners. How hypocritical they are.

I would call them crocodile tears because they are the same tears of those who are not brave enough to help them by any means." I throw it out, forgetting that the poor victim of the accident is the one the whole school hates.