Almost Love

Chapter One: The Girl By The Window

Authors POV:
The first day of school after the pandemic felt like stepping onto another planet.

For two years, the world was pixelated — classes filtered through laptop screens, friends became blurry faces on video calls, and laughter echoed through tiny microphones. But now, in the stuffy heat of a newly opened eighth-grade classroom, everything was painfully real.

The desks were old and carved with years of teenage boredom. The windows let in slanted sunlight and dust. And the girl who sat near the back, right beside the window, didn't say a word.

Her name was Adriana. The new girl. A transferee from a city no one asked about, with eyes that seemed to be carrying more than just the weight of a backpack.

She didn't try to make friends. Didn't join in when they laughed at TikTok trends or teased each other during break time. She just kept to herself—reading, sketching, sometimes staring outside like the clouds knew her better than people ever did.

And then came him.

Liam Torres.

The boy everyone knew. The boy everyone had to know because he never shut up. Loud, obnoxious, irritatingly funny. The kind of boy who could get away with anything because of his lopsided grin and the twinkle in his eye that said yeah, I did that. So what?

They didn't notice each other at first.

Until the teacher rearranged the seating chart.

"Torres, move beside Mendoza."

Heads turned. Eyes lit up.

"Ohhh," someone whispered under their breath. "This is gonna be fun."

Adriana looked up, confused. Liam dragged his chair next to hers with all the grace of a one-man parade.

"You smell like books," he said, wrinkling his nose dramatically.

"And you smell like trouble," she shot back.

From that moment, they were fire and gasoline.

He teased her constantly. Pulling her hair lightly when the teacher wasn't looking, leaving sticky notes with dumb jokes on her notebook, borrowing her pen just to forget to give it back.

She hated him.

She really, really hated him.

Or so she thought.

The class loved the tension. They laughed when she rolled her eyes. They made bets on when they'd kill each other. And soon, a running joke started.

"Liam and Adriana are so gonna get married," someone teased during Science.

Adriana flushed. Liam smirked. "She wishes."

But behind the chaos, something was shifting. Slowly, like a tide creeping over sand.

It started with the small things. The way he noticed when she was quiet. The way he defended her when someone made a rude comment. The way he said "bless you" when she sneezed—like it was second nature.

Then came the day everything changed.

A fight broke out in class—two boys, shouting, fists almost flying. Adriana stood frozen as the room turned into noise. But Liam? Liam was already moving. He stepped between them, arms wide, voice firm. Calm. Steady.

"Enough," he said, his usual grin gone. "You're both acting stupid. Sit down."

The room went silent.

Adriana stared at him like she was seeing him for the first time.