Page 114 of I Don't Need Your Romance

“We only have like fifteen minutes, but we need more details.” Carly grabs my hand and pulls me to my bed, where we all gather around.

“Don’t leaveanythingout,” Raven adds.

I spend the full fifteen minutes enlightening my friends on the amazing evening I had. And then I go to sleep thinking about nothing but Damian and how it felt to have his warm lips moving over mine.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Damian

My lips kick up into a smile when I enter English class on Monday morning and find Sophie sitting at her desk with a book, surrounded by her friends. Like my feet are on fire, I dash over to her. “Hey!”

Her head snaps up from the book, the largest smile I’ve ever seen appearing on her face. This smile is different from the ones she gave me in the past. Her eyes shine and she looks at me like I’m the most important person in the world. I bet I’m looking at her likeshe’sthe most important person in the world.

“Hi, Damian!” she gushes. “Did you sleep well?”

“No. I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

Her face lights up even more. “Really? I couldn’t stop thinking about you, too!”

Why does that make me feel like I’m on top of the world? Maybe because I love the fact that she likes me as much as I like her.

“You guys are so cute,” Addie says.

“The cutest,” Carly adds.

Sophie and I glance at each other and smile, her cheeks turning red. Did I mention she’s really cute when she blushes?

My eyes drop to the book lying open on her desk. “You’re still reading your romances? I thought you admitted that they’re nothing compared to real life.”

“Of course! Real life might be better than books, but some things can only happen in books and not real life.”

She’s about to say something else, but the English teacher, Miss Pham, walks in and everyone scrambles to find their seats. I wish I could sit next to Sophie, but my desk is at the other end of the classroom. Might as well be across the Atlantic Ocean.

The teacher announces that she’s assigning us a project to do. We’re to split up into partners and write an alternate ending to the book we’re currently reading. I try not to groan. English class is definitely not my strongest point and my creativity stops at art. There’s no way I can come up with an ending to a book. Since we’re supposed to have it done by the end of class, I won’t be able to do it with Sophie at our tutoring session.

When I glance at her, I see her friends frantically whispering to her as they glance at me. Hmm, yeah, they’re definitely talking about me. I know that’s what girls do—I wouldn’t be surprised if Sophie told her friends every little detail about what happened yesterday—but I have a feeling they’re conspiring something.

It seems like Sophie says, “Are you sure?” to Raven, and Raven nods vehemently. Sophie thanks her and waves me over.

I give her a confused face.

“Be my partner, Damian!” she calls.

So that’s what all the whispering was about. Her friends were convincing her to team up with me, but she didn’t want to ditch them. Since they’re four, one of them would be left without a partner.

I feel bad about taking her away from her friends. I’ve been doing most of the paired assignments alone and I don’t mind doing this one alone, too.

Thinking I didn’t hear her message, Sophie gets up from her desk and makes her way to me. “Hey. Want to be partners?”

“Don’t you always team up with one of your friends? I wouldn’t want to take you away from them.”

“Theyinsistedwe partner up,” she says with a laugh.

“Why?”

“Because they’re super happy you and I are together and they want us to spend like every second with each other. Besides, I teamed up with them for every other assignment.”

“That’s kind of them. If they’re really okay with it, I’d love to partner up with you.”