Page 137 of I Don't Need Your Romance

“He wanted to be a famous artist, but he gave it up because he had to focus on his many jobs. I suppose after so many years, he just stopped. Or perhaps…perhaps he stopped drawing after we got divorced and he couldn’t anymore. But he was very talented. One second.” She gets up and disappears into one of the rooms.

She returns shortly after with a sketchpad and places it on the table, flipping to the first page. “This was your dad’s,” she tells us.

Damian’s intrigued as we look through his sketches.

“He didn’t stick with it,” his mom says. “But I’d love for you to stick with it, Damian.”

“I feel him when I draw,” Damian admits. “I never understood why, but I think I understand it now.”

“He’s with you all the time.” She pats his arm, then mine. “As are your brother and sister,” she tells me.

“Thanks.”

We look at Damian’s dad’s drawings for a bit before we resume eating. And talking. Principal Harrington tells us more stories about her childhood, her teen years, and her love with Damian’s dad. Hearing their story is sad. I wish things could have ended differently for them. But it gives me hope. Because Damian and I are in charge of our future, and as long as we stick together and love each other, nothing will ever or could ever stop us.

When dinner is over, Principal Harrington gathers me in her arms. “Thank you for changing my son’s life,” she tells me. “He’s become a completely different person since he met you.”

“You can thank tutoring for that,” I joke.

“When I assigned you to tutor him, I thought I was disciplining him. But it turns out that life had other plans. It brought two soulmates together.”

Damian and I smile at each other.

She smiles as well before patting my arm and walking away.

Damian holds me close to his chest, kissing my cheek. “So, soulmate, how about we go for a ride on my bike?”

“Do you really have to ask?”

He chuckles before bending forward and giving me a sweet kiss. I frown when he pulls back, grabbing hold of his shirt, and yanking his lips to mine, giving him a proper kiss, one full of emotion and meaning.

I’m not sure how long we kiss. It could be hours. It could be days. Maybe months. But it doesn’t matter. Because he and I have many, many, many, many years together.

Chapter Forty-Three

Raven

My friends and I follow the rest of the students to the auditorium after breakfast. We received notifications about the assembly on our phones, but they also announced it during breakfast. We don’t usually have assemblies, so everyone is whispering and wondering what the occasion could possibly be.

“You think we’ll get out of class?” Ryder asks as my friends and I choose a row in the middle of the auditorium.

“I hope not!” Sophie exclaims. “We’re supposed to have a math test,” she tells her boyfriend, Damian, who groans. The two of them just got together a few days ago, and they’re so adorable. Just as my other best friend, Addie, and her boyfriend, Caleb, are, as well as my other best friend, Carly, and her boyfriend, Ryder.

Being surrounded by so much love definitely makes me feel left out. I’ve secretly always known that I would be the last of our friend group to have a boyfriend. Could it be pessimism? Maybe. Intuition? Possible. But I think it’s mostly logic. I didn’t want it as much as my best friends.

But now that they’ve experienced something so amazing and wonderful, I want it, too. I want it more than I thought I would ever want anything. But the guy pool at Harrington Bay Academy is very small. Well, it’s not that there are barely any guys here. It’s just that every guy is worse than the last. My friends and I have known it since ninth grade, but Addie, who was a new student this year, wanted to prove us wrong. She made a list of potential boyfriends, which Sophie put to the test. Unfortunately, every single guy was a bust.

Which means logically and probability wise, there’s a very slim chance I’ll experience high school love. Unless a new guy drops from the sky.

“Who are they?” a girl in the row in front of us asks.

When I turn my head toward the entrance to the auditorium, my brows lift. Because a group of three boys I don’t recognize has walked in, each of them wearing our uniform.

“Are we getting three new male students?” Carly asks. “There’s hope for Raven!”

“Ooh, totally,” Addie says. “Maybe I should start a new list—”

“No, Addie,” Sophie stresses. “Your lists are a curse.”