Wallflower
By
Cookie O’Gorman
Wallflower
Text copyright © 2021 Airianna Tauanuu writing as Cookie O’Gorman
All rights reserved. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.
Cover Design © Stephanie Mooney. All rights reserved.
To all the introverts, dog lovers, K-drama addicts and hopeless romantics
&
To Pat, Mom, and Colleen. Always.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
Epilogue
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER 1
If you love someone, you should tell them.
I didn't remember where I'd first heard it. But that was one of the main themes of nearly every romance book, movie, TV show, I'd ever read or seen.
And believe me, I'd seen a lot.
Despite being a total introvert and invisible to the other students of Durham High, I was for all intents and purposes, a romance connoisseur. My expertise didn't come from real life experience, but I knew the way things worked. Girls and guys were supposed to bottle up their feelings, keep everything very close to the chest, until one day, something happens to set the ball in motion.
Well, I'd had a secret crush for a long time and today was the day that I confessed.
The love letter I'd written and edited about a hundred times before it was perfect was in my pocket. Granted it wasn't written with any particular person in mind. And I'd started it in fifth grade when I'd first discovered the wonder of boys, hence why it had gone through a good deal of revisions. At seventeen, my thoughts about love were much different than they'd been back then. But…I'd written it for my ideal guy.
The guy who I fell for, I knew, would always appreciate my words and feelings.
And I thought I'd finally found him.
My crush, Tyson McCormack, was sweet, funny, and such a good person. A few years ago, he and his parents had even rescued a dog from the animal shelter where I volunteered, which made him golden in my eyes. He also happened to be gorgeous, like Hemsworth-level hot—though I kind of wished he wasn't.
I mean who wouldn't be intimidated by that much gorgeousness?
My hand went immediately to my hair, trying to smooth it out once again. The long locks were a dark mahogany brown that matched my eyes. I ran my damp palms against my favorite pair of jeans, tugged on the hem of my oversized "Must Love Dogs" t-shirt before fidgeting with the zipper of the hoodie I wore over it. A lot of girls at DHS were model thin. But I'd never fit that mold of perfection. My C-cups and wider-than-they-should-be hips made sure of that. Tyson, though, was the epitome of male perfection. If he hadn't been so good looking, maybe I would've approached him sooner.
But like I said, today was the big day.
The day I, Viola Kent, confessed my love.
Ty was moving all the way across the world to South Korea, where his dad had just gotten stationed, so yeah, this would literally be my last chance to tell him how I felt. It should be quick and painless. The humiliation, if there was any, would be brief since he was moving away anyway. Little to no ramifications or risk involved. And afterward, I could go back to being invisible, keeping my head down, trying to make it through senior year.
I swallowed, glanced up and down the empty hallway. No sign of him yet. Checking the time again, I knew practice should've ended five minutes ago. And before you start thinking I'm some kind of stalker, no, I didn't memorize his entire schedule.
Well, not on purpose anyway.
My dad was the Durham High head soccer coach, so of course, I knew what time the team's practice let out. Any second now, Ty would round that corner—hopefully alone—and then I'd tell him how I felt and give him the letter.
Palms sweating, licking my lips, I forced myself to wait, to go through with it, to confess.
This was obviously a side-effect of watching too many K-dramas. I knew I shouldn't have binged so many of them, but they were like crack candy for romance addicts. One episode just led to another and another and another….and before you knew it, you were 10 episodes deep in a series you just had to finish and get that promised HEA.
I sighed, rethinking my crazy plan for the millionth time. What did I even expect to happen here? That we'd start some kind of epic pen pal romance? If we did, I thought, it would definitely have to involve letters and postcards, not just email and texts. Real words on paper were so personal, much more romantic. And who didn't love to get mail? That would actually be kind of awesome…but highly unlikely. My fight or flight instincts rose. Seriously, why was I even doing this? I was just about to flee—when the door to the boys locker room opened.
Footsteps sounded, coming this way down the hall, but it wasn't Ty who stopped in front of me.
"Waiting for someone?"
My heart calmed, breath coming back to normal as I frowned. "Not you," I said.
"Ah now, that's not very nice, flower. What did I ever do to you?"
With a sigh, I said, "I've asked you before not to call me that."
Dare Frost lifted his lips in a slow smile. "I know. But it just fits you so well."
My heart skipped, and I cursed internally. Yes, okay, Dare Frost was gorgeous. That smile had been known to wreak havoc, devastating members of Durham High's female population, breaking hearts left and right. And his gaze was so rarely directed at me, of course, I stuttered a bit. But that was no excuse. His teeth were, admittedly, perfect, paired with lips I'd heard other girls call "totally kissable". But the strong chin, the dark hair and those sky blue eyes? They were so unnecessary. The only thing that saved him from being too perfect was a large nose that was almost too big for his face. Add in his air of confidence that bordered on cocky, and Dare Frost was a big deal here at Durham High.
But he'd always been too much for me.
I crossed my arms, looking away. "I actually am waiting for someone. So, if you could please go now, that would be nice."
Dare mirrored my position. "I don't think I've ever been asked to leave so nicely before. That brush off was beautiful, flower. I'll have to use it sometime."
Gah. Was he for real?
"So, who are we waiting for?" he asked.
"We aren't doing anything," I said, getting a little nervous now as more players filed past us, saying bye to Dare, doing that chin lift guys do. Where was Ty? I thought. I needed to do this before I lost my nerve.
"If you're looking for your dad, Coach won't be out for a while."
"I know that." I shot Dare a look. "He always leaves last."
And I hoped he wouldn't decide to change up his routine today of all days. Having my dad witness my confession would be almost as bad as having the school's golden boy standing here—refusing to leave.
"Seriously, would you just go?" I
shifted my weight from one foot to the other, feeling Dare's eyes on me the whole time. A few guys from the team walked by, but none of them was Ty. "I'm here on important personal business."
"Hmm, sounds serious," Dare said.
"It is," I agreed.
"In that case, I think I'd better stay."
I had opened my mouth to say something—what, I didn't know—but then Tyson, my long-awaited crush, finally exited the locker room.
"Hey, D," he called out with a grin that made my breath catch, his steps eating up the space between us. Tyson was like a tall glass of water, his blond hair still wet from the showers, his light golden eyes shining like the sun. When he and Dare stood next to each other, looking like day and night, I felt the need to look away so as not to be blinded. They were that pretty. "What's up?"
"Nothing much," Dare said back.
"You need me for something? Most of the team's gone already." Looking my way for the first time, Ty nodded. "How's it going, Viola?"
A blush rose to my cheeks as I cleared my throat. "Going okay, and you?"
"No complaints," he said and shot me a wink. I swear I nearly died on the spot.
"Oh well, that's good," I murmured.
Dare coughed.
"So, what were you guys doing before I got here?" Ty asked.
"Vi was telling me about some important personal business she has going."
I shot Dare a dark glance, but he just smiled.
Tyson looked between the two of us. "Oh really? I didn't know you were close." He elbowed Dare. "Hanging out with the coach's daughter now, huh? Careful there, D. Wouldn't want to get on Coach Kent's bad side."
"Nah, it's cool," Dare said. "She was waiting on someone, but it wasn't me."
"Oh yeah?"
Dare nodded as my face flamed red. "She'd just asked me to leave actually."
"More than once," I said through gritted teeth, but that only seemed to amuse him.
A group of cheerleaders passed by then, wearing short shorts and crop tops, saying hi to Tyson and Dare while completely ignoring me—which was to be expected. Just because some of us had been friends in elementary school didn't mean we were friends now. But it didn't bother me. That felt like a lifetime ago.
Whitney Moorehouse and Ingrid Pinsky tried to hide it, but I noticed they kept throwing glances over their shoulders, probably wondering what I was doing with the school's #1 bromance. Case in point…
"You need a lift?" Tyson asked Dare after the girls were gone. "I didn't see your car in the lot, heard about the latest fender bender. Was your dad mad?"
Dare's smile was fierce. "Furious."
"Man, you look way too pleased about that."
"You've got to take pleasure where you can get it."
Ty shook his head. "You really should be more careful."
"I know," Dare said deadpan. "If I get injured, who's going to work with you on your crap dribbling skills?"
Tyson scoffed. "One, my dribbling isn't crap—yours is just better. Two, I'll probably be the best soccer player in Korea. That's a whole country, man. And three, you're going to miss me so much when I'm gone."
"Pretty sure they call it football over there. Might want to work on that before the big move."
The two laughed good-naturedly. Tyson and Dare had been BFFs since freshman year. Best friends to the core, brothers on the soccer pitch, as talented and handsome a duo as there ever was. But it wasn't their beauty that made me sigh. It was the bond they seemed to share. As someone who was usually content with being a loner, I had to admit it left a pang in my chest.
Hearing my sigh, Dare looked over to me once more. "You okay there?"
"Yeah, fine," I said. Shaking myself out of it, I gazed at Ty. All that talk of moving and Korea made me refocus and remember my purpose. With a deep breath, I dove in. "I wanted to talk to you about something, Ty. If you have a second."
He looked surprised, but said, "Yeah sure."
I gave Dare a look, and he raised his hands palms out. "Okay, okay, I'm going. Jeez flower, save the frown for someone else." To Tyson, he said, "See you in few."
Tyson and I watched as Dare finally—finally!—walked away and met up with Whitney at the other end of the hall. The two stopped there to talk, and Dare threw us one last look, but I hoped they couldn't hear our conversation. I didn't think they could—which was good since I was already dreading this.
"Flower?" Ty asked, and I could hear the grin in his voice.
With an eyeroll, I turned back to him. "It's just something he says. Pretty sure he does it to annoy me."
He nodded then, "Hmm, so what did you want to talk about?"
Swallowing hard, I looked up at Tyson, my secret crush whose bright eyes and way-too-beautiful face were currently making it hard to form coherent sentences. And I hadn't even said anything yet. Awesome. "Um…I just…well, I-I wanted to tell you something."
"Okay," he said slowly.
"I mean, it's nothing really, but if you could just let me finish before saying anything that would be great."
"No interruptions. Got it."
His good looks made me want to look away, reconsider this crazy plan and just turn tail and run, but I didn't.
"I know we've never really talked. But since it's senior year, I'm trying to be brave—at least this once." I laughed to myself. "And you're moving this weekend anyway, all the way to Korea, so I figure this is my last shot."
Ty had opened his mouth, but I held up a hand. Now that I'd started I didn't want to stop for fear of chickening out.
"I like you Ty," I said in a rush, feeling my face get hot, but forging ahead. "I like you a lot. I think I may even love you. And when you love someone you should tell them. I believe that with everything I am. True, it's probably a result of reading too many romance novels, watching too many romcoms and K-dramas, but who cares." I smiled at him. "I love how you're an athlete and a member of the art club. I love that you drive a van instead of some overly expensive, souped-up ride. I love that you cut the crusts off your sandwiches before you eat them. I love that you like reading books. I love that you don't even try and your hair looks fantastic. I really love that you love dogs. I do, too. You are so kind and beautiful, and I just thought you should know that. Before you leave for Korea, and I never get to tell you. I just…yeah, I wanted you to know."
My heart was pounding as I looked up at him, my words having run away with me. I wasn't even sure I remembered half of the things I said. But the point was I'd said them. They were out there. I'd confessed, and I felt lighter like a weight had been lifted from my chest. I was feeling good, awesome actually…
…for about a minute.
Then Tyson spoke.
"Wow, that was…unexpected," he said. "Thank you for that, Viola. I really appreciate it—oh, and I'm actually not moving until May."
My eyes darted to his. "What?"
"Yeah." Tyson shrugged. "My mom and dad talked it over, and they decided to go ahead overseas while I stay here with my aunt. They wanted to let me stay at Durham High for senior year."
"Oh…" I breathed. "How nice of them."
"Also, I do love art and books, but the van's not mine. It's my dad's," he laughed. "Honestly, I hate it and would've loved a Cadillac, my dream car. Mom's the one who still insists on cutting the crusts off my sandwiches, though I tell her not to. And I actually put a lot of effort into my hair and follow a strict regimen." He leaned in. "But I'm glad someone noticed. Thanks again."
A beat passed.
"And dogs are okay," he said. "But I'm more of a cat person."
I blinked, my heart frozen inside my chest.
"Hey." Ty frowned. "Are you alright?"
"Uh huh," I mumbled. "So…you're saying…I got a lot of stuff wrong about you?"
"Yeah, but there's still a lot to like."
"And…you're not moving?"
He shrugged. "Not till after graduation."
I nodded, but my head felt like it was filled with lead, the po
ssible repercussions of this act of bravery suddenly slapping me in the face.
"Also"—Tyson ran a hand along the back of his neck—"I don't want to sound mean, but we don't really know each other. So…I don't feel the same way. But," he added, "again, I am flattered. It was nice, hearing all that."
"I have to go," I whispered, walking quickly away.
Tyson called out after me, but I just kept going, away from him, past Dare and Whitney, out to the senior parking lot, feeling their eyes on me the whole way.
It was a long walk.
CHAPTER 2
"And then he said he's not moving. Like not until graduation—at which point I started to feel faint. Luckily, I didn't faint because passing out would've only added to the embarrassment."
I shook my head.
"On second thought, I take it back. I don't think it could've gotten any worse."
A pause.
"No, you're right. Awkward is my middle name. It definitely could've been worse." I laughed to myself. "Plus, Ty was so darn nice about everything. Dare Frost was there, like I said. Ugh. And Whitney—you know the girl who used to be my best friend before we hit eighth grade? The one who suddenly got boobs, turned evil, became head Varsity cheerleader, and dumped me like a sack of potatoes? Well yeah, they were there the whole time. I just hope they didn't hear anything."
If they did, I'd have heck to pay. School was set to start back this Monday. I was already an outcast. I didn't need this hanging over my head. My confession had turned into a humiliation fest of epic proportions…
"But at least I didn't give him the letter," I said.
He obviously wasn't the one it was meant for. That was something at least.
Smiling, I said, "You know what, Hermione, you're a great listener."
A bark was my only reply.
"You want to get out of that cage and go outside?" Her tail was wagging before I even finished. "I think you deserve it for listening to all of my whining."
As I opened her cage, the big ball of fluff that was Hermione hurtled out of her cage and sat in front of me, waiting patiently while I attached her leash and gave her a scratch behind the ears. She was beautiful, a mix of brown and black brindle fur, smart eyes and a head full of crazy hair. She hadn't come with any papers. My boss had no idea about her parents, so mutt was as close as we could get to identifying breed. And I'd loved her right from the moment she'd come to the shelter two months ago. Despite her kind nature, she'd been here longer than most of the dogs, too long, and while I dreaded it, I kept hoping someone would adopt her and give her a great home.
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