Chapter 15

OLIVIA Senior year was both the luckiest and worst year of my high school life. It was the luckiest because, at last, Noah and I became deskmates. Though we didn’t talk much—just exchanged the occasional glance, and I was already content with that. One day, I accidentally picked up the wrong textbook and filled it with notes. When class ended, I realized it was Noah’s, as his name was written neatly on the cover. His handwriting stood out—unconventional and distinctly his own. I stared at his textbook for a long time. Just the thought of my handwriting being left on his textbook's pages made me feel as though, at that moment, two non-parallel lines were slowly converging. “I accidentally took your textbook,” I whispered to Noah the next day. I had gotten to school early, so most of our classmates hadn’t arrived yet. I was glad Noah was already there. He turned to me, checked his textbook, and nodded. We quickly swapped books. “Uh, I made some notes in your textbook,” I said, feeling a