THE NIGHT I FOUND HIM

One random night, I found him.

Not in a dream. Not in a hallway filled with fluorescent lights and the smell of cafeteria pizza. Not even in one of those overly curated "couple goals" videos I pretend not to save.

I found him on Instagram, of all places.

A post. A tagged photo. A boy from my school I'd never noticed before—which was strange, because our school had exactly three types of boys: the loud ones, the messy ones, and the ones you actively avoided eye contact with in the hallway.

I had perfected the art of the disgusted face. Every time a boy walked near me? Face. Every time someone mentioned a crush? Face. My best friend Mina once timed me. I went seven seconds flat before wrinkling my nose.

But this boy?

I scrolled past the post, then back up. Then down again. Then I just stared.

No face. Not even a twitch.

"You're not making a face," Mina whispered, her chin suddenly on my shoulder. She'd been watching me from across my bed for ten minutes. "Wait. You're staring. You never stare. You don't even look at boys."

I swallowed. Hard. "He's just… handsome."

"Handsome?" She grabbed my phone. "You called the last guy who talked to you a 'walking ick.'"

"This is different."

"How?"

I didn't have an answer. Not yet.

But I took my phone back, saved the photo, and for the first time in sixteen years, I let myself wonder: What if he's the one I don't make a face at?

His name was Atlas.

Even his name was pretty. Soft and strong at the same time. Like he was meant to carry something—or someone.

I didn't sleep that night. Or the next. I thought about him during math, during lunch, during the exact moment Mina threw a pencil at my head because I'd zoned out for the fifth time.

"I need to know everything," I told her.

"That's creepy."

"That's romantic."

Mina sighed. But she handed me her phone—because her cousin dated Atlas's best friend—and within an hour, I had the holy grail:

No girlfriend. Ever.

No crush. Currently.

Never dated.

Quiet around strangers. Loud only with his two close friends.

Walks home alone every day. Takes the left exit, not the main gate.

I made a plan.

Phase one: Become his friend.

Phase two: Get close.

Phase three: Tell him everything.

Simple. Foolproof. The kind of plan that definitely never backfires in every movie Mina makes me watch.

I didn't know that Atlas had a plan of his own.

Or that I was already part of it.