After Reading My Boyfriend’s Mind, I Dumped Him for Good Novel – Chapter 1 My boyfriend was such a fraud. Every time I kissed him, he’d frown and push me away. A second later, his ears would turn bright red. Whenever I reached for his hand at the movies, he’d try to pull away at first. Somehow, we’d always end up holding hands anyway. Everyone said this relationship was completely one-sided. But I was the only one who knew just how much Atticus loved me. He enjoyed being bothered by me. He liked my touch. He just wasn’t good at expressing it. At least, that’s what I had always believed. Until the day I brought him a bottle of water while he was playing basketball. One of his friends laughed and nudged him. “Yo, Atticus! Your stage-five clinger’s back again.” Atticus didn’t respond.
He just reached out to take the water. And then, without warning, I heard his voice in my head. [Ugh, so annoying.] I went still. Atticus frowned at me. “What?” But another thought drifted into my ears. [Why won’t she just leave?] I stared at him for several seconds. Then I tossed the bottle I’d been about to give him straight into the trash. “It’s nothing. I was just passing by. You guys keep playing.” *** The moment those words left my mouth, the noisy, sweltering basketball court seemed to plunge below freezing. Even Julian Vance, standing beside Atticus, sensed something was off. He glanced at Atticus’s dark expression, then at me. Without a word, he pulled on the T-shirt hanging over his shoulder. I turned around and walked away. My ponytail swung sharply behind me. But no matter how composed I looked, I couldn’t fool myself. I knew that if I stayed even one second longer, I would start crying. A breeze stirred the fallen leaves beneath the trees.
As I replayed the look of impatience on his face, I crushed the leaves under my feet one by one. So when he’d said he didn’t want me coming to watch him play basketball, he’d actually meant it. And there I was, like an idiot, happily running over again and again just to bring him water. To him, it had all been annoying. He just wanted me gone. We had been dating for a year. For the first time, I found myself wondering whether Atticus really liked me at all. As shocking as it was to suddenly hear his thoughts, what I couldn’t accept even more was the possibility that he genuinely disliked me. My mind was all over the place by the time I made it back to the classroom. The moment I collapsed onto my desk, it was like every last bit of energy had been sucked out of me. A small wave of excited whispers suddenly spread through the room. I looked up and realized Atticus had somehow appeared in my classroom.
Wasn’t he supposed to be playing basketball? Or had he noticed I was upset and come to make it up to me? I sat up a little straighter and watched him walk over. He was carrying a neatly organized notebook. “Here. The notes you wanted.” Just as I thought. He did care about me. I reached out to take the notebook. Then I heard his thoughts again. [So stupid.]