My Ice-Cold Crush Can Read My Comments

The hottest guy in school could see every comment I wrote in my head. So I started feeding him fake ones: I was his destined female lead.

I set my own affection meter at seventy percent. I said that one word from him and I'd hand him my life with my eyes going red.

But all he ever did was put the food from my comments on my desk. In real life, when I moved toward him, his face shut down cold and he took a big step back.

I finally gave up and turned the comments into a notes app. [Three donuts for breakfast, three bucks.] [Don't forget to put money in the lunch account.] [The new transfer kid in the class next door is so hot.

Huge crush…] A shadow dropped over me. I looked up into Alistair Harrington's dark, heavy eyes. Chapter 1 Our homeroom seats don't change all semester.

My deskmate and I have our two desks pushed together into one row, and Alistair sits right behind me. I looked at the breakfast on my desk and let one corner of my mouth curl up.

An iced vanilla latte, a cheese danish, and a baconandegg wrap with no onions.

I stabbed in the straw and started writing comments in my head. [Brenna is clearly thrilled with this breakfast. Nice work, male lead!] [But why not hand it to her in person?

If the female lead knew the male lead was the one giving it to her, wouldn't her affection shoot straight up?] [If you ask me, he shouldn't just hand it over, he should feed it to her by hand…] Behind me somebody started coughing hard.

I turned to look, and the guy sitting next to Alistair was fumbling a napkin at him. "Alistair, did it go down wrong?" The hottest guy in school, the one with the yearround iceberg face, turned red from his neck to the top of his head.

I let the corner of my mouth curl up again and turned back around. Alistair transferred in two months ago.

The day he showed up, somebody posted his picture to the school's anonymous crush account, and the love notes filled half his locker.

My deskmate pinched my arm, delighted. "He's too goodlooking to be a real person. How has a scout not grabbed him yet?!" The answer came pretty fast.

Because in two weeks, the cars that came to pick Alistair up were never the same one twice. And he scared off every girl who confessed to him.

One of them said, "When those eyes land on you, it's like stepping into a walkin freezer." An iceberg sounded great to me. My family's broke.

Bring him home and we'd save on the AC all summer. But a girl as proud as me was never going to chase him first. Getting turned down would be too big a hit to my pride.

Before I could work out how to chase Alistair down without giving up an inch of dignity, a cheat code showed up in my head.

The instructions said every comment I posted would appear in front of Alistair's eyes.

I gave it a try. [Alistair has no idea that the one fate picked out for him is that gentle, beautiful, generous Brenna Fenwick in his own class.] That day, Alistair's eyes settled on me for the first time.

Except the look wasn't interest. It was closer to confusion.

So I started leaning on my cheat code to brainwash him. [Alistair still doesn't know that Brenna is his destined female lead.] [Brenna's affection meter is already up to seventy percent.

Is the male lead ever going to run her route?] I put every ounce of literary talent I had into misleading him. Alistair's eyes stayed on my face more and more often.

Confusion, scrutiny, bewilderment, doubt. Like he was looking at a monkey somebody had plucked bald, and yet he never once spoke to me first. Until last week.

I was walking past the mouth of the alley when I heard a few guys talking about Alistair. Chapter 2 Alistair had been here a while and still didn't have any friends.

Nobody wants to go from being a classmate to being "that guy standing next to Alistair." They were running him down behind his back. Saying he was just a guy putting on an act.

I figured they had a point, and I was nodding along and about to walk on by when I heard something a lot uglier. "Pretty face, no spine.

And those girls are shallow as hell, lining up to simp for him." "You know Noelle Wexler, in the class next door?

I chased her for three days, and the reason she gave me was that she doesn't want a boyfriend.

Then I turn around and catch her passing Alistair a love note with this thirsty look all over her face." He spat. "Lucky I didn't drop a single damn cent asking her out, or I'd have been a straightup clown.

Girl looks so shy and sweet, but the second Alistair's in the room she can't spread her legs fast enough…" I knew Noelle. She was our student council secretary, a really quiet girl.

By the time I caught up with myself, I'd already beaten those pieces of garbage until they were crawling around on the ground. "Fuck!

Another psycho simping for Alistair…" I slapped the one who'd been spraying filth out of his mouth two more times, then grabbed a fistful of his hair and narrowed my eyes at him. "I recorded all of that.

You start a sex rumor like that about a girl, go enjoy your suspension, you dumb fuck." His face drained white and he apologized. "Brenna Fenwick, I didn't see it was you.

I was just running my mouth, I'll never say anything about Alistair again, please, spare me, I hope you and Alistair get married and have a whole house full of kids…" Did this guy catch a single one of my points?

I still wanted to slap him twice more and make him apologize to Noelle. Then I looked up and met the eyes of the guy standing at the mouth of the alley.

The last of the sunlight came down soft into that rundown alley. I pressed my lips together, let go of him, straightened up, and walked out.

A set of footsteps followed me at an unhurried pace.

With nothing better to do, I started posting comments for Alistair. [Is this the male lead and female lead meeting for the first time?

So romantic.] [Why is the male lead following the female lead like this? Has he already lost his heart to her?] [Be brave, Alistair.

Go talk to the female lead yourself and you can unlock their very first conversation!] "Bre—Brenna." It was the first time I'd ever heard Alistair say my name.

I pushed the corner of my mouth back down and turned around.

He had his backpack over one shoulder, and there still wasn't much of anything on his face, his eyes flat and still. "Thank you." He said it and walked off without looking back.

Tch. He's even prouder than I am. So from that day on, Alistair didn't just look at me.

When I complained the school food was inedible, he'd slip something he'd brought into the cubby under my desk.

When I said a test was brutal, his notes would find their way into my hands. Aside from never starting a conversation, Alistair basically turned into a wishing well.

Anything good to eat or fun to play with that I put in a comment would be in the cubby under my desk the next day.

He wasn't especially hiding it, and plenty of people in class noticed.

The hottest guy in school, that iceberg who radiated leavemealone in every direction, kept giving me things, and there was nothing going on between us at all.

My deskmate looked at my danish, then turned and looked at Alistair in the row behind us. The flush had faded off his face. "That danish of yours.

Alistair brought it." She propped her chin in her hand and studied me. "Bren, don't tell me you're running a protection racket on the hottest guy in school." I was in the middle of posting a comment for Alistair, and I widened my eyes at her. "Excuse me?

He admires me and he's too embarrassed to say so, so he shows it quietly." Besides, the protection money thing was a year or two ago.

Chapter 3 Back then a few upperclassmen lowlifes were collecting protection money off our class, and I leaned on them until they gave every cent of it back.

I never expected that to be the thing that torched my reputation. To this day the legend of me being a thug still gets passed around the whole school.

My deskmate clearly wasn't buying it. I took a vicious bite out of the danish, feeling pretty sour myself.

All day long I used this stupid comment feed to play a random viewer and mess with Alistair, and in real life the two of us had barely exchanged two sentences.

How are two people this deep in their own fronts supposed to start a romance? Me going over and making the first move? Not happening.

But I'd been talking nonsense in the comments for a week and Alistair hadn't budged. I was still turning it over when the chance landed in my lap.

That afternoon we had chemistry down in the lab, two people to a bench, and the teacher told us to pair ourselves up. Nobody would go with Alistair.

The guys didn't want to end up as his backdrop, and the girls got as far as walking over before that cold stare froze the words in their throats.

I let the comment feed have it. [This is a onceinalifetime opening. Brenna hasn't paired up with anybody yet.

Male lead, go ask her, now.] [Is The Bossy Delinquent Fell For Me: Nowhere To Run, My Sweet Little Iceberg finally getting its first chapter?] [The female lead's affection is pretty high.

If the male lead asks her to be his partner, there's no way she says no.] I hammered out a bunch more, and I only came back to myself when I saw Alistair walking toward me.

My heart sped up with every step he took, and I swallowed and started drafting my answer. Should I just say yes, or play it cool first?

Do I go with an eager yes, or do I give him a lofty whatever like I'm granting him a favor?

Then the footsteps stopped in front of me and a long, pale hand came to a halt in front of my face.

I looked up without thinking into Alistair's flawless face, my mouth slipped, and the words came right out. "I do." The air went quiet.

He gave me one still look, then picked up the breakfast trash sitting in front of me and carried it off with his own. I was embarrassed enough to kill somebody.

I glared at Alistair's back with my teeth grinding. Don't think I missed it. There was absolutely a flicker of amusement in his eyes just then. He did that on purpose!

My deskmate leaned in. "He actually threw your trash out for you…" "You really did bully him. The hottest guy in school, and you bullied him." "School violence.

Straightup school violence." I pulled up the comment panel and swallowed the urge to curse Alistair out. [Was the male lead teasing the female lead just now?

So cute!] I typed with my jaw clenched. [The female lead was too adorable there. She thought the male lead was coming over to ask her, right?

And then the male lead, that jerk…] [And then the male lead, that little troublemaker, just messes with her instead.

I ship it so hard.] In the end I partnered with my deskmate, and the next time Alistair walked past me I didn't spare him so much as a glance.

Then the lab partner seating chart landed in my hands, and I stared at the Alistair sitting next to my name for a solid two seconds.

Keeping my face flat over that seating chart, I sort of wanted to laugh. Alistair really is putting on an act… but I like it. In lab, we were close to each other for the first time.

It wasn't actually that cold next to Alistair. There was even a clean detergent smell, and up close I noticed his skin was so fine you almost couldn't find a pore.

His long fingers paused, and he turned his head toward me. "Your turn." I pulled my eyes back and looked at the bottles and jars in front of me, and my head started to hurt.

I opened the comment panel without thinking. [Can the male lead tell the female lead has no idea what she's doing?

Time for a rescue scene?] Chapter 4 [Saying it again, the name of this book is The Bossy Delinquent…] The bottle got pulled out of my hand, and Alistair's voice put a little heat in my ears. "I'll do it." I cleared my throat and took my time getting the words out. "Alistair Harrington, why do you bring me breakfast every day?" Alistair's hand froze in midair.

He turned and looked at me for two seconds, and I nearly lost hold of my smile. Why do I get the feeling he can see straight through people… "I couldn't finish it.

Leftovers." Alistair set the thing in his hand down without any particular expression, and I opened the comments and started talking nonsense. [Sure, let the male lead keep talking tough.

There's a grovel arc coming for him and he won't be able to cry his way out of it!] [A mouth you never use is a wasted mouth.] [Speaking of mouths, the male lead's mouth looks really soft…] Alistair almost lost his grip on the beaker.

His face stayed flat and the tips of his ears went scarlet.

I pulled my eyes back, satisfied, and got serious about the experiment. [Brenna's affection just dropped a big chunk, and it's all because he won't speak up first.

As a love interest, this male lead is failing hard.] [I hear a new cupcake place opened up by the front of the school.

If somebody bought the female lead a cupcake, maybe that affection would climb back…] Alistair glanced over at me and said nothing.

I glared at his blinding white sneakers hard enough to grind my teeth down. I've hinted this hard.

Is he into me or not? "Pay attention in class." A cold finger poked the top of my head.

I looked up and all I caught were the tips of Alistair's ears, red all the way through. "I'll buy you a cupcake after school." Right. Even his invitations come wrapped in pride.

But I was very satisfied. For the rest of the period I stopped tracking Alistair out of the corner of my eye and stopped chattering at him in the comments.

I did what he said instead and kept my eyes on the bottle in my hands like a good student. But a sulky, burning stare kept coming from my left.

I turned my head and got nothing but Alistair's perfect profile. For a second my mind went somewhere else. Looking like that, honestly, it isn't my fault I'm falling.

He's the one doing the luring. The pressure in the air around us seemed to have eased up a lot. Word that Alistair had bought me a cupcake went around fast.

My deskmate was more certain than ever that I, the class bully, was bullying poor delicate little Alistair. I looked at the yogurt sitting on my desk and started rethinking things.

It was true. Apart from the food and drinks I wished for in the comments, Alistair had never once asked me to go anywhere with him.

Even when I dropped hints about the weekend, nothing. So I pulled up the panel and started handing out assignments again. [It's Friday.

Why hasn't the male lead asked Brenna to the amusement park yet?] [He's in front of the female lead every single day and he's racked up this much affection.

If he confessed, she'd say yes for sure.] [One word from the male lead and the female lead would hand him her life, eyes going red!] [I want the part where the leads are together and there's kissing and hugging and getting picked up and spun around.

Why is there still zero progress? Somebody get a date going!] A bottle of yogurt came down in front of me. Alistair's steps slowed for a beat, and he still didn't say anything.

Watching his back, I jammed the straw in, irritated. Fine. I'll admit it, he's even prouder than I am. If he doesn't confess after school today, I'm saying it first.

Anybody with eyes can see Alistair treats me differently. All this time I've been brainwashing him that I'm his future wife, and he's obviously taken it seriously.

This morning I was talking to the guy in front of me and I kept feeling a chill on the back of my neck. I turned around and met Alistair's dark, sullen eyes. Chapter 5