Hinovel
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Summary
PROLOGUE : ❤️❤️❤️ He grips my waist, bringing me closer to him in an attempt to prevent my escape. « Please, don’t move away. I need you close to me, » he states with a pleading gaze. I sigh, conflicted and a bit exhausted. « Why, Steven ? Why can’t you just let this go ? » « You’re my sunshine, Tasha. My eternal sunshine. I can’t let this go. I simply won’t. » ~ Since the day Steven Morrison laid eyes on Tasha Simmons, his heart connected with hers in an unexplainable way. Unsure on how to approach her, the young boy resorted to mild taunting for years, effectively annoying her with his ever-present grins and stolen touches. Unaware of his deep feelings for her, Tasha ignored and evaded Steven since the first time she met him. She resisted his advances and convinced herself he was the villain. Until she discovered that perhaps he wasn’t the bad guy. She hid from him until she couldn’t do so any longer. She forced herself to hate him until her own feelings began betraying her. And despite her fears that she and Steven were too unalike to become one, she learned that he would stop at nothing to change her mind.
01
Tasha couldn’t complain about her life.
It wasn’t in any way a rollercoaster, she wasn’t rich yet she wasn’t struggling for food, some of her clothes were thrifted while others from stores like Forever 21 or H&M. Every day, she was grateful to be alive.
Everything could always be worse. She always told herself. I’m alive, that’s more than something, it’s everything.
« You only got five minutes in the shower, Tasha. Don’t you go wasting it ! » In Tasha’s opinion, her sister Janelle had way too much energy in the morning.
Her shower didn’t last more than five minutes, she made sure to scrub her body properly though, she wasn’t about to be smelling throughout the day.
Thank God her school required every student to wear uniforms. Tasha’s wardrobe was far from stylish, so she was thankful her mornings didn’t consist wearing anything she owned.
Exiting her room, she made a beeline for the kitchen, walking with tiredness through the one-story home she shared with her family. It wasn’t too flashy or big, but it had been comfortable and theirs since she’d been born. Of course, her parents were not home.
« Y’all better get to school early today ! I don’t wanna get no call from the school, hear me ? Love, Mom, and Dad, » Janelle read the small note their parents had left on the table, a small smile on her lips.
Tasha sighed. « What are you eating ? »
Janelle shrugged her shoulders and opened the fridge. « We only have five minutes, bruh. How about I make us Nutella sandwiches real quick ? We can eat them on the ride to school. »
Tasha nodded and smiled at her sister.
Janelle and Tasha were the types of people who had a weird obsession with Nutella, nothing could ever compare in their eyes.
« Alright, as I do this take your ass to the car. » Janelle threw her car keys at Tasha, knowing she would catch them. « Warm that shit up, as soon as I come, we go. »
Tasha nodded again and grabbed her worn-out black Jansport backpack before exiting the house, her black chucks in her hand.
Although the weather was pretty cold, Tasha, alongside the rest of the female population at Crest High, was required to wear plaid skirt that barely reached her knees. It was just the law.
Tasha remembered what her sister had told her to do, so she stuck the key in the ignition, then turned on the heater. Living in Alabama already had its little to no perks, the weather was not one of them. In her opinion, a balance was nonexistent when it came to the weather.
She was in deep thought, truly thinking of nothing at all, when her phone’s loud ringtone screamed in the quiet car.
Tasha couldn’t help the thumping of her heartbeat. She already had a clear idea who was calling her this early morning. She was debating whether to answer or not, knowing damn well that he wouldn’t stop calling her even if she didn’t. So she had to answer.
« What ? » she snapped. She wasn’t about to play with anyone early that morning.
« Always so sour. » His voice was so smooth and deep. His southern accent not as evident in certain words, due to the fact that he had spent a good portion of his young years in California.
More than anything in the world, Tasha really wished she could erase the day she ever met him. The day she ever made eye contact with him. The day he laid eyes on her.
« What do you want, Steven ? »
He sighed as if he was seriously about to give her a decent answer. « What ? Couldn’t I just want to hear your voice ? »
« No. » Again, she snapped at him.
What was his problem exactly ? She always wondered. Why was he so intent on annoying the living hell out of her ? She hadn’t done anything to him. Perhaps he was racist ? She had no clue.
« Look, Steven. I don’t have your time. Leave. Me. Alone. » Before he could say anything, she hung up on him.
« How the fuck did he even get my number, bruh ? » she questioned out loud.
« Who got your number ? »
Tasha’s body went through shock when it heard Janelle’s voice so close. This caused a tide of laughter out of Janelle’s blemishless face.
Tasha could feel the car starting but she was still in shock. « Are you a witch ?! » she asked a laughing Janelle.
« No, you just too focused on your fine man to think ‘bout me. » She directed a smirk at her little sister, now visually angered.
« My what ?! Nelle, you piss me off with your shit, man. »
« Oh calm down, everybody knows y’all just dancing around each other. »
Tasha knew it was a waste of time trying to convince her sister the opposite, so she just sighed and sat back in her seat.
« More like everybody knows he practically downright bullies me, » she resorted to mumbling to herself.
« Girl, he’s not bullying you. You must be really blind. »
Tasha ignored her sister once more and grabbed her sandwich. It was too damn early to be talking.
Especially about Steven.