The fact that his schedule matched mine so perfectly might have been a coincidence, but that didn’t explain the way he stared at me. Just me. Constantly.

At first, I was oblivious because he always sat behind me. But Vik noticed right away, and he wasted no time in telling me.

“It’s totally creepy,” he said. “You need to be careful, Andi. Don’t let that guy get too close.”

“Vik, you’re overreacting,” said Bree. “It’s not a crime to look at someone.”

My brain agreed with Bree, but my gut was with Vik. There was definitely something unsettling about the boy. And maybe it was just my imagination, but from then on, I swear I could feel his piercing eyes always on me. I began to empathize with animals in the zoo.

~*~*~*~

“Riley Bay!”

Bree said the name as though it were the answer to a riddle she’d been puzzling over for days. As it turned out, it was.

I looked up from my cafeteria lunch (veggie pizza, a bright green apple and chocolate milk) in confusion.

“Huh?”

“Riley Bay,” Bree repeated, plopping onto the bench across from me. “That’s your not-so-secret admirer’s name.”

My heart skipped a beat, but I tried to play it cool. I rolled my eyes. “He’s not my admirer, secret or otherwise. Have you seen the way he glares at me? He’s clearly the exact opposite of an admirer.”

“I wouldn’t say he glares at you. He just stares at you. That could be good or bad.” She smiled slyly. “Maybe he’s just captivated by your beauty.”

I rolled my eyes again. “I sincerely doubt that.”

“No, seriously,” she continued, “I think he might like you, Andi. He may be weird, but he’s still a teenage boy. Maybe he’s just shy.”

I honestly hadn’t considered that possibility, nor did I give it much thought now. It was hard to imagine any guy noticing me in that way, but a guy that gorgeous? No way.

“You must be at least a little curious about him,” Bree prodded. “After all, it’s not every day a girl gets her very own stalker.”

“Just what I always wanted,” I said sarcastically.

The truth was, Bree was more right than she knew. For two nights in a row, I’d lain awake, wondering about this mystery boy. But who could blame me? I wasn’t used to getting attention from boys, except for Vik, and he didn’t count. For that matter, I wasn’t used to getting this kind of attention—silent, but intense—from anyone.

So he had a name: Riley Bay. That didn’t seem right to me. I was expecting something a little more exotic, like Balthasar or Demetrius or Fabio. How could such an unusual person have such an ordinary name?