How Secrets Affect a Complex Character in a New High School Romance
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In my high school romance “What Happens After You Confess Your Feelings to Someone?”, Chloe is a sophomore who’s deeply in love with a junior at her school named Mordecai. And she loves him even though he’s not always there for her when she needs him to be and even though he often breaks her heart with his seeming indifference to her feelings.
Because the thing is, at the start of the story, Chloe has already confessed her feelings to Mordecai. So, he knows she likes him. But he hasn’t shared how he feels about her. Meanwhile, he continues dating other girls because, unlike Chloe, he’s allowed to date. Chloe won’t be allowed to until she’s a senior. Even so, she holds onto this complicated friendship for reasons I explore in this post.
But this situation means Chloe and Mordecai are mostly friends from a distance, at least at the beginning. And it also means that Chloe is friends with someone she has feelings for, which can be painful for her.
A Complex Guy With Secrets
Before you judge Mordecai too harshly, there’s something you should know about him. He has secrets. They’re secrets he carries with him from his troubled past. And they affect his mood and behavior, sometimes leading him to act in ways that seem erratic.
Of course, I’m not going to tell you what his secrets are. You have to read the story to find out. But I would like to give you a glimpse of what his behavior is like without you knowing anything about them—other than that he has them.
Here’s a snippet of a conversation between Chloe and Mordecai in Chapter 9. It takes place after Chloe has one of the hardest school weeks of her academic career. Mordecai had promised to call her the Friday after it was over, but he hasn’t called yet. So, Chloe calls him. (This excerpt also includes some of Chloe’s commentary. Chloe is narrating.)
“Hey,” Mordecai says when he answers, sounding a little bored.
“Hey,” I say. “You busy?”
“Not really.”
“You said you were going to call me, remember?”
“I forgot.”
“Oh. I just wanted to let you know that I’ve officially made it through the hardest week of my life. I’m so tired, I feel like I could fall asleep any second.”
“Uh huh.”
“You sure you’re not busy?”
He sighs. “Yeah, I’m sure.”
I pause. “So, um, how was your week?”
“Fine.”
“That’s good.” Another pause. “Did anything exciting happen?”
“Not really,” he says.
“Is something wrong?” I ask.
“No. Why?”
“No reason. It just seems like you’re in a bad mood. Did I do something?”
“Man, Chloe, what’s your deal? You’re the one who called me, remember? You’re not allowed to have a problem with my mood.”
“I’m sorry. You’re just not usually this unresponsive.”
“Maybe I had a bad week. Did you ever think of that?”
“I asked you about your week, and you said it was fine.”
“Fine is a generic term often used to mean, ‘Don’t ask me any more questions.’”
“So, you did have a bad week then,” I confirm.
“That’s besides the point,” he says. “You know what? Never mind. I gotta go.” And he hangs up.
I don’t know why I keep expecting Mordecai to change. He’s never there when I need him. But, of course, I’m always there when he needs me. I just don’t know how to shut that part of me off. I can’t treat him like he treats me. He can lie to me and get mad at me for no reason and ignore me and hurt my feelings, but all I can do is love him.
At this point, Chloe doesn’t know anything about Mordecai’s secrets. All she knows is that she loves him despite these kinds of interactions. Her love for him is very strong. Some might even call it irrational. But Chloe is someone who leads with her heart. And since when is the heart known for being rational?
When He Starts Sharing
When Mordecai does finally start sharing his secrets, though, he’ll only share them with Chloe. One of the reasons for this, and perhaps the strongest one, is because her love is so constant. It seems he needs that sense of stability—that feeling that someone isn’t just going to shut him out after his first or tenth mistake—to feel comfortable opening up. (At least, she doesn’t shut him out permanently. But she does try to get distance sometimes.)
And with Chloe’s continuous attachment to Mordecai, it means she’s able to earn his trust, which eventually allows him to come clean.
But before he feels comfortable doing that, he struggles to tell even her. Here’s a sample from Chapter 16. Chloe is helping Mordecai decide what to write for a college essay. But first, she has to help him choose which essay question he wants to respond to.
He stands, grabs a paper from his desk, and hands it to me. On it, I see three essay options. Reading the first one, I say, “Ok. ‘Write about a time you overcame a challenge.’” I look at him. “Anything coming to mind?”
He seems to be thinking hard about something, but he seems equally incapable of speaking about it aloud. “Not really.”
“You sure?”
“Well, there is something. You see, there’s something you don’t know about me. I’m…I was…”
I wait in unbearable suspense. “You were what?”
He shakes his head and sighs. “Never mind. There’s nothing.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure.”
At this point, it seems Mordecai doesn’t yet trust Chloe enough to tell her his secrets. But that he even tries to tell her speaks volumes about the strength of their bond and his comfort level with her.
I find it interesting how, even though Mordecai and Chloe’s friendship starts out from a distance—sustained mostly by IM chats and phone calls in the beginning—they seem to have a closer connection than the one Mordecai has with the people he encounters in real life. After all, it’s not with any of them that he starts sharing his secrets.
But this particular sample comes from a conversation that Chloe and Mordecai have in person. Although I won’t share how Mordecai finally starts revealing his secrets to Chloe, it’s interesting that the first time he tries is when they’re face-to-face.
A Different Kind of YA Romance
This is a nontraditional YA romance. When you start reading the story, the ending hasn’t yet been decided. Instead, I leave it to you, the reader, to decide the ending.
While Chloe is crushing on Mordecai, she has a good friend named Simon who has a crush on her. But Simon struggles to confess his feelings to her, partly because of her intense attachment to Mordecai.
So, who will Chloe end up with? That’s for you to decide.
When you read the story, you’ll reach a chapter where you get to decide whether you want Chloe to pick Mordecai or Simon. And after you choose, you can read the ending based on the outcome you select.
If this sounds exciting to you, go ahead and click here to learn more about the story.
Final Thoughts
In my new YA romance “What Happens After You Confess Your Feelings to Someone?”, Mordecai is the most complex of the main characters. He’s prone to moodiness and erratic behavior. And he often does things that leave Chloe, the female protagonist, in tears.
But Mordecai is carrying the heavy weight of secrets. And these secrets affect his interactions with others, including Chloe. Even so, the constancy of her love eventually earns his trust, which allows him to open up about his secrets and allows her to understand him better—and love him more.
If you’re interested in learning more about Mordecai’s past—and if you want to be in the driver’s seat of this young adult romance—don’t wait another second to check out this story!
~ Ashley C.
P.S. If you would like to sample more of my story-writing style, you can click here to read some short stories that are currently available.
Also, if you’re dealing with a complicated crush and would like some personalized advice on how to handle it, you might be interested in my crush coaching services. Feel free to click here to find out more.
Last updated: May 4, 2025
