102 - DROWNING SECRETS

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• The Roomie Complex   114 - ANOTHER KISS?

  Aiden's POVThe late evening sky brushed the horizon in muted lavender, draping our garden in pastel twilight. I led Sabrina across a narrow stone path, lined with carved statues and verdant hedges that hummed with the soft drone of lantern-lit cicadas. Roses climbed trellises overhead, their scent cloying and sweet—an intoxicating mask over nerves trembling just beneath my pulses.We’d slipped away from the formal dining room, leaving behind clinking glasses and strained conversation. I’d barely tasted anything. Food was no longer an option—or a distraction. All I could think about was Cheryl: her scared eyes that she kept from meeting mine, her refusal when I’d stopped her in the hall, her red dress scorched into my vision like a still-burning photograph.When Sabrina slid her hand into mine, it startled me. Her fingers curled around mine, warm and confident, as though this engagement, this partnership, was as real to her as the roses to our left.“You don’t want an early wedding ye

• The Roomie Complex   113 - THREE WEEKS?

  Cheryl's POVThe dining room was drenched in warm golden light, spilling from the ornate chandelier that hung like a jeweled spider above us. The long glass table gleamed, set with fine china and sparkling crystal. Everything looked expensive. Staged. Like something out of a magazine shoot for Power Families and Their Perfect Lies.I walked in on Oliver’s arm, every nerve in my body strung tight like a violin about to snap.Aiden and Sabrina were already seated, side by side. He pulled her chair out before sitting. Of course he did. He was always good at pretending. The way he rested his arm behind her chair. The way she leaned into it like she was born to fit there. It was all so performative, but the sting was still real.I took the seat across from him, deliberately, not because I wanted to sit opposite him—but because I couldn’t bear to sit next to him. If his shoulder brushed mine, I’d unravel completely.Oliver sat beside me, his hand resting too comfortably on my thigh under th

• The Roomie Complex   112 - BLOOD RED

  Cheryl's POVI spent the entire day rotting under my duvet, the glow of my phone screen burning into my retinas as I doom-scrolled past engagement rings, wedding decor, and curated couples in soft-filtered poses. I hadn’t eaten. I hadn’t moved. I couldn’t. I kept replaying Aiden holding Sabrina's hands as she announces their engagement for all of town to hear, I couldn't forget the instant shock I felt not after everything he had told me prior before.The thought of stepping outside this room made my stomach twist. But the thought of sitting through a dinner with them—with him—made it churn into something darker.My door rattled with a polite knock sometime before six. I rolled my eyes, shoved the phone under a pillow, and peeled myself off the bed.I didn’t have to guess who it was. Of course it was Sabrina.I opened the door and there she stood—wrapped in a silky robe that looked like it cost more than my entire closet, with plastic rollers neatly stacked in her hair like a crown. S

• The Roomie Complex   111 - THE SEED

  Cheryl’s POVThe ride back home was thick with silence.Not the peaceful kind.The suffocating kind that squeezes around your chest and doesn't let go.It was just me and Oliver. Sabrina had left with Aiden — and I hadn't even seen when. One minute she was on stage, holding his hand like she’d been doing it for years, and the next, she was gone. Like a magician’s trick. Vanished with my ghost.When Oliver signaled that it was time to leave, I didn’t argue. I just followed. I was surprised he hadn’t left me behind, if I’m being honest. Surprised, and a little grateful — not that I’d ever say it out loud.But I didn’t have the words anyway.My tongue had dried up miles before we got in the car.The entire drive was steeped in that haunting silence — like neither of us knew where to begin, or worse, we both knew exactly where it would end. I glanced at him once, just once, in the dim wash of the passing streetlights. His jaw was clenched, his eyes fixed ahead like the road was the only t

• The Roomie Complex   110 - LOSS

  Cheryl’s POVIt was as if someone had opened a window inside my chest and let all the air escape. I couldn't breathe, my chest constricted without effort and i was almost gasping for airI stood frozen at the base of the stairs, the cards still fanned in my hand, fingers slightly trembling. But no one cared about the cards anymore. No one cared about the stupid game anymore.They cared about the performance unfolding at the front — Sabrina and Aiden, hand in hand, glowing like a damn royal couple.Engaged.That word hit me like a steel baton to the knees.People clapped. Of course they clapped. The upper crust always knew how to applaud a lie — as long as it was gift-wrapped in wealth and elegance. Some turned to whisper behind jeweled hands, others raised glasses to toast. Meanwhile, I stood there like a forgotten line in a well-rehearsed play.My chest was burning. I couldn’t breathe properly. I didn’t even realize I was gripping the mic until someone gently took it from my hand — m

• The Roomie Complex   109 - THE ANNOUNCEMENT

  Cheryl’s POVThe silk shimmer of my gown caught the faint chandelier light as I stepped away from the door, clutching the small velvet pouch with my prizes. The tagged name cards—fifteen of them—and Sabrina’s lay inside, each one a trophy of my quiet triumph.I hadn’t meant to play the game, but after Aiden’s confrontation, I found myself wanting to prove something—not to him or even Oliver or even anyone at all, but to myself. Maybe I was just a liar and I was seeking a distraction, every time I run into Aiden which happens to every damn day, I always needed a distraction from the way my heart raced. It wasn't easy to put the way he looked at me out of my mind, the way he looked deeped into my eyes like he wanted to reach my soul. The river of adrenaline, guilt, and guilt-riddled pride I’d felt skirting the edge of the garden had steered me back inside, into the sea of elegantly deceiving faces.I walked silently through the corridor, my footsteps sounded like tiny little echoes Ther