Beneath The Act

Kailee Bennett I was one more box away from screaming. "Kailee, could you at least pretend to be excited?" my mom asked, too chipper for someone forcing her only daughter to pack up her entire life on a two-day notice. I didn’t answer. Instead, I stuffed my favorite hoodie into the last box with a little more aggression than necessary. She sighed. “This is good. Greg is a wonderful man, he’ll be good for us. And his son—” “I don’t care about his son,” I snapped. “I don’t want to move into some stranger’s house like I’m a puzzle piece that magically fits into your new life.” Her smile faltered. “It’s not like that.” It felt like that. Like I was being traded in for some shinier family model. I hadn’t even met Greg. And now we were moving in with him... and his son. Whoever he was. "Why can't I just stay here?" I asked. "Because it's time to move forward," she said softly. "For both of us." I didn’t respond. Because if I did, I might cry. And

Kailee Bennett My plan for the day was simple: show up, fade into the background, and survive until lunch without anyone making any fat jokes about me. Charlotte was out sick, so I didn’t have my usual human shield. I avoided eye contact, kept my head down, and prayed to every deity that existed that any of the mean seniors that usually tormented me, especially Sienna wouldn’t notice me. So far, everything was going well. I only had one class before lunch. Drama class. Drama class was supposed to be optional. And yet there I was, sitting at the back, trying to blend into the ugly beige walls while half the class stretched like they were warming up for Broadway. Charlotte had told me it was chill—watch a few skits, maybe write a review, get easy credit. She forgot to mention it was a social battlefield. Especially when Sienna walked in, flanked by her Barbie gang. Blonde, devious, and always two seconds from ruining someone’s life. She spotted me and smiled. Not the

Kailee Bennett I should’ve just kept scrolling but I just couldn’t resist after liking one picture of Noah on Instagram. I swiped to his profile God damn. No matter how times I stalk his Instagram and how many times see the same pictures, I still get mesmerized like I was seeing for the first time. I keep telling myself to stop. But my fingers had a mind of their own. They just kept scrolling and scrolling I’d scrolled so far down Noah’s Instagram page, I was practically in 2020. Shirtless beach photos. Prom tux shots. Smirking selfies that looked like they were carved by gods and filtered by angels. I was practically inhaling every beach picture, sports shot, and moody selfie like a love-starved teenager He looked good in every single one. Like, stupid good. Shirtless at the lake? Breathtaking Him smiling at a bonfire, dimples out like he invented happiness? Heavenly Candid hallway shot with his hand running through his hair like he didn’t know he was br

Ryder Murray I’ve seen a lot of messed up things. Drunken fights in gas station parking lots. My dad getting thrown out of bars. My mom packing up her bags one night and never coming back. You grow up like that, you learn to build walls early. You learn that feelings are weapons, and if you let anyone see yours—they’ll use them against you. But I wasn’t prepared for her. I wasn’t prepared for Kailee Bennett storming into my life with her hoodie armor and eyes that saw straight through my sarcasm. I wasn’t prepared for the sound of her crying in that bathroom—the way it gutted me like a knife between the ribs. I wasn’t prepared to feel anything at all. But I did. And now I couldn’t stop. She looked at me like I was the villain in her story. And maybe I was. Maybe I didn’t deserve her trust. But watching her break down like that—watching her shove me away like I was the reason she bled—it did something to me. I hadn’t smoked since. The cigarette

Kailee Bennett Noah Carter was kissing me. Slow. Careful. His hand curved around my cheek like I was something delicate. Something worth touching. “I always knew you had it in you,” he whispered. “You just needed someone to see it.” I smiled, heart racing. “You see me?” “I’ve always seen you.” My chest squeezed. And then— My alarm clock rang, a shrill annoying sound I had purposely set to get me out of bed. Reality slapped me in the face. I jolted upright in bed, heart thudding in my chest as I just woke up to the sound of mom’s voice downstairs. Laughing. Probably at one of Greg’s jokes. The kind that made her forget I existed. I groaned into my pillow, slamming it over my head. Noah Carter was still just a dream. Yesterday’s scene on the bleachers came flooding back. The heat of Ryder’s hand on my waist, the echo of Sienna’s voice calling me desperate… a pity pick. Sienna thought I was throwing myself into Ryder’s lap like a stray desperate for attention.