Raya turned, glanced ahead, and noticed someone coming.Then without a word, she walked off. Back straight. Shoulders down. Like nothing happened.The video cut off.That was it.No screaming. No tears. No running out in rage.Just that one, strange smile.I stared at the screen, struggling to process what I’d just seen.She smiled.After watching that?Why?My thoughts spiraled. I didn’t even know what I was asking anymore. I just knew I couldn’t make sense of it.Whispers rippled through the room.Someone near me gasped. “Did you see that new one?”“Yo, it’s Raya,” someone else said.Phones started pinging. Buzzing.It was spreading now.More and more people were pulling it up, murmuring as they watched. Theories were already forming.“She smiled. Like… like she was plotting something,” someone whispered.“I swear, this isn’t over,” another added. “She’s definitely coming back with something.”I just stood there, paralyzed. That video, that expression—it looped in my mind.They were
I stiffened in my seat.“Raya?” My voice cracked. “What… what is it about?”The question left me too fast.My grip tightened on the phone, knuckles whitening, as a slow chill crept up my spine like something had gone terribly wrong.A video?Of Raya?My heart picked up speed.What kind of video?The thought raced ahead of me, dragging my stomach with it. Something about the way Raven said it—calm, distant—made it feel heavier than anything I’d heard all day.No.No, no, no.It couldn’t be.I swallowed hard. “Wait… don’t tell me—it’s a sex tape?”The words fell out, unfiltered.A sharp breath escaped me, the panic now fully in my throat.I clutched the phone tighter, trying to steady my fingers. “Raven?” I pressed. “What is it? What is she doing in the clip?”Nothing.The silence on the other end was terrifying.I blinked and stared at the screen. The call was still active. Seconds passing. Tick. Tick. Tick.Was she still watching it? Or… avoiding my questions?“Raven?” I said again, v
I was behind the arts building, helping my group prep for a presentation, when mine came in—along with everyone else’s.The moment the file name flashed across my screen, everything inside me stopped.I didn’t open it right away.I was tired of the drama—all of it. But something about this felt... different. Heavy. Like whatever was in it couldn’t be unseen.And still... I opened it.The moment I did, my pulse shifted.Same setting. Noah’s apartment. Same camera angle.But this time, the room wasn’t silent.This time, we heard everything.Ava’s voice hit first.“I’m not playing with you, Noah. Leave the girl alone.”She was pacing, chest heaving. Her heels hit the hardwood like a ticking clock.Noah stood by the kitchen counter, arms folded. Cold.“You don’t get to tell me who I talk to.”Ava let out a dry, bitter laugh.“Oh, come on. Don’t act brand new. You’re only hanging around her ’cause she’s shiny and different. You want a little taste of her and then you’ll toss her, just like
Something about Ava’s silence was louder than all her chaos combined.No outbursts. No drama. No icy insults thrown across the hallways. She just… watched. Observed everything and said nothing. And that alone was enough to make people uncomfortable. Her silence wasn’t peace. It was a warning.Raven noticed it first.“It’s too quiet,” she whispered to me one afternoon as we sat outside the arts building. “She hasn’t posted on her socials in two days.”“Maybe she’s embarrassed,” I suggested, even though I didn’t believe it myself.Raven gave me a look. “Ava Greenwood doesn’t get embarrassed. She reloads.”And she was right.Ava didn’t cry in public or slam lockers shut. She didn’t scream at Noah or confront Raya in front of everyone. She simply vanished from the usual spotlight. But her absence only made her presence more threatening. People were watching her, waiting.Meanwhile, Raya continued to glow in her innocent orbit, still oblivious to the battlefield she was tiptoeing through.
“That’s not possible,” I said, blinking in disbelief. “She once told an entire debate class that college boys were a waste of time and beneath her standards.”“Well,” Raven said, showing me a blurry picture on her phone, “looks like she changed her mind.”At first, I thought it was just Noah being Noah—setting another trap, making his next move.But then rumors started flying, fast and loud. People said they were official. As in, a real relationship. Dates. Matching designer sunglasses. His and hers watches. Social media posts, curated and filtered to perfection.Hashtags like #Navah and #PowerCouple began to trend among the student body.And for the first time, it seemed like Noah was truly off the market. No more girls sneaking out of class, or videos of Noah and random girls in Devil's Corner. No more flirting with anything that moved. He even started skipping parties.It was like watching fire and gasoline dance—and not explode.Ava was the only one who ever seemed to hold his att
And the girls Noah uses…They weren’t stupid. They weren’t helpless. They knew who he was, what he was. So why were they still all over him like he was the prize of the damn campus?Noah was magnetic, sure. With that sharp jaw, roguish smirk, and deep, whiskey-smooth voice that made even professors second glance him. But the more I saw, the more I understood. He wasn’t just playing games.He was the game.And somehow, I kept losing.Each new scene chipped at me. I kept telling myself it didn’t matter, that I was above it. But every time I caught him, something cracked a little deeper. Something more personal. Like he was shattering a part of me I didn’t even know was still fragile. Like his recklessness was reaching into my ribcage and shaking something loose.Until the name dropped.Ava Greenwood.The moment I heard it, something in the air shifted. Even Noah’s reckless flame had never burned quite that close to danger.And I had no idea yet just how bad it was going to get.Ava The