WATCH ME RISE AGAIN, DEAR EX

Tessa’s POV

It’s been five weeks since I joined Elitis High, and I’ve been seeing Chris jump around with a commoner—a girl who cannot stand next to me. Since I arrived, many relationships have ended because the guys wanted me.

I knew I messed up back then at Toland High, but now I was ready to take back what I discarded. At Elitis High, Chris was the hottest, and I was only good at going for the best—someone who matched my standards and prestige. I didn’t want to show that Ava girl the other side of me, but I would if she didn’t leave Chris for me.

I opened my W******p and rewatched the sex video Chris had with Ava. My mind boiled again. Ava was eating him raw—a cock that was meant for me alone. My chest rose, and I swallowed hard.

I called Chris’s phone, and he picked up immediately.

“Yes? How may I help you?” he asked, a pinch of mockery in his tone. It was the first time I had called him since we broke up.

“I just wanted to…” I trailed off and cleared my throat.

“Just wanted to know if we can sit and talk—maybe after school,” I said, my voice calm and soft.

“Tessa, I thought you said it was over between us. Maybe I should remind you—you dumped me for a fucking asshole! And now you suddenly want to have a word with me?” His voice vibrated with a pain I thought he had gotten over.

I’ve moved on, babe!” he snapped, laughing softly, but behind that laugh simmered the urge for revenge. I knew him too well.

“I know, Chris. Listen—” I pleaded, sensing he wanted to end the call.

“We broke up! We are done! Okay?”

My phone beeped harshly against my ear: Chris had just ended the call with me.

“Wow,” I nodded. “That’s nice,” I said to myself, placing my phone on the table in front of me.

Ava walked in, looking dull and worried and it was written all over her face. Was she having issues with Chris? I thought she’d been shining her teeth ever since she started dating and sleeping with my man. Was it now hot for them? I watched her walk up to Liana.

“Liana,” she called, but Liana raised a hand to her face and turned away.

“Please listen to me. I need to talk to you,” she begged.

“Go meet your so-called boyfriend. He’s all that mattered, after all,” she blurted.

“I’m sorry about how I treated you. I was just mad.”

“Mad? You ridiculed me in front of Chris—you call that being mad? Only because I was trying to protect you.” She paused, trying not to lose it. “Just stay away,” she whispered. “Please,” she added.

Ava turned, quietly walking to her desk.

Didn’t Chris hold her waist and walk her into class anymore? I thought.

Then a message from Alex—

I squinted. “How did the Alex guy get my number?” I asked myself as I read the text in silence.

‘You’ll be next. You think you’re hot, right? I’ll get you!’

My eyes narrowed even more. Alex is threatening me? All because I lashed out at him the other time when he asked me out?

Really? A commoner like him was threatening me?

Liana’s POV

I stood in front of the mirror in the girls’ toilet after peeing, staring at myself. I was pleased with myself and my accomplishments so far.

“Ava thinks she’s smart—and the hottest. She hasn’t seen anything yet. I’ll make life a living hell for her,” I said to my reflection in the mirror.

“I saw the humiliation on her face when I leaked the sex video! Hahaha. She’s just a fool who knows nothing, and by the time I’m done with her, she’ll regret ever sleeping with my man.”

I wasn’t done talking to the reflection when someone stormed in—Ava Williams. Her eyes shone like light bulbs.

“Liana, so it was you all this while?”

My mouth dropped open. She was the last person I expected to come in.

“Yes! It has been me all along, you bastard! Daughter of a nobody. A loner! You think Chris loves you? You’re just a tool in his hands—already rejected the same way Steve, the guy you slept with, rejected me and spat in my face!”

I watched the way she was bending, as if her heart was about to pull out of her chest. I saw the pain creeping into her like a slow poison, flooding every vein with silent agony. I laughed silently.

She wished she could strangle me to death, but she was in so much pain she could barely react.

“You didn’t just sleep with Chris—your imaginary boyfriend turned real—you went ahead and slept with Steve! Why, Ava?! Why?”

“Liana, I thought you were a sister to me.” She paused and cried faintly.

My brows arched. “Sister? Really?”

“I was—until you slept with Steve.”

“I didn’t do it out of love. Chris manipulated it all. We used to be just friends, and he knew about my desire to get enrolled into Elitis High so I could finally be with Chris—someone I had loved right from the start.

Steve offered to pay my enrollment and tuition fees, but he said I had to sleep with him. I had no choice. I just wanted to see Chris and… I thought it was finally time to have him love me back.”

“I see. That’s the reason the poor girl slept with my crush. My man. And that’s probably why he told me there was no chemistry between us.

Thank you, Ava. This is how you repay me for everything I’ve done for you—for everything we’ve been through.”

“Liana, shut up! I said shut up! You’re heartless… you’re evil! You’re—”

She paused. The urge to throw up was surfacing. She rushed to the wash hand basin in front of her and vomited.

My eyes flew open.

“Ava, you’re pregnant?”

My mouth dropped again. Ava Williams is pregnant!

Ava’s POV

I stood with Chris under our usual oak tree. He was curious to know why I had called him out like this.

I didn’t know how to say it, so I handed him the doctor’s result from the pregnancy test.

He snatched the paper, his face tight. He glanced at me again before unfolding it. His eyes dropped to the word in bold black ink—positive.

His brows furrowed, but he said nothing.

“So? Why are you showing me this?” he finally asked, his voice cold, detached, and unsympathetic.

“I’m carrying your baby, Chris,” I replied softly, a small smile playing at the corner of my mouth.

He chuckled.

“Whose baby?”

The smile on my face slowly faded as I read the bold message written across his expression: ‘Tell me it’s a joke!’

I replied. “Yours, Chris. It’s your baby I’m carrying.”

“What do you mean by that?” he asked and went on. “All we did was just fun. I—I don’t need a baby. Are you kidding me right now? And even if I needed one, not with someone like you!”

My vision blurred with the tears that rushed to the surface.

“What do you mean, Chris?” I managed to ask.

“Ava, go look for the father of that thing you’re carrying, because I’m not responsible for that shit in your tummy,” he said. “Or do I have to remind you that I have a girlfriend?”

A sudden heaviness settled in my chest. I felt like my heart was failing.

He continued. “She’s Tessa Walker—daughter of Helen Walker. I don’t date low-class girls.”

He spoke with a steady voice, as if he meant every word.

“Besides, I was just passing time with you and I believed we were both having fun—nothing more…,” he paused to sweep his hair backward in frustration. “Listen, Ava, to be frank with you, I was never attached to you. In short, we were never involved. So get that into your thick skull.”

I opened my mouth to talk, but he continued, not giving me a chance to let out the heat I was feeling inside.

I was only using you to get back at Tessa,” he said, brows raised—as if he expected better from me, like I should’ve seen it coming.

“I thought we both understood this. Or do you think I’d have anything to do with you, normally? Come on, Ava!”

I was too broken to speak. His confidence was on another level. He’d played his card well—and he got me. In short, he’s murdered me.

How I wish I could correct my past.

“You can’t just walk up to me and impose a baby on me,” he said, chuckling softly. “Alex and I had sex with you at the same time, so I can’t be responsible for that.”

My heart shattered.

“Ava, just leave. Go and look for the father of your child. And never stop me again—not in class, not anywhere else. Don’t even cross paths with me if you don’t wish to unravel the beast in me.”

Tears gathered in my eyes.

“I don’t want to see you anywhere near me. Take my last warning, desperate ass.”

He turned to leave, but I voiced out.

“Chris!” He stopped and looked back at me. “You dated me for over two months—just to get back at your ex, Tessa?” I asked, trying to hide my pain and weakness.

“Yes! You heard me correctly. I just wanted to have a feel of your insides,” he replied. “Now you know. So stay away from me. And go tell the father of your baby that you’re pregnant. I wish you good luck,” he said as he turned and walked away.

My chest tightened with too much pain. I felt like it would explode. I couldn’t explain the feeling because I had never felt like that before. I clenched my stomach. My heart, bleeding for the innocent child.

“I’ll stand by you. I won’t deny you,” I spoke to the baby in my womb.

Tears dropped from my eyes and burned my skin.

My heart was replaced with a stone as I watched him walk farther away.

“Soon, you’ll eat your words. I promise you.”

“You’ll watch me win—and you’ll beg at my feet, Chris.”