LOGINARIANA'S POVMy heart skipped. I immediately lowered my gaze again. "We… we're so sorry, sir," I muttered quickly.I turned back to Maya. "Maya..." I rubbed my palms together anxiously. "Please.” I was practically begging now. "Please. Just manage it until the class is over."She remained stubbornly silent.More students had started looking in our direction. The whispers were getting louder."They're still standing.""They're doing this on purpose.""They're just attention seekers.""First they came late so Professor Thiago would notice them...""And now they're causing another scene.""He shouldn't have even allowed them into the class."I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.The irony was almost laughable.Most of those voices belonged to those girls from the science department who weren't even supposed to be here. They had abandoned the lectures they actually had just to sit in an art class and stare at one man.Yet somehow Maya and I were the attention seekers?Crazy.I ignored them
ARIANA'S POVMaya took a deep breath. "We don't have a choice," she whispered. "We need to go in."I stared at the open doorway. Every instinct in me wanted to turn around and disappear."Maya..."She didn't give me a chance to argue. She grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the entrance.My heart hammered wildly against my ribs. The moment we stepped inside, all heads turned turned to us. I wanted the ground to split open and swallow me whole.Professor Thiago stopped speaking. The marker remained loosely between his fingers as his gaze settled on us.For a few seconds, he said nothing. His expression was unreadable.No smile. No annoyance.Then his voice broke the silence. "You're thirty-three minutes late." The words echoed through the quiet lecture hall.Beside me, Maya lowered her head. "I'm sorry, sir.""I... I'm sorry too," I managed to say, my voice barely above a whisper. I couldn't even bring myself to look at him.Not after yesterday. Things were different now. He was my p
ARIANA'S POVGrrr.Grrr.Grrr.My alarm exploded through the room the next morning.I groaned into my pillow, blindly reaching for my phone somewhere beneath the sheets, but before I could find it, something heavy shifted on top of me.Maya.One of her legs was stretched comfortably across my back while the other had somehow become tangled with mine beneath the blanket. Her arm was wrapped around my waist, and half her face was buried in my shoulder like I was some oversized teddy bear.She let out an irritated groan without opening her eyes. "Shit..." she mumbled sleepily. "Turn... that off.""I'm trying," I muttered.After another few seconds of fumbling, my fingers finally found my phone on the bedside table.I silenced the alarm.Instantly, the room fell quiet again.Maya released the happiest sigh I had ever heard. "So much better."I sighed too, letting my head sink back into the pillow.Maybe five more minutes.My eyelids were already drifting shut when my gaze lazily wandered
ARIANA'S POV“Watch your back, Ariana Castillo. From this moment on, your safety is no longer guaranteed.”My heart stopped.For a second, I simply stared at the screen, convinced I hadn't read it properly.Then I read it again.And again.Each time, the words seemed darker than before.A cold shiver crawled slowly down my spine as my fingers tightened around my phone. I could suddenly hear my own heartbeat, loud and uneven in my ears, while the room that had felt warm only seconds ago seemed to grow colder around me.What the…Who sent this?I frowned and immediately looked at the contact.Unknown number. No profile picture. No name.Nothing.My thumb hovered over the screen as I checked it twice, hoping I had somehow missed something.I hadn't.It was just an unfamiliar number and one terrifying message.A dry lump settled in my throat.Was this... some kind of joke? No, it didn't feel like one. This person had used my full name.Ariana Castillo.I swallowed hard. Before I could sto
ARIANA'S POVMy brows pulled together. “Huh?” Instinctively, my hand flew to my left ear.My fingers met nothing as my smile disappeared. "What?"I quickly touched my other ear.The earring was still there.Slowly, I reached back to the empty side again, hoping I'd somehow touched the wrong place the first time.Nothing."Oh no..."I immediately pushed myself off the couch. "It can't be."Maya watched me quietly as I hurriedly brushed my fingers through my curls, convinced it had somehow gotten tangled in my hair.Nothing.I checked again. Still nothing.My stomach sank. "When did you even notice?" I asked, looking at Maya.She looked innocent. "Just now."I frowned harder. "No..."I immediately bent over to check the floor around the couch.Maybe it had fallen off while we were tickling each other.I dropped onto my knees and looked beneath the center table. Nothing. I checked under the couch. Nothing. Then I searched the rug. Still nothing.Maya had gotten up too by then.Without s
ARIANA'S POVI finally let out a defeated sigh. "Fine," I admitted. "I asked him to take pictures of me."Maya didn't say anything immediately.She simply blinked once before holding her hand out."Your phone."I stared at her for a second before handing it over. She unlocked it and opened my gallery without another word.For the next few moments, the apartment fell completely silent.She slowly swiped through every picture Professor Thiago had taken, pausing every now and then before moving to the next one.I watched her face nervously.Then, she frowned.She zoomed into one of them, swiped again, zoomed into another, then another.Finally, she looked up at me. "It's a lie."I blinked. "What?"She shook her head firmly. "I don't believe you."I frowned. "What are you talking about?"She held up my phone. "Ria... tell me the truth."My heart skipped. "I am."She narrowed her eyes. "No, you're not."I sighed. "I literally just told you the truth."She pointed at the screen. "You paid a







