Mag-log inJasmineThe bus ride home took six hours.For most of it, I sat with my forehead against the window and watched the highway disappear beneath us. Trees, buildings, gas stations, and unfamiliar stretches of road passed in a blur while the sky slowly changed from afternoon to evening.I was too exhausted to cry anymore, but I was too restless to sleep.My phone was in my lap. Every few minutes, I unlocked it, then I locked it again. Davin’s name was right there in my contacts, close enough that one tap and his phone would begin to ring.I wanted to tell him I was leaving. I also didn’t want to. He had enough to deal with, and the last thing I needed was another conversation where he blamed himself for something he couldn’t control.So I kept the news to myself, or at least, I tried to.An hour into the journey, I unlocked my phone again and opened our messages.I typed, ‘I went home.’I stared at the words, then I deleted them and tried again.‘Something happened at school.’I deleted i
JASMINETwo weeks after Davin left, the whispers still followed me.At first, I had convinced myself they would fade. Campus gossip never lasted forever, and eventually, someone else would become the center of attention. Eventually, people would stop looking at me like I was the most interesting thing that had happened all semester.But that never happened. If anything, the stories became worse.Every time someone repeated what happened, the details changed, a new lie was added, and then a situation that was already painful became something completely unrecognizable.The person people talked about in those hallways didn’t even feel like me anymore. She was some made-up version of Jasmine Buston who had manipulated and seduced her professor for grades, ruined his career, and somehow deserved every cruel comment thrown her way.I started keeping my head down, and I stopped staying in crowded places longer than necessary or even making eye contact with people I didn’t know because I had
DavinThe last thing I packed was the framed photograph that had sat on my desk for the last five years.I held it in my hands for a moment, staring at the picture of Evelyn and me as children. It was an ordinary photograph, nothing special to anyone else, but it had followed me through every version of myself I had become. It had been there when I rebuilt my career after Victoria, when I was still learning how to live with the man I had been and become someone I could respect again.Slowly, I wrapped it carefully and placed it inside the box, then stood there with my hands resting on the cardboard, staring around my office, which was almost empty now.Five years of rebuilding a life I had once thought was beyond repair was now reduced to a handful of boxes. This office had become my refuge after Victoria; teaching had given me something to focus on when the past became too noisy, and over time, it became more than a job. It became part of who I was. But now, it was gone too.A knock
JasmineThree hours.That was how long we waited for the committee to reconvene, and it was the longest three hours I could remember living through.Ari and Bella were on either side of me on the hallway bench, both of them unusually quiet. Normally, they would have found a way to distract me by cracking a joke or even complaining about the terrible university coffee, but today, neither of them said much.My gaze shifted to Davin, across from us, pacing back and forth. He had barely sat down since we left the hearing room. I watched him run a hand through his hair for what felt like the hundredth time.I’d never seen him like that—jaw tightening and fingers flexing at his sides.“You know you’re making me nervous, right?” Ari finally said.Davin stopped and turned to her. “What?”“You’ve walked past us at least fifty times.”His brow arched. “Fifty?”“Okay, maybe forty.”Despite everything, a faint smile tugged at my mouth, but it disappeared as soon as the sound of approaching footst
JASMINEMy palms were already damp before the hearing even began.I wiped them against the sides of my skirt, then curled my fingers around my bag before anyone could notice them shaking.I had been sitting in the car for almost five minutes before finally getting out, my fingers wrapped tightly around the strap of my bag as if holding onto it would somehow keep me steady.It was strange because I had spent the entire night preparing for this moment, going over every question Patricia might ask and practicing my answers until I knew exactly what I wanted to say.But standing outside the hearing room, knowing that my future, Davin’s career, and everything we’d fought so hard to protect could be decided today, all that preparation suddenly felt useless.The conversation died down as soon as we stepped inside. At the front of the room, five committee members sat behind a long table, their folders already open. Dean Whitmore occupied the center seat, a stack of documents arranged neatly i
JasmineThe papers covered Davin's kitchen table by the time Patricia finished organizing everything.Patricia had given everything a place, labeling each piece of evidence and separating it into its own folder. Watching her sort through it eased something in me. With every folder she closed and every document she placed in its proper stack, some of the tightness in my shoulders loosened.For the first time in days, I had something to do besides refreshing my phone and waiting for the next piece of bad news.Patricia Reyes had been recommended by someone from Davin's old gallery circle. Within minutes of sitting across from her, I saw why he trusted her. She asked direct questions, took careful notes, and never once reached for an easy answer."Jason's testimony changes things greatly," she said, sliding one folder toward me. "The evidence of drugging gives us a much stronger argument. This is no longer just a situation involving an inappropriate relationship between a professor and s
JasmineSomething about Professor Jackson had been bothering me for the entire lecture.It wasn’t just that he was attractive. That much was obvious.It was the strange sense of familiarity that kept tugging at me whenever he spoke.Every time his voice rolled through the lecture hall, something in
JasmineThe pounding in my head woke me before my alarm did.For several seconds, I lay perfectly still, my eyes closed against the sunlight filtering through the curtains. The brightness felt cruel, pressing insistently against my eyelids while a dull ache pulsed behind them.Every part of me felt
JasmineThe bass from the speakers thudded against my ribs hard enough to feel like another heartbeat.Or maybe that was just the alcohol.I sat hunched over the bar, a half-empty shot glass in my hand, my fifth shot of the night. At that moment, the bar felt like a safe space.Even though it smell
Jasmine“What the fuck!?”For a second, nobody moved.The room smelled like sweat and cheap vanilla candles—the type Mia always burned when she studied. Her laptop still sat open on the desk beside the bed, highlighted notes glowing against the screen like some sick joke.Jason was sprawled across







