LOGINJasmineHe didn’t show.The first day Miss Jessie walked into class instead of Professor Jackson, I hadn’t thought much of it. Professors sometimes missed lectures. Meetings happened. Emergencies happened.By the second day, though, I found myself glancing at the door every few minutes.By the third, I couldn’t ignore it anymore.And by the fourth, I was running on barely three hours of sleep.The moment the classroom door opened, and Miss Jessie walked in again, a bitter laugh almost escaped me. Was he serious?Four days.Four whole days.Was he really willing to skip class for that long to avoid me?The thought sat heavily in my chest as I stared at the front of the room. Around me, students chatted, shuffled papers, and complained about assignments, but their voices seemed distant.The problem wasn’t that he was avoiding me. That part was obvious.It was everything else.After class on the third day, I went looking for him. His office had been locked. I’d stood there longer than I
JasmineI slammed the studio door behind me and stormed down the street. The argument kept replaying in my head, no matter how hard I tried to push it away.What exactly had I done wrong? All I wanted was to ask him about it.Was that such a crime?I hadn’t accused him of anything. I hadn’t judged him. If anything, I’d wanted to hear his side instead of blindly believing the rumors like everyone else seemed to.Yet he’d exploded just like that.I kicked a small stone out of my path and scowled.God, he was such an asshole.The rest of my walk home was spent mentally cursing Davin Jackson and every terrible decision that had somehow led me to him.If I’d never gone to that club that night, none of this would’ve happened.No arrangement. No ridiculous sessions.Nothing.By the time I reached my apartment building, all I wanted was a hot shower and several hours of uninterrupted sleep. Maybe then I’d finally be able to catch up on all the schoolwork I’d been neglecting.With a tired sigh
JasmineThe photo at the top stopped me cold. Davin, his arm around a striking blonde woman, both of them laughing like the camera had caught them mid-joke. I barely let myself look before I scrolled past it.Then I saw the headline, and my stomach dropped straight through the floor.Award-Winning Artist Davin Jackson Accused of Abuse and Sexual Misconduct.I blinked. Read it again, certain I’d gotten it wrong.I hadn’t.My thumb kept moving almost without me. Article after article unfolded beneath it—former models, former assistants, anonymous sources who wouldn’t give their names but had plenty to say anyway. The further I scrolled, the drier my mouth got.One article had a video buried near the bottom. I stared at the play button for a long second before I pressed it.The footage was dark and shaky, shot by someone who seemed to be hiding. A woman cried out somewhere off-screen. Something crashed.The camera jerked hard to one side, and for half a second, a man’s shape filled the f
JasmineI was exhausted. Every few seconds, I found myself fighting the urge to rest my head on the desk and go to sleep. Davin’s voice carried through the lecture hall as he explained metabolic pathways, but concentrating was nearly impossible.Not because the lecture was boring.Because Mia and her friend wouldn’t shut up.Their constant giggling drifted across the room, pulling my attention away every few minutes.I clenched my jaw and tried to ignore it. And failed miserably.With a frustrated groan, I turned around sharply. “Can you both just shut it?” I gritted out.A few heads turned.Mia looked up from her phone and smiled. The kind that made me want to throw something.“Aw,” she said sweetly. “Someone’s cranky.”I turned away before I said something that would get me into trouble and forced my attention back to the front of the class.Davin continued his lecture as though nothing was happening. His voice was calm and steady, carrying easily through the hall.For a few seconds
JasmineThe alarm went off again.With a groan, I slapped my hand across the nightstand until I found my phone and silenced it. That had to be the fifteenth time I’d done that.My entire body felt heavy as I rolled onto my side, ready to steal a few more minutes of sleep.Then my phone pinged beside my ear.My eyes flew open.I grabbed it and checked the time. 7:15 AM.“Fuck.”Sleep disappeared from my eyes instantly.I shot out of bed so fast I nearly tangled myself in the sheets. Class started at eight, and there was no way I was going to make it if I wasted another second standing there.As I rushed toward the bathroom, I couldn’t help blaming Davin.I’d stayed up ridiculously late studying for his test. The same test he insisted on giving us today. If yesterday’s session hadn’t gone on for so long, I would have had plenty of time to study before bed. Instead, I’d spent half the night with my face buried in textbooks until the words started blurring together.Less than twenty minut
DavinThe front door slammed shut somewhere behind her, but I made no move to follow.I remained where I was, standing in front of the easel with my eyes fixed on the unfinished sketch.The studio had gone quiet again. Just me, the charcoal dust clinging to my fingers, and the woman staring back at me from the paper.Or at least my attempt at her.I studied the lines for a long moment before setting the charcoal down and dragging a hand across my jaw.It wasn’t right.Not yet.The posture was there. The shape of her mouth. The stubborn lift of her chin whenever she thought someone was being challenging. But the eyes still felt wrong.And that was the problem.It was always the eyes.I leaned back in my chair and rubbed a hand across my jaw.The truth was, Jasmine had been living inside my head long before she ever stepped into this studio.The first spark had come at the bar.I remembered noticing her before she’d even spoken to me. There had been something about the way she sat alone
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







