Don't leave me, please.

Jaxon’s POV

I stood in the center of the hallway, completely frozen. My chest was tight, and my heart beat so hard against my ribs that it hurt. I could not move my legs. I could only watch Lou walk away from me. Her white shirt was wet and ruined, sticking to her back, and she held herself so straight as she walked toward the exit doors. The students around me were still whispering, their voices a loud, chaotic hum that made me feel physically sick.

"You are completely dead to me."

Her final words repeated in my mind, over and over. She had said them with no anger, no tears, and no hesitation. That was what terrified me the most. The look in her eyes before she turned her back was empty. There was no trace of the girl who had spent the last five months laughing at my jokes, holding my hand when we were alone, and telling me about her dreams. I had ruined all of it in a matter of minutes because I was too much of a coward to open my mouth.

Suddenly, the paralysis left my muscles. A wave of intense heat rushed from my stomach straight to my face. I was furious. I was so angry that my hands shook at my sides, my fingernails digging into my palms until they cut off the blood flow. I looked at Tiffany, who was still standing next to me with a smug, self-satisfied smile on her face. I looked at Damon and Hunter, who were staring at me with wide, shocked eyes.

"Get away from me," I choked out. My voice was low, rough, and full of a rage I had never felt before in my entire life. "All of you. Get the hell away from me."

"Jaxon, come on, it was just a. . . " Damon started, reaching a hand out to touch my shoulder.

"Do not touch me!" I screamed. I shoved his hand away with so much force that he stumbled backward into the crowd of students. "Don't look at me. Don't speak to me. If any of you ever look at her or speak to her again, I will personally make sure you regret it."

I did not wait to see their reactions. I turned around and sprinted down the hallway, my sneakers slamming hard against the linoleum flooring. The noise echoed off the metal lockers, but I did not care who was watching me now. I did not care about my reputation, or the football team, or what the principal would say if he caught me running in the building. The only thing that mattered was reaching the double doors at the end of the corridor.

I pushed through the heavy exit doors, the sudden glare of the afternoon sun hitting my face. The brightness made my eyes sting, or maybe it was the tears that were finally starting to build up behind my eyelids. I stood on the concrete steps, my breath coming in short, ragged gasps as I looked around the large courtyard.

"Lou!" I called out, my voice cracking under the strain. "Lou!"

A few students were sitting on the stone benches near the parking lot, and they turned to look at me in surprise. I ignored them completely. I ran down the steps, my eyes scanning every inch of the walkways, the grass, and the long driveway where the school buses usually parked.

She was not there.

I ran toward the front gates of Crestwood High, my lungs burning from the sudden exertion. The air felt tense and hot as I pushed myself to move faster. I reached the edge of the school property where the main road stretched out in both directions. I looked to the left, toward the downtown area where she usually caught the city bus. The sidewalk was wide and empty. I looked to the right, toward the older, residential side of Oakwood City. There was nothing but parked cars and trees.

"No, no, no," I muttered to myself, my hands pressing against my forehead. The skin of my face felt hot and damp with sweat. "Please, Lou. Where are you?"

I began to walk rapidly down the sidewalk toward the bus stop, my eyes searching every alleyway and storefront. My mind was spinning so fast that I could barely think straight. I felt a deep, heavy knot of guilt twisting inside my stomach.

I blamed myself entirely. Why hadn't I said something when it mattered? When Tiffany first pulled out that phone, when she first mentioned the bet, I should have stepped in front of Lou. I should have taken the hit. I should have told the entire school that the bet was an old, stupid mistake from five months ago that meant absolutely nothing now.

Because nothing with Lou had been a lie. For the past four months, every single second I spent with her was the most honest I had ever been in my life. She was the only person who did not look at me and see just a wealthy quarterback or an object to use for social status. When I was with her, sitting on the old couch in her grandmother's tiny apartment, helping her quiz herself for her exams, I felt like a human being.

She was the only reason I was still attending Crestwood High. Two months ago, my parents had sat me down in our large, quiet dining room. My father had received a massive corporate promotion that required our family to move across the country immediately. They wanted to enroll me in a prestigious private academy where college scouts would see me every week. They had already looked at houses. They had already started packing.

And I had refused to go. I stood up from that table and yelled at my father for the first time in my life. I told them I would stay behind, live with my older cousin in his small apartment near the county line, and finish my senior year at Crestwood. My father had been furious. He called me ungrateful and told me I was throwing away my future for nothing. But it wasn't for nothing. It was for Lou. I could not bear the thought of leaving her behind. I could not imagine a single day where I did not get to see her smile or hear her voice. She was my entire world, and I had sacrificed my relationship with my parents just to stay near her.

And now, she thought I had betrayed her. She thought our whole relationship was a performance to win two hundred dollars from Damon.

"I didn't lie to you," I whispered aloud to the empty street, the tears finally spilling over my eyelashes and running down my hot cheeks. "I didn't lie."

The realization that I could not find her made me feel completely frantic. I pulled my phone out of my front pocket with trembling fingers. My palms were so sweaty that the device almost slipped from my grasp. I opened our text messages. The last text from her was from this morning, a simple message telling me she had brought an extra sandwich for me because she knew I always forgot to eat breakfast before early practice.

I typed out a message as fast as I could:

‘Lou, please. The bet was from the very first week. I forgot about it completely because I fell in love with you. I didn't send that picture. Damon must have stolen it from my phone. Please let me explain. I love you.’

I pressed send. I stared at the screen, my heart stopping as I waited for the small delivery confirmation.

A red exclamation mark appeared next to the text.

Message not delivered.

I blinked against the tears, my thumb tapping the screen to try again. The same red mark appeared. I closed the app and tried to dial her number directly. I pressed the phone to my ear, listening to the silence. It didn't even ring. It went straight to a recorded operator voice telling me the call could not be completed.

She had blocked me. She had completely cut me off.

A hard sob escaped my throat, a loud, ugly sound that made a person walking a dog across the street stop and stare at me. I did not care. The pain in my chest was so intense that I had to bend over, resting my hands on my knees just to keep from falling onto the concrete sidewalk.

There was no way for me to explain myself to her now. If I went to her apartment, her grandmother would be there, and Lou would never open the door for me. If I waited by her afternoon job at the bakery, she would probably call the manager or the police to have me removed. She was completely gone from my reach, and she had left with the absolute certainty that I was a monster who had used her for entertainment.

I turned around and began walking back toward the school parking lot, my sneakers dragging heavily against the ground. I felt entirely drained, as if all the energy had been scraped out of my body. My car, a brand-new black SUV that my parents had bought me for my birthday, was parked in the front row of the student lot. It looked large, expensive, and completely useless to me now. It was just another piece of the wealthy, privileged life that had ultimately driven Lou away from me.

I unlocked the door and climbed into the driver's seat, slamming the door shut to block out the sounds of the school. The interior of the car still smelled faintly of her vanilla body spray from when I drove her home two nights ago. That smell made my stomach twist into another painful knot. I leaned my head forward against the leather steering wheel and let myself cry properly. My shoulders shook violently, and the tears soaked into the black material under my forehead.

An apology would not have changed anything in that hallway. Even if I had managed to break through my panic and speak up, the words would have felt small and empty compared to the public humiliation she was experiencing. The students had already seen the photo. They had already heard Tiffany's loud, cruel words. The damage to Lou's dignity was already done, and no apology from me could reverse the fact that my initial thoughtless behavior had allowed this situation to exist in the first place.

I had brought this devastation into her life. If I had never approached her five months ago in the library, if I had never accepted Damon's disgusting wager just to prove that I could get any girl in the school, Lou would be perfectly safe right now. She would be sitting in her technical drawing class, dry and comfortable, instead of riding a public bus covered in milk and crying because her privacy had been violated.

I lifted my head from the steering wheel and looked at my reflection in the rearview mirror. My eyes were bloodshot, my face was blotchy and red, and my hair was a messy, tangled weight on my forehead. I looked like a completely different person from the confident quarterback who had walked down that hallway with his friends less than an hour ago. I felt a profound sense of self-loathing that I knew would never leave me.

I started the engine, the loud purr of the vehicle filling the air. I did not want to go back to class. I did not want to see my teammates, or the coaches, or confront Tiffany. I put the car in reverse, backed out of the space, and drove out of the Crestwood High parking lot without looking back.

As I drove down the main road, the familiar sights of Oakwood City passed by my window. We had driven down these same streets together so many times. I passed the small diner where we used to split a plate of cheap fries because she didn't want me spending too much money on her. I passed the public library where she worked her weekend shifts, the place where I used to sit at the back table for hours just to watch her organize books.

Every single corner of this town was tied to her now. And every single corner was a reminder of my failure.

Tears filled my vision as my hand tightened around the steering wheel. I caused it all, I ruined everything.

Why am I running away? What right do I have to run away from the mess I created? I should be at Lou's apartment, pleading with her to forgive me, explaining everything to show her I truly care.

I need to go to her, I need to fix this.

The thought hit me so hard that everything in my head disappeared. Determination fueled my bones, and without thinking, I slammed my foot on the brake.

The SUV lurched, tires screeching against the road as I jerked the steering wheel, turning to the opposite lane.

I knew a narrow side street that led directly to Lou's neighborhood. If I took it, I could be at her apartment in less than twenty minutes.

"Come on..." I muttered, my pulse hammering in my ears. I wiped the unshed tears that clung to my eyes, fixing my gaze on the road.

I stepped on the accelerator, unable to slow down. I need to get to her as soon as possible.

I found the next turn in under one minute, and without easing my speed, I swung the steering wheel sharply to make the turn.

The tires lost their grip, and a loud screech split the air. The SUV began to slide.

"No..." I was losing control, the steering wheel felt weightless in my hands.

I turned it in the opposite direction, trying to steady the car in the lane, but the vehicle kept swinging left and right.

Suddenly, the side of the SUV crashed through a street sign with a deafening crack and then lurched forward into a nearby tree, slamming hard into it.

The force threw me violently against the seatbelt, as the airbag blew up with an explosive bang, striking my face and chest so hard that every ounce of air left my lungs.

Pain shot through my ribs, my vision blurring as my ears rang until I couldn't hear anything else. Darkness engulfed me against my will.