Chapter 3

Zy's POV

Campus felt like it was waiting for me.

The second I stepped onto the main path I felt it — that low, hungry energy people get when they smell blood. Conversations dipped when I passed. Eyes slid over me and then away too fast. Someone laughed under their breath and I knew, I just knew, it was about me.

I kept my hoodie up and my face blank, but my pulse was already slamming.

They knew.

Of course they knew. Ronan couldn’t keep his mouth shut about anything else in his life, why would this be different? Or maybe the guy he was with had talked. Or maybe the universe just hated me enough to hand my worst night to the entire school on a plate.

I cut through the courtyard faster than usual. A girl from my stats class actually turned her whole body to watch me walk by. I heard the words “caught him” and “another guy” float behind me like smoke.

My jaw clenched so hard it hurt.

I wanted to stop and scream in someone’s face. I wanted to ask them if they felt better now that they had a piece of my humiliation to chew on. Instead I kept walking until I reached the library, shoved the door open harder than necessary, and climbed the stairs two at a time.

Second floor was quieter. I dropped into a chair near the window and stared at nothing.

My hands were shaking again. I pressed them flat against the table and tried to breathe through the rage sitting in my throat like glass.

That was when I felt someone looking at me.

I lifted my head.

He was standing at the end of the aisle.

Tall. Dark hoodie. Messy hair. The quiet one I had seen around campus for months without ever really seeing him. He wasn’t pretending to look at the shelves. He was looking straight at me, like he had been doing it for a while.

Something in his face made my stomach dip.

Not pity.

Something heavier. Something that felt like he already knew too much.

I stared back, refusing to be the first one to break. My heart was doing stupid things against my ribs. I hated it. I hated that anything could still cut through the numbness.

He held my gaze for another long second, then gave the smallest nod and walked away.

I let out a slow breath and realized my nails had left little half-moons in my palms.

Get it together, I told myself. He doesn’t know you. Nobody really knows you. They’re just feeding on the story.

But the rest of the morning felt wrong. Every time someone passed too close I tensed. Every time I heard my name in a whisper I wanted to put my fist through a wall.

By lunch the story had grown teeth.

I was standing in line for coffee when I heard two girls behind me talking like I wasn’t three feet away.

“I heard she walked in on them.”

“No, I heard he told her himself and she lost it.”

“Either way… embarrassing.”

I turned around so slowly they both froze.

I didn’t say a word. I just looked at them until one of them muttered something and they both found somewhere else to be. My hands were still trembling when I took the coffee I didn’t even want.

I was halfway across the open path toward the science building when Bella appeared like she had been waiting for the perfect moment.

She stepped directly into my way, perfect coat, perfect hair, that soft little smile that never meant anything good.

“Zy,” she said, voice smooth. “You look tired.”

“I’m fine.”

She tilted her head, studying me the way people study a car accident.

“People are being so messy today. I almost feel bad for you.”

Almost.

The word sat between us like a blade.

I held her eyes and refused to look away first. Something ugly and tired moved through my chest. I was so sick of people looking at me like my pain was entertainment.

“Is there something you actually need?” I asked.

Bella’s smile widened just a little.

“No. Just checking on you. Campus can be cruel when it gets a new story.”

She stepped past me then, close enough that her shoulder almost brushed mine, and kept walking like the conversation had been nothing.

I stood there for a second longer than I should have, jaw locked, coffee going cold in my hand.

The rest of the day blurred. I sat through a lecture and didn’t hear a single sentence. I walked past groups of people and felt their eyes like hands on my skin. By the time the sun started dropping I was done. Completely done.

I took the long way to the north lot, hoping the quiet would calm the noise in my head.

It didn’t.

He was there again.

Same hoodie. Same stillness. Leaning against the low wall like he belonged to the shadows more than the daylight. He looked up as I got closer, and this time he didn’t nod. He just watched me.

My steps slowed without permission.

There was something in the way he looked at me that felt too steady, too knowing. Like he could see the exact shape of the wound I was carrying and had decided not to pretend it was invisible.

I should have kept walking.

I did.

But even after I passed him, even after I put distance between us, I could still feel the weight of that stare between my shoulder blades.

I reached my car, climbed in, and sat there with my hands on the wheel for a long time before I started the engine.

Campus had spent the entire day chewing on my heartbreak.