chapter 21:Testing the game

Diamond noticed everything.

Every glance he gave another girl. Every message he typed and quickly deleted. Every laugh shared with his friends that didn’t include her. She noticed how his world moved, smooth, chaotic, like a river he had learned to navigate perfectly. And she wasn’t afraid. Not anymore.

Instead, she was curious. Observant. Strategic.

At lunch, she let him approach first, but she didn’t meet his eyes right away. She twirled her pen, scrolling her phone, pretending absorbed, but aware of his every movement. He smiled, leaned casually on the table, tried that same charm that had worked on countless girls before. The one that made them lean in, laugh, blush.

She didn’t flinch.

He raised an eyebrow, his confidence flickering just slightly. “Hey,” he said smoothly.

“Hey,” she replied, voice light, eyes still on her screen.

A pause.

Her phone buzzed. She glanced at it, let out a soft laugh, tapping a reply slowly, deliberately. He leaned in, intrigued, watching her carefully. She knew he was watching. She knew he wanted attention and she would give him just enough to make him unsure.

“You’re quiet today,” he said, still trying, still charming.

“I’m thinking,” she replied, finally meeting his gaze, slow and deliberate. Her eyes didn’t soften. They challenged him. “About things.”

He felt a twinge, irritation, uncertainty, something unfamiliar. His friends had always told him: the girls would bend, or break, or lean in. They would play the game. But she… she didn’t play. She made her own rules.

Later, at the library, he tried again. Leaning close, brushing a hand over hers while reaching for a book. A casual touch. A whisper. Flirtation meant to ensnare.

Diamond pulled her hand back. Slowly. Politely. But the tension, the silent message, hit him harder than any words could have.

She wasn’t just resisting. She was testing him. Seeing how far he would go. Seeing where the cracks in his world were. Seeing if he could respect her boundaries or if he would try to force her into the game.

He swallowed. And for the first time in a long time, he felt unsure.

His other girls, the parties, the texts, the constant juggling, it all felt meaningless now. She didn’t fit the pattern. She didn’t belong to the collection. She belonged to herself, and that frightened him.

That night, he texted her. Carefully, deliberately. Just enough attention to keep her intrigued, but measured, cautious, like he had learned to do with all the others.

She replied. Slowly. Softly. Playfully. But never too much. Always holding herself at a distance. Always reminding him that she was untouchable.

He stared at her name on the screen, heart thudding, mind racing. He wanted her. But he couldn’t have her the way he had all the others. And that fact burned him.

Diamond smiled quietly to herself. She had won a small victory today. She had made him doubt, made him think, made him aware that the game wasn’t his anymore. That she wasn’t another piece. That she was her own fire.

And Josh, for the first time, was starting to feel the heat.