FAZER LOGINZach’s POVThe days blurred into a careful, self-imposed exile. My isolation wasn’t a sudden decision, but it settled over me like dust on an unused shelf, gradual till it was complete.I changed my routines with quiet determination, mapping new paths across campus that avoided every familiar landmark. The quad at noon? Too open, too many eyes.The student center café where Damien used to surprise me with coffee? Skipped entirely. Even the library’s main floor, with its constant hum of life, became off-limits.
Zach’s POVSunlight filtered weakly through the thin dorm curtains, casting pale stripes across my bed. I woke slowly, the kind of heavy, disoriented awakening that followed too little sleep and too much chaos.My body felt like lead, with my muscles still aching from the breakdown.It took several long seconds for reality to settle in. The cumulative trauma pressed down like a physical weight on my chest.I lay there staring at the ceiling cracks I’d memorized over the semester, mind numb.Damien’s calm voice replaying: Peasants don’t win here. Everything crashed together in a numb fog. Like a dull, heavy acceptance.There was nothing I could do. That was my final verdict. Damien’s family held too much power. I had no real proof that would stand up against his influence. The fight felt impossible. So I had to choose survival instead.School. It was the only thing left within my control.I forced myself out of bed through mechanical movements and ended up in the shower.The hot water
Zach’s POVI was walking back from my last class of the day, the campus paths crowded with students rushing to evening plans when my phone buzzed in my pocket.Another unknown number again.I almost didn’t open it.Unknown: Time’s up, Zach. Your silence is no longer appreciated.I stopped dead in the middle of the path, students flowing around me like I wasn’t there. My hands shook so badly I nearly dropped the phone.Back in my dorm, I paced the small room, mind racing.Then I pulled up Ryder’s contact, thumb hovering over the call button. The words were already forming on my screen: Damien’s the stalker. Help me.But I hesitated, lingering trust issues held me back like chains. Ryder had withheld critical information about Damien from the start, and his secrets had left me vulnerable.Then there was the passionate, complicated connection I’d barely survived, a fire that could still burn us both.I couldn’t involve Gigi anymore. She’d already risked too much in the past, and her fami
Zach’s POVThe decision to avoid Ryder started getting more difficult, my internal torment peaked like a storm that wouldn’t break. Every waking moment was a war between telling Ryder everything and handling this nightmare alone.Ryder had been circling closer, texts I ignored, near-misses on campus where his eyes would lock on mine with that raw, unresolved want. He knew something was wrong. And part of me, the exhausted, terrified part, wanted to run to him. To unload the laptop folder, Damien’s obsession, the threats. Ryder would protect me. He always tried to, in his messy, secretive way.But I held back, his secrets about Damien were the reason I was in this mess to begin with.Damien escalated two days later with a veiled threat on campus. I was cutting across the quad when my phone buzzed.I froze mid-step, scanning the area. No sign of him, but he made it clear that he was watching. I deleted the message with shaking fingers and changed directions, paranoia wrapping tighter ar
Zach’s POVThe images from Damien’s laptop haunted every attempt to close my eyes, photos of me walking to class, notes detailing my routines, timestamps stretching back months.By morning, my dorm room felt like a cage. Every creak in the hallway made me flinch, every shadow outside the window looked like him watching.The horror settled deep in my bones. I paced the small space, replaying the party, the way Damien’s mask had shattered. The loving, patient guy who had listened to my doubts was a predator who saw me as a tool. The realization made my stomach churn.I processed it alone at first, curled on my bed with my knees to my chest. There was no one to tell. And I had bothered Gigi with too much lately, telling anyone felt impossible.No one would believe me without proof, and the proof was on his laptop. But I couldn’t just back out either, not when my scholarship, my future stood on the line, all gone with one word from his powerful family.By afternoon, the isolation became u
Zach’s POVThe hallway felt too narrow, the party music a distant, mocking thump. I had tried to run away again while we were outside, the alcohol in my veins replaced with pure adrenaline.But Damien was faster than I expected, and his hand clamped around my wrist before I could get anywhere, yanking all the way back to his apartment, with his car still parked in the middle of the street.Now we were in his house once again and the loving mask was gone. Completely.“Zach,” he said, voice low and calm in a way that chilled me more than shouting would have. “I’m sorry you had to see that, but it’s time we were honest with each other.”I tried to pull free, heart slamming against my ribs. “Let go. What the hell is wrong with you? What kind of freak watches a person for months just for a date?”Damien’s grip tightened, not painful but inescapable. His eyes gleamed with something possessive and cold. “Don’t flatter yourself, you were never the prize, just a pawn in a very very long game.”
Zach’s POV“Brittany’s gonna be a problem.”My thoughts have spun over every single second I spent in Ryder’s room, and it won’t stop no matter how hard I tried to distract myself. I could barely pay any attention in class and it had been so bad that Gigi noticed.Immediately after third period, s
Zach’s POVI had convinced myself not to return so soon. Not when the fake kiss still haunted my dreams, and that midnight shadow outside my dorm had left me jumpy. But the project deadline loomed like a guillotine, and Staks would not care about my internal drama. So at 4:45 PM the next day, I
Zach’s POVThe memory of that near-miss clung to me like smoke, his body heat, the way I could feel his heavy breaths falling on me without pushing him away.I spent the night staring at the ceiling, willing the image of the almost kiss to dissolve.It didn’t.But by morning, I’d buried it under lay
Zach’s POVThe photo burned in my hand like it had its own pulse.Ryder’s fingers in my hair.My grip on his chest.Our mouths fused like we were trying to devour each other.It looked so real I could almost taste him; salt, mint, and pure rage.My stomach flipped. “This isn’t real,” I said again,







