Mag-log inChapter 173The crowd thinned in uneven waves once Aaron’s back disappeared through the stairwell door.Phones lowered. Conversations broke into smaller clusters. A couple of juniors still hovered near the dented lockers, replaying the video they had just taken, but most of the students drifted off toward their next classes or the main exit when it became clear the fighting was finished. The two guys who had jumped in earlier managed to get upright and disappear without looking at anyone. The smell of blood and sweat lingered in the hallway air. A teacher finally arrived at the far end, voice raised and asking what had happened, but by then the center of the storm had already moved.Leon kept his hand under Damian’s arm and guided him down the corridor toward the nurse’s office. Damian walked with a noticeable limp in his breathing, one arm still pressed against his ribs, the swelling around his eye worsening with every minute. Blood had dried in dark, cracked lines down his chin and
Chapter 172Aaron’s mouth closed around the unfinished sentence.The words he had been about to say—*He’s going to expose you, he’s using you for a bet, the whole senior class is watching*—died in his throat the second he registered the look on Leon’s face. It wasn’t just anger. It was the particular kind of closed-off hurt that meant any further explanation would only dig the knife deeper. Leon’s eyes were bright and hard, jaw set, the careful walls he usually kept around himself slammed into place so fast it was almost visible. Telling him the truth about Damian’s plan, about the pot money and the “little holy gay” comments and the deliberate setup, would gut him right here in front of half the school. Aaron could already see how it would land. Leon would not thank him for it. He would only feel smaller, more exposed, more like the exact punchline the bet had been designed to create.So Aaron stopped talking.Blood still ran in a thin line from the cut on his lip. His split knuckles
Chapter 171Leon pushed through the edge of the crowd before the last echoes of the fight had fully died.Students packed the hallway in a rough, shifting circle, phones held high, screens already recording from every angle. The air smelled of sweat, metal, and the sharp copper tang of blood. Someone near the lockers kept repeating “holy shit” under their breath like a broken loop. A junior on the far side shouted for a teacher. Another voice answered that security was already on the way. None of it slowed Leon down. He shoved past a pair of seniors who were still filming, ignored the hands that tried to pull him back, and locked onto the figure slumped against the blue metal lockers.Damian.Blood ran in thick lines from his split lip and nose. One eye was already swelling shut, the skin around it turning dark and tight. His shirt hung twisted and stained red where it had been grabbed and yanked. He sat half-collapsed against the dented locker door, one arm braced on the floor, the o
Chapter 170Damian spit blood onto the floor and came at me.He swung first—wide, angry, aiming for my jaw. I slipped the punch, stepped in, and drove my fist into his ribs. The air left him in a sharp grunt. He staggered but didn’t go down. His next swing clipped my shoulder. I answered with a straight right that caught him clean on the cheek. His head snapped back. Another punch followed, shorter, harder, landing against his mouth again. More blood.“You piece of shit—” Damian swung wildly. I blocked it with my forearm and shoved him hard into the lockers. Metal rattled. Someone in the gathering crowd yelled. Phones were already up.The two guys from earlier—the ones who’d been talking about the bet—jumped in.“Get him!” the first one shouted. He grabbed for my arm. I twisted free and hit him square in the face. His nose cracked under my knuckles. He stumbled back, hands flying up. The second one came from the side and wrapped an arm around my neck, trying to drag me off Damian. I d
Chapter 169I turned.Damian stood right there, hand still half-raised from where it had landed on my shoulder, that easy grin already starting to form like we were just two guys catching up in the hallway. The same grin he’d been using on the cheerleader in chem. The same one that probably showed up in whatever messages he’d been sending Leon.YhI didn’t think about it.My fist connected with the side of his face before the grin could fully settle.The impact was solid. Damian’s head snapped sideways. He stumbled back a step, hand flying up to his jaw, eyes wide with pure shock.“What the fuck, Aaron?”The hallway noise dipped for a second as a few people nearby turned to look. I didn’t care. The two guys who’d been running their mouths about the bet had gone quiet, watching like they’d just been handed better entertainment than they expected.I stepped in close enough that Damian had to look up at me.“You asked out Leon just to humiliate him?”Damian’s hand stayed on his jaw. The
Chapter 168AARON POVI was halfway down the main hallway when the voices cut through the usual after-class noise.Lockers slammed on both sides. Someone shouted about practice times. A group of freshmen scrambled out of the way of a pair of seniors carrying hockey bags. Ordinary Monday chaos. I kept my head up and my pace steady, still turning over the chemistry period in my mind—the way Leon had gone quiet when Damian laughed, the feel of his wrist under my hand when I stopped him from dumping the wrong powder, the small smile when he asked about tutoring tonight and I said I was game. The words I hadn’t said out loud kept circling too.*Yeah, that’s ’cause I like you.*I hadn’t planned on saying them. I still hadn’t. But they sat there anyway, heavier after watching him get thrown by Damian’s attention in the lab.Then the two voices ahead of me sharpened enough to pull me out of my own head.“My money’s on our boy Damian.”The first one sounded pleased with himself, the kind of lo
Chapter 3The ice bath had left Leon trembling throughout the night. When morning reached, the cold has turned into a burning fever than clung on to his skin. His head throbbed with a dull ache, and every joint in his body hurt like he had run a marathon race in his sleep.For a moment, he consider
Chapter 2The computer turned on with soft hum that sounded deafening to Leon’s ears. He squeezed his eyes shut tightly, his nails digging crescent moon shapes into his skin as he braced for impact. He was expecting his father’s voice to thunder in the room. He expected scriptures to tear from his
Chapter 1Leon was hunched over his desk, the blue glow of his computer reflecting on his sweet filled face. His room was filled with silence and the only sound slicing through the air was him clicking away at his keyboard. The words he typed didn’t register in his eyes. Instead, they took form, i
Chapter 5By the time Leon had walked through the front door of his house, the world began to spin. The fever had not subsided. If anything, it had gotten worse. His face burned as the hallway seemed to titled as he walked through it. The familiar scent of Oakwood drifted through the house, mixing







