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Chapter 11 – Distractions

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last update Last Updated: 2025-09-02 02:36:08

Chapter 11 – Distractions

(Eli POV)

Avoidance worked… until it didn’t.

By Thursday, my whole routine was unraveling. Sure, I’d managed a few days of slipping out before Dante woke up, hiding in the library until midnight, pretending everything was fine. But the problem with avoiding someone who lived ten feet away was that absence didn’t erase them.

It made them louder.

Every glimpse across the quad, every overheard laugh with his teammates, every time I passed the gym and caught sight of his broad frame through the glass—it all pressed against me harder than if I’d just faced him head-on.

And worse, the memory of almost refused to die.

So I decided I needed a distraction. Something, someone, anything that wasn’t six-foot-something of tattoos and contradictions.

Enter: Caleb.

He was in my Lit Theory seminar. The kind of student professors adored—sharp answers, neat notes, confident voice. He even managed to wear cardigans without looking like he’d raided his grandfather’s clo
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