Chapter Two – Rumors and Rainstorms

The sound of the rain stayed with me long after it stopped.

Even when I got back to my dorm and threw myself face-first onto my bed, I could still hear it—the quiet patter against the pavement, the low hum of thunder, and the echo of his voice when he’d said my name.

Liana.

No one had ever said it like that before—half challenge, half secret. I hated how my stomach reacted. Like I’d swallowed the storm itself.

I kept replaying everything in my head. The umbrella. The smirk. The way Axel had looked at me as if he could see through every layer I’d carefully built to survive this place. I didn’t even know him, but somehow, he’d gotten under my skin in less than five minutes.

I groaned and buried my face deeper into my pillow.

Nope. Not thinking about him. Not tonight.

---

The next morning, campus looked like it had been scrubbed clean. The puddles sparkled, the air smelled like wet leaves and new beginnings. I tried to convince myself that last night was just… a fluke. An unfortunate encounter with a boy who thrived on chaos.

Except chaos had a face now. And it was sitting in the seat right behind me in class.

“Miss Lane,” Professor Everett said, his voice dragging my attention back to the whiteboard, “if you could please stop staring at the window and contribute something to this discussion, that would be delightful.”

I blinked. “Sorry, sir. I was just—”

“Thinking about me?”

That voice. Smooth, low, dripping with arrogance.

I didn’t even have to turn around to know who it was.

A few students chuckled. My cheeks burned.

I slowly turned my head, and there he was—Axel Knight. Leaning back in his chair, arms crossed, looking like trouble in human form. He had that same lazy smirk, the one that promised mischief and regret in equal measure.

“I was actually thinking about how much better this class would be if you didn’t talk,” I shot back, forcing a tight smile.

The smirk widened. “So you were thinking about me.”

Laughter rippled across the room.

Professor Everett sighed. “Mr. Knight, I’ll assume you have something valuable to contribute?”

“Not unless sarcasm counts as a thesis,” Axel said, eyes still locked on me.

My pen snapped in half in my hand.

---

By lunch, everyone on campus had heard about the library incident. I didn’t even know how it started, but gossip travels faster than Wi-Fi at St. Vincent’s College.

“She fought with him in the rain,” someone whispered behind me in line at the cafeteria.

“No, I heard they kissed.”

“Liana Lane? The quiet one? No way.”

“Apparently, Axel Knight’s got a thing for feisty girls.”

I wanted to crawl into the ground.

It didn’t help that Axel seemed to find the whole thing hilarious. When I passed him in the hallway, he gave me this exaggerated wink, as if we were in on some private joke. I wanted to slap it off his face—and maybe a small part of me wanted to laugh too. I hated that.

When I sat with my best friend, Riza, she already had her phone open with the evidence.

“You have to see this,” she said, shoving the screen in my face.

It was a picture. Me, holding my broken umbrella. Him, standing too close. The streetlight behind us turned the rain into falling stars. It looked… romantic. Like something out of a drama.

Someone had captioned it: “New campus couple? #Lixel #RainKiss.”

“Who even took this?” I groaned, dropping my head on the table.

Riza’s grin was way too wide. “Girl, people are shipping you two. You’re trending on the school forum.”

“I am not trending. And we are not a ship.”

“Fine, but your chemistry is illegal. Even the faculty group chat’s talking about it.”

I groaned louder.

And that was before Axel himself walked in.

The cafeteria went silent like the air had been vacuumed out of it. He moved through the crowd like he owned it, and every pair of eyes followed him. Of course, he stopped right at my table.

“Lane,” he said, tossing an unopened bottle of apple juice toward me. “You left this in class.”

“I don’t even drink apple juice.”

He shrugged. “Guess you do now.”

I blinked at him. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

His lips curved. “Immensely.”

Then he leaned down, voice barely above a whisper. “Smile for the cameras, princess. They’re watching.”

My heart did something traitorous. And before I could say anything, he straightened up, winked, and walked away—leaving chaos and camera flashes in his wake.

---

That night, the photo had tripled in likes. Someone had made a fan edit of us.

Axel and me. Rain. Slow music. The words “She was the calm to his storm” flashing across the screen.

I wanted to scream into my pillow.

By Friday, even my professors were making jokes about “my new study partner.” It was exhausting.

So when I found Axel in the library again—this time lounging on a beanbag like he’d been born there—I didn’t think twice before marching up to him.

“You need to stop this.”

He didn’t even look up from his book. “Stop what?”

“Whatever this—this thing is that you’re doing. People think we’re together.”

He looked at me then. Slowly. Like he was trying to figure me out. “And that bothers you.”

“Of course it does!”

“Why? I’m not a bad boyfriend.” His mouth twitched. “In theory.”

“You’re impossible.”

“Accurate,” he said, setting the book aside. “But admit it. You’d rather they think we’re together than think you’re invisible.”

That hit harder than I expected. My breath caught.

He must’ve seen it, because his teasing expression softened just slightly.

“I didn’t mean—” he started.

“Forget it.” I turned away, my throat tight. “You don’t know anything about me.”

He didn’t stop me as I walked out. But when I reached the door, I thought I heard him say something—quiet, almost hesitant.

“Maybe I’d like to.”

---

For a while, I actually believed that was the end of it. The rumors, the teasing, the constant whispers of Axel and Liana. But campus life has a funny way of proving me wrong.

The following Monday, the announcement board had a new poster:

PARTNER PROJECT: PSYCHOLOGY 302 – ‘UNDERSTANDING CONNECTIONS.’

Next to my name was one word that nearly made me drop my coffee.

Partner: Axel Knight.

The universe was laughing at me. Loudly.

I found him lounging under a tree, earbuds in, pretending not to notice the chaos he’d caused. I marched straight up to him.

“You requested me?” I demanded.

He looked up, sunlight catching the edge of his hair. “You’re welcome.”

“I didn’t thank you.”

He grinned, lazy and smug. “You’re going to.”

I wanted to hit him. Or maybe hug him. I wasn’t sure which. “Why me?”

“Because,” he said, tilting his head. “You don’t fall for the act.”

For a second, I forgot how to breathe. Because in that small space of honesty, I saw something real behind the arrogance. Something broken.

I opened my mouth to ask—but then I heard voices. Two of his friends.

“Yo, Knight,” one of them laughed, not seeing me. “You really bagged her fast, huh? Knew that ‘rain scene’ trick would work again.”

The world stopped spinning for a second.

I turned to him, heart dropping. His friends laughed harder, nudging him.

“Man, you’re smooth. What’s next, fake study dates?”

Axel’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t say anything. Didn’t deny it.

That silence was enough.

I swallowed hard, blinking back the sting behind my eyes. “So it was a trick?”

“Liana, wait—”

But I was already walking away.

Behind me, I heard him say something—soft, urgent—but the wind swallowed it up before I could catch the words.

All I knew was that my chest hurt.

And that for the first time since I met Axel Knight, the storm inside me wasn’t thrilling.

It was breaking me apart.