The Devil Bleeds Too

Dante was missing in practice, which shocked everyone. The football team trained under gray afternoon skies while Coach screamed himself hoarse across the field, but Dante never showed. Phones exploded with rumors within the hour.

Dante suspended? Ariana really broke him omg. They definitely hooked up.

No way he skipped practice over a girl.

But Ariana ignored all of it, or at least she tried to. She sat alone behind the campus library editing photos with headphones on and coffee growing cold beside her. The problem was that every picture reminded her of him, Dante running across the field, Dante glaring at reporters, Dante looking at her like she was something dangerous. It was exhausting.

Worse, part of her felt guilty, which was ridiculous. He had humiliated her publicly. So why did his face after she walked away keep replaying inside her head, like she'd actually hurt him?

A shadow fell across the table and Ariana looked up, then relaxed slightly. Mason.

"You look miserable," he observed.

"Thank you."

He sat across from her casually and held out a small paper bag. "Peace offering."

Ariana frowned before opening it. Chocolate muffins. Her favorite. She looked at him suspiciously. "You trying to poison me?"

"Depends. Did you finish your half of the semester project?"

She snorted softly, and for the first time all day, a real laugh escaped her. Mason smiled faintly at the sound.

"You okay?"

The question was gentle enough that it almost broke something inside her. Ariana looked away quickly. "I'm fine."

"Liar."

"Professional liar."

"That explains why you keep pretending Dante presence doesn't affect you."

Her fingers tightened slightly around the muffin bag. Mason leaned back in his chair carefully. "You know he skipped practice, right?"

Ariana's stomach betrayed her instantly. "No, I didn't."

"Coach is losing his mind."

She forced herself to shrug. "Not my problem."

"Maybe not." Mason studied her quietly. "But I don't think he's okay."

Something uncomfortable twisted in Ariana's chest. She hated hearing that, hated that she cared, because despite everything, Dante had looked shattered earlier. And Dante Cole wasn't supposed to look shattered.

Before she could respond, raised voices echoed nearby outside the library entrance and students moved aside quickly. Ariana already knew who it was before she looked up. Dante, in black hoodie, hands shoved into pockets, expression unreadable, but something about him felt off, more dangerous than usual, like anger was the only thing holding him upright. His eyes landed immediately on Mason sitting beside her, and just like that the temperature around them dropped.

"Oh, good," Mason muttered. "The devil found us."

Dante ignored him completely and looked only at Ariana. "We need to talk."

"No." The answer came instantly, and Mason looked impressed.

Dante's jaw tightened. "Ariana."

"No," she repeated calmly. "Try bullying someone else today."

Pain flashed briefly across his face, tiny but unmistakably there. Dante stepped closer to the table. "You think this is funny?"

Ariana crossed her arms. "You think emotional manipulation is flirting?"

Mason quietly gathered his things. "I'm gonna leave before one of you commits a felony." Neither of them answered, because neither of them could stop staring at each other.

After Mason disappeared inside the library, silence settled heavily between them. Wind moved through the trees overhead while students nearby pretended not to watch. Dante spoke first.

"I didn't make that bet because I wanted to embarrass you."

Ariana laughed softly. "You're right. You succeeded accidentally."

His expression darkened. "I was drunk."

"Oh, fantastic defense."

"I already liked you when they started talking." That caught her off guard, and Dante noticed. "They kept saying you hated me," he continued quietly. "That you'd never look at me unless you were forced too."

Ariana frowned despite herself. "So you made me a challenge."

"No." His voice roughened slightly. "I made you an excuse."

The honesty in that answer hit her harder than she expected. Ariana looked away briefly, because this conversation felt dangerous. When Dante stopped acting cruel, he became harder to hate.

"I don't understand you," she admitted quietly.

Something almost sad moved through his expression. "Yeah," he murmured. "That makes two of us."

Silence stretched between them, and then Dante sat down across from her without invitation.

Very typical of him.

Ariana stared at him. "What are you doing?"

"Existing in public."

She almost smiled. Dante noticed, of course, and his gaze softened briefly before dropping toward the untouched muffin bag beside her laptop.

"You still eating chocolate muffins when you're stressed?"

Ariana froze. That was an old detail, a personal detail. "You remember that?"

"I remember everything about you."

The words landed softly and honestly, and somehow that scared her more than all his anger ever had.