All Chapters of Hate You, Till I Don't : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

POV: Ave---The moment Ave stepped offstage, the world swelled like a balloon she couldn’t hold.Applause still echoed behind her, a booming soundtrack to the chaos in her chest. Bright stage lights dimmed into a soft hallway glow. But her pulse kept sprinting. Her palms felt damp. Her lungs, shallow. It was like the oxygen backstage had thinned, and everyone else was breathing fine except her.She didn’t speak.Not even when Nia caught her arm and whispered, “You were incredible.”Not when two other teams offered polite, respectful nods, the kind reserved for actual competitors, not just rivals.Ave just kept walking, steady and numb, like her body was floating slightly behind her thoughts.She turned a corner into the empty hallway that wrapped behind the auditorium, out of sight. The hum of voices faded. The lights above her flickered softly. She leaned against the cold wall and let her eyes fall shut.Ten minutes. One prototype. One voice.And she’d done it.She didn’t forget her

POV: Blake --- Blake had been through enough Crescent Hill announcements to know when something was about to go nuclear. Still, nothing prepared him for the moment Mrs. Cardenas walked into Robotics class holding a printed list and a perfectly neutral smile. “Good morning,” she said brightly. “As you’ve seen on the portal, we’re entering Stage Three of the Innovators Challenge. This round? Team swap.” A ripple of groans and whispered *“Nope”*s spread through the room like static. Cardenas continued. “Each pair will receive a rival school’s prototype brief and have forty-eight hours to evaluate, edit, and resubmit improvements.” Blake glanced sideways at Ave. She was already gripping her pen too tightly. Her jaw locked like a steel trap. “And,” Cardenas added, “some of you will be partnering with new temporary teammates.” Wait, what? Blake raised an eyebrow. This wasn’t in the portal update. Mrs. Cardenas held up the list. “This decision was made to test adaptability. Engi

POV: Blended (Blake + Ave) --- Blake — Sunday Evening, Lab Heat and Tension Blake shouldn’t be thinking about her hands. He really shouldn’t. But here he was, standing just inches away from Ave Imani in the dim glow of the robotics lab, brain completely short-circuited because she leaned in too close. Again. They were elbow-deep in testing the drip-delay algorithm on their irrigation prototype. The water pressure sensors were glitching — again — and Ave, all fire and focus, was trying to reroute the trigger via a new Python script. Her laptop screen glowed blue across her cheek. A few stray curls were stuck to her forehead, damp with frustration. She clicked and sighed. “It’s still dropping below threshold before the timer resets.” Blake squinted at the terminal logs. “That doesn’t make sense. The pressure should normalize after the third interval.” “I know. But it’s not.” “Let me try.” He reached for the keyboard at the same time Ave did. Their fingers met. And this tim

POV: Blake---Blake wasn’t easily rattled.He could crack a joke in detention, take a loss in a robotics scrimmage without blinking, and survive Ave Imani’s death glare like a champ.But when he walked into AP Physics and saw him sitting in the back row — same smirk, same slouched posture, same jawline that had once been next to Ave’s in a photo Blake still couldn’t forget — he felt something in his stomach twist.“Eli,” he muttered.The guy glanced up like he’d heard him. Their eyes met.And just like that, the past shoved its way into Blake’s present.---Three Years AgoFreshman year. Summer robotics camp.Blake remembered Ave and Eli laughing over a broken breadboard while Blake sat two benches down, pretending not to care. Eli was charming, older by a year, and annoyingly good with circuitry.He also didn’t hide the fact that he liked Ave.And for a few weeks, Blake watched them flirt, argue, and finally — kiss.Then school started.Eli transferred out of state.Ave never talked

POV: Blended (Ave + Blake)---Ave – Monday Afternoon, Robotics LabThe first thing Ave noticed when she stepped into the lab was silence. The kind of silence that wasn’t peaceful — it was wrong.She dropped her bag by the table and froze.The prototype was still there. At least, the shell of it was. The frame, the base. But the wiring — the heart of the system — was gutted.Gone.Ave blinked once. Then again.Maybe Blake moved it for testing. Maybe someone borrowed the power modulator. Maybe—“Are you kidding me?” she whispered.She dropped to her knees and checked under the table. Nothing.Checked the tool drawers. Nothing.Ran to the storage cabinet by the wall. Locked.Her chest tightened.She scrambled for her phone and typed in:> [Ave]:Where did you put the breadboard and power strip? And the relay switches?Three dots bounced.> [Blake]:I didn’t touch anything. Why? What happened?> [Ave]:They’re gone.Someone took them.> [Blake]:On my way.She stood there, staring at the