บททั้งหมดของ THE ART OF FALLING : บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

Chapter 22 “You trust me, right?” James had asked it lightly, like it was nothing more than a passing thought. They were sitting side by side, the room dim except for the weak glow from his desk lamp. His voice had been soft, almost affectionate, and Nora remembered nodding without hesitation. “Yes,” she had said. At the time, the word felt harmless. Now, it felt like a mistake she couldn’t take back. The next afternoon, Nora visited James again, telling herself she was imagining things. That her unease was only leftover heartbreak from Jaden. That not everyone who stayed close wanted to hurt her. James met her at the door with a smile. “You look tired,” he said, stepping aside to let her in. “I didn’t sleep well,” she replied. He nodded like he expected that answer. As soon as she stepped in, she placed her phone on the table instinctively. James noticed immediately. “I’ll help you charge it,” he said, already reaching for it. Nora’s fingers twitched. “I can do it” “It

Chapter 24Avoidance didn’t begin as a plan.It began as instinct.Nora woke up one morning with a tightness in her chest that refused to loosen, no matter how many deep breaths she took. Her phone lay beside her, screen dark, mercifully quiet. For the first time in weeks, there were no messages waiting for her. No demands. No guilt disguised as affection.She stared at the ceiling and realized something unsettling.She didn’t want to see James.The thought scared her.Not because she missed him but because she knew what it would mean if she didn’t.James didn’t respond well to absence.Still, when her phone buzzed twenty minutes later, she let it ring.Once.Twice.Then silence.Her heart pounded violently as she rolled onto her side, hugging a pillow to her chest. Her hands trembled, not with relief, but with anticipation. She knew this pattern. Knew what came next.Punishment.James noticed immediately.He always did.Nora was predictable when she was afraid. She replied too fast.

Chapter 26 The campus did not forget. It pretended to move on, but it didn’t forget. Nora felt it in the way conversations stopped when she walked past. In the way people looked away too quickly or stared for too long. In the sudden politeness that felt worse than open cruelty. She stopped going to classes. Not officially. Not deliberately. She just… couldn’t step outside without feeling naked all over again. Her phone stayed off most days. When she turned it on, it was only to see the damage hadn’t disappeared. The images were gone from public forums now, taken down after reports and threats of disciplinary action, but screenshots lived forever. Whispers lived longer. Her body remembered everything. The fear. The shame. The moment she realized trust could be weaponized. She barely slept. When she did, she dreamed of cameras she couldn’t see. Trisha came every day. She didn’t ask too many questions. Didn’t push Nora to talk. She brought food, sat on the floor, sometimes

Chapter 28 James didn’t torture Nora loudly. He did it carefully. After the panic attack, after the campus whispers cooled into something quieter but sharper, he shifted tactics. No more vague posts. No more anonymous messages. He wanted control without fingerprints. He wanted her paranoid. It started with timing. Nora would step out of her hostel, and moments later, her phone would buzz. Nice hoodie. She would be in class, finally managing to focus, when a message slipped through. You still draw sad girls. She stopped opening them. Blocked the numbers. Changed her privacy settings. It didn’t stop. The messages kept coming from new numbers, new accounts, burner profiles that disappeared after one text. James knew her schedule. Knew her habits. Knew when she was weakest. Fear stopped being sharp and became dull, constant like background noise that never switched off. Nora functioned on autopilot now. Smile when necessary. Nod when spoken to. Breathe shallowly so her che

Chapter 30 Loneliness did not arrive loudly. It crept in the way dusk swallowed daylight soft, unannounced, unavoidable. Nora felt it most in the pauses between things. Between footsteps. Between breaths. Between the moments when she almost reached for her phone and remembered there was no one she wanted to call. Or worse, no one she trusted enough to hear her voice without turning it into something ugly. The campus still moved around her, alive and careless. Laughter spilled from dorm windows. Doors slammed. Music thumped faintly through walls. People passed her with purpose, with somewhere to be, someone to meet. She felt like a shadow drifting through all of it.Invisible. After James was gone after the truth, the damage, the humiliation everything else seemed to fall apart quietly. Not in dramatic explosions. Not in confrontations or apologies. Just… distance. Jaden didn’t speak to her. He didn’t glare either. That would’ve hurt less. Instead, he looked through her when th