STEPHEN’S POVI didn’t remember deciding to leave.One second I was standing in the hallway, Hayden’s door still vibrating from where it had slammed shut, my chest tight and buzzing like I’d swallowed broken glass. The next, I was outside, the night air hitting my face like a slap.I deserved worse.I walked with no direction, hands shoved in my pockets, jaw locked so tight it ached. Every step felt like it was shaking something loose in me—anger, humiliation, regret. Or all three tangled together so badly I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other started.Hayden’s face wouldn’t get out of my head. That look he had when he finally stopped fighting back. Like he’d accepted the role I’d carved into him.You ruin everything you touch.The words tasted bitter now.I cut through campus without thinking, past the library, past the quad where people laughed too loudly and lived too easily. Then I saw her.Ella.She was sitting on one of the benches near the field, shoulders hunched, arms
Last Updated : 2026-02-05 Read more