The double doors to the canteen swung open, and the usual midday roar of voices hit me like a solid wall. Selima did not let go of my arm, she steered me through the crowd with a mission-driven focus.“Look, he’s over there,” she hissed, nodding toward the center of the room.“I see him, Selima. It’s hard to miss the sun when it’s shining,” I replied, my voice trembling as I watched Uriel sitting at a central table.He was surrounded by the ‘elites’, the athletes and the socialites whose parents owned half the city. “He’s alone at the end of the bench,” Selima observed, her eyes narrowing as she calculated our path. “Michael is just a few feet away. This is perfect. We’re going in.”“I can’t do this,” I whispered, trying to anchor my sneakers to the linoleum floor. “Look at Chloe and her group. If I walk over there, they’ll laugh me out of the building. Did you see the way she looked at my hair yesterday? Like I was something she found on the bottom of her shoe.”“Who cares about Chlo
Last Updated : 2026-02-12 Read more