جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 80

Jace's POVI hit the ice before the rest of the team even arrived, my skates cutting hard, angry lines across the empty rink, my shoulder screaming with every stride but I pushed through it anyway, needing the burn to drown out everything else sitting unresolved in my chest.“I can't build something real on top of something that started as a calculation.”Her words kept looping through my head, sharp and relentless, no matter how hard I skated, no matter how many drills I ran through alone before Coach even showed up. I fired shot after shot at the empty net, my shoulder aching worse with every release, but the physical pain felt almost like relief compared to the hollow ache sitting underneath my ribs since her text three days ago.Mike found me there an hour later, already dressed for practice, his expression tightening the second he saw me."How long have you been out here," he asked, dropping his bag on the bench."A while." I didn't stop skating, running another drill even as my

Maya's POVThe news spread through campus faster than I expected, though I supposed that was the nature of anything involving Jace Carter, his life always somehow becoming everyone's business the second something interesting happened.*Jace Carter and that journalism girl broke up.*I sat on my bed scrolling through the group chat, watching the theories pile up faster than I could keep track of them, half the campus apparently convinced they knew exactly what happened even though nobody actually had the full story. I knew more than most, obviously, thanks to my own careful digging months ago, though even I hadn't expected the whole thing to actually implode this fast.Bri walked in from class, dropping her bag by the door before immediately clocking the look on my face. "You've seen it.""Everyone's seen it." I set my phone down, though I couldn't quite keep the small, satisfied smile off my face. "I told you it wasn't real. All that performance, all those public displays. I knew ther

Ariana's POVMy phone buzzed while I sat in the campus library working through my actual assignment, an unfamiliar number flashing across the screen with a message that made my stomach drop the second I read it.Unknown: Hi Ariana, this is Danielle from the Westbrook Sports Report. I'm working on a piece about Jace Carter and wanted to get your perspective on the relationship and the recent breakup, given your own background in journalism. Would love your input for the story.I stared at the screen, my chest tightening with a violation I hadn't fully anticipated, the strange sensation of becoming the subject of exactly the kind of story I'd usually be writing myself. I set my phone down, my hands trembling slightly, and tried to refocus on my actual work, though the words on my screen blurred together, unreadable now that my mind had latched onto something far more urgent.Becca found me twenty minutes later, sliding into the seat across from me, her expression immediately shifting to

Ariana's POVMy phone buzzed three times in a row while I sat in my journalism seminar, and by the time I glanced at the screen during a break, my stomach had already started twisting before I fully understood why.Becca: Ari, call me. Something's going around about Davian again and it's worse this time.I stepped out into the hallway, my hands shaking slightly as I dialed her number, my mind racing through every possible version of worse before she even picked up."What's going on," I said the second she answered, my voice tight."There's a whole thread on the anonymous campus board," Becca said, her voice grim. "Someone posted details about you and Davian. Real specific stuff, Ari. Stuff nobody outside the two of you should even know.""What kind of specific.""Dates. Locations. Even some stuff about the counseling sessions you went to after everything happened." Becca's voice tightened further. "This isn't just gossip anymore. Someone actually dug into this."My chest went cold, th

Ariana's POVI stared at the red "INCOMPLETE" stamped across my midterm project, my hands trembling as I scrolled through my professor's feedback, each comment landing like a fresh blow against everything I'd worked so hard to protect.*Ariana, this isn't up to your usual standard. The sourcing is thin, the structure feels rushed, and this reads like something submitted the night before deadline rather than the careful work I've come to expect from you. Please see me during office hours to discuss.*I closed my laptop, my chest tight with a shame that felt entirely unfamiliar, the kind I hadn't experienced since long before Jace, since before any of this mess had started unraveling my careful, controlled life piece by piece. I'd built my entire sense of self around being the reliable one, the disciplined one, the girl who never let anything slip no matter how hard things got. Reading that feedback felt like watching a stranger wear my name.Becca looked up from her side of the room, i