bChapter /bb33 /b

JESSICA

Days had passed and I think everything just went back to normal. Or maybe it didn’t. Maybe I just got better at pretending

Pierce is beside bme/b, saying something about Mom and her medicine schedule, but it’s all a blur. His voice is just noise now, I nod when I’m supposed bto /bnod. I smile when I’m supposed to smile. I’m getting good at it,

Logan tried calling. He called once. Then twice. I stared at the phone until it stopped ringing. I told myself if I answered, I’d have to say it out loud. I’d have to hear myself admit that everything fell apart. So, I didn’t pick up.

Grayson… Goddess. bGrayson /bcame to the house a few days ago. I heard the knock.

I felt him through the door like he bwas /bba /bghost wing at me from the other side. I didn’t move. I didn’t breathe. I just pressed my back to the wall and prayed he’d leave. He didn’t, not at first. He stayed. I could hear him outside–breathing, shitting, whispering my name so broken and desperate it almost cracked me open again. But I didn’t open the door not when he’s asking me what he did wrong for me to break up with himb. /b

I didn’t open the door because if I saw him, I wouldn’t survive it. Because if I looked him in the eyes and saw him shattered, it would ruin me. Because even now, even after everything, some stupid, bruised part of me still loves him.

Pierce found me hourster, curled up on the floor, still huping my knees, still shaking like I bcould /bshake the memory out of me. He didn’t say anything. He just picked me up like I weighed nothing and carried me to bed. That night, Pierce tucked me in like I was five years old again. He sat with me until I fell asleep. I think he’s scared if he leaves me alone too long, I won’t be here when he gets back.

I’m scared of that too.

“Jess,” Pierce says, stopping right before the door. His hand hovers near my elbow like he’s scared I’ll bolt. He insists on driving me to ss. even though I tell him a hundred times I can manage. “You sure about this?”

I give him the fakest smile I’ve ever made in my lifeb. /b“I’m fine, Pierce. Seriously.”

He doesn’t push. He just stands there, watching me with that same worried look that makes my chest splinter apart.

Istep into the ssroom. I barely nce around–but my eyes catch on him immediately. Logan. He’s lounging back in his chair like he doesn’t have a single care in the world, messy hair, hall–lidded eyes. When he catches me looking, he gives me azy grin.

I force a smile back. Honestly, I am not sure why I am beven /battending ss. Mom is worried when I skip ssesst week so I promised her attend today, I don’t know what the teacher is saying. I don’t care. For the past 2 hours, my mind is numb.

It was when the bell rings i stop scribbling on my notes. However, I stay seated waiting for everyone to go out of the ssroom. I waited until it was me and Logan left.

He tilts his head a little. “You good, Jess?”

“I’m sorry.” I blurt out, voice cracking, barely above a whisper. I can’t meet his eyes.

Logan frowns. bSteps /bcloser. “For what?”

“For dragging you into my mess. For-“My voice breaks again. I squeeze my eyes shut for a second, fighting bfor /bcontrol. “For being this

There’s a long, aching pause. Logan shits his weight, be bwants /bto reach for me but doesn’t know if he’s allowed

“Jess,” he saysb, /bsofter this time. We’ve known each other since we were kids, and I just ruined us.“It’s me. You don’t have to apologize.

b1/4 /b

09:47 bTue/bb, /b5 Aug

“I just “I cut myself off, gripping the strap of my bag like it’s the only thing holding me to the earth. “I wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.

“I know,” Logan says quietly.

I squeeze my eyes shut. Goddess, it would be so easy to just sink into him. To let him hold me, to pretend everything’s okay, to be somebody belse /bfor five fucking minutes. But I can’t. Because every time I close my eyes, it’s still Grayson

it’s still him.

And it hurts.

Logan clears his throat. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

I nod, swallowing a sob that burns all the way bdown/b.” We’re still friends, right?”

“After you kissed me?”

I finally look up at him, and he’s watching me, like he’s trying to figure out what piece of me to catch before I fall apart again. I want to tell him everything

I want to tell him I’m so tired. That I miss Grayson so much it feels like I’m dying a little more every time blink. But I can do is swallow it bback/b, force a brittle, shaking breath, and shove my things into my bag.

“I’m sorry

Logan.

for that too,” I whisper, voice breaking around the words. I mean it. Goddess, I mean it. “I’m sorry you got hurt because of me,

He chuckles under his breath, touching the edge of the bruise purpling along his jaw with a wince. “Hey,” he says, halfughing, half- groaning. “At least now we know why bhe’s /bgoing to be the future Alpha,”

The joke stabs me right through the ribs,

I choke out a wateryugh, clutching my arms tighter around myself, trying to hold all the broken pieces binside/b.

Logan just smiles–lopsided, bruised, still trying to make it easier for me. “It’s okay, Jess,” he says, voice dipping soft like a secret just for me. “I’m your bbest /bfriend, remember? Baby, I’d take a punch for byou /bany day.” He nudges my arm with his elbow, gentle, familiar. “I’d throw a few bback/b, too,” he adds, grinning, “just say the word.”

That almost makes me cry again.

I blink up at the ceiling, biting hard on my lip to keep it together. “Thanks,” I manage, my voice barely ba /bbreath.

He ruffles my hair like I’m still that stupid kid he used to sneak cookies with behind the cafeteria. “Always got you, Jess,” he murmurs,

We’re walking toward the door when Logan nces at bme/b, like bhe’s /bchecking again if I’m okay, I nod–too fast, too fake–but he lets it go, nudging the door open for me.

I step out first and immediately freeze.

Grayson bis /bthere.

Leaning against the wall just a few feet away, casual in a way that’s anything but bcasual /bHands shoved bdeep /binto his pockets. Shoulders tense beneath his jacket. His head tipped down, but his eyesb–/bbGod/bb, /bthose eyes–are locked straight on me.

He’s a mess

There’s a split on bhis /blip, a bruised smear along his cheekbone. His bknuckles /blook raw too, like he’s been fighting something bigger than just

09:47 Tue, 5 Aug? *j*** ?

Logan.

“U“Logan’sugh is bshaky/bb, /bscraping the back of his throat. He squeezes my shoulders once, quick and nervous, then steps back think i should go,” he mutters under his breath, almost like he’s asking permission

I don’t say anything. I can’t.

Logan backs away, tossing Grayson a pointed re as he goes, but Grayson doesn’t even blink at him. He’s not looking at Logan. He’s only

looking at me.

Grayson straightens up from the wall like it hurts to move, like every bone in his body’s bruised from the inside out.

His shirt’s wrinkled, cor askew, blond dried in the corner of his mouth where it split. His eyes–god, his eyes–they’re hollowed out inged dark like he hasn’t slept, like he’s bbem /bdragged through every circle of hell and still begged for more if it meant petting to see me one

“Jess,” he says a

sand almost fall apart. “bCan /bwe talk?”

He drags a hand through his hair, rough, helpless, and then his voice cracks apart when he says, “Please, baby just need five minutes with

you.”

My throat closes bso /btight I can barely breathe. Five minutes. Five minutes to what?

To lie to me again? To break me all bover/bb? /b

I take a step back, “No,” I whisper, then louder, fierce enough to make my own ears ring, “I don’t want to talk to you anymore, Grayson.”

For a second, he just stands there–lost–blinking at me like he can’t make sense of the words, like they’re a foreignnguage he doesn’t know how to survive. His mouth opens, shuts. He shakes his head like he’s trying to clear it, like he’s trying not to fall apart right there in the hallway where everyone can see. And then, brokenly, raw enough to scrape the marrow from my bones, he says,

“My father is going

to announce my engagement to Aria tomorrow.”

My lips part, air hissing in that feels like knives down my throat. I stagger a step back, vision blurring, nausea climbing up my spine. “W–What did you bjust /bbsay/b?”

“I’m sorry,” bhe /bsays, voice wrecked and small, so fucking small, like he’s the one about to cry now. “I didn’t want it to happen like this–fuck Jess, I didn’t want you to hear it from anyone else. I just “he chokes off, running a hand down his face. “I just needed to tell you first.”

Something inside me snaps.

Without thinking, without hesitating, I shove him back with both palms to his chest – hard–and when he stumbles, blinking at me like he can’t believe I’d actually touch him like that, it my hand and p him across the face

“Fuck you,” I gasp, chest heaving, bvision /bswimming in wetness1 can’t blink away. “Fuck you!”

“I’m sorry” he whispers,

s, voice hoarse, ruined, his arms loose at his sides like he’s forgotten how to defend himself. bTm /bsorry. I just. I wanted you to hear it from me first. You deserve that much.”

I don’t even realize I’m bcrying /buntil the bears it my lips, salt and bitter, sliding into the open wound he just made deeper.

I bdon’t /bsay another word.

Trun..

U3.47

ue, 5 Aug

And I don’t look back