And now?
She’s not just Jade anymore.
She’s Jade Bryan:global icon.
I scroll TikTok, and every other video is:
“Jade Bryan said THIS about bullying and wow?—”
“Future First Lady vibes??”
“NetfIix docuseries??? YES.”
My chest squeezes until my ribs ache.
I lost my girl.
And she became someone the world looks up to.
And I’m stuck here on this rink like a ghost haunting my own life.
Tristan skates up beside me, way too good for someone who usually only skates when bribed.
He bumps my shoulder.
“Bro. Snap out of the existential crisis. You look like you’re about to skate into traffic.”
“There’s no traffic on ice,” I mutter.
“You’d find a way,” he says.
Tristan looks annoyingly cheerful tonight. Xavier’s behind him, holding two hot chocolates like a judgmental mother hen.
They’ve been babysitting me all week.
Xavier hands me one. “Drink. You look cold and depressed.”
“Iamcold and depressed.”
“Good,” he says. “Use it.”
“For what?”
“To win her back,” Tristan says.
My heart clenches at her name. “She’s not even answering my texts.”
“Because you’re texting like a man having a breakdown,” Tristan says. “You gotta romance her, Romeo.”
I glare. “Do not call me Romeo.”
“Then stop acting like a tragic Shakespeare simp.”
I take a slow sip before I can snap his neck.
A ripple goes through the rink—the kind of ripple that sayssomeone important entered.
Nadia. Bianca. Vivian.
