I just sit on the edge of my bed in the dark, replaying every moment from homecoming like someone keeps jamming a screwdriver into my skull and twisting.
I knew they didn’t like her.
I knew they whispered.
I knew they judged her for being the scholarship girl, the outsider, the one who didn’t belong in their glossy, curated world.
But I didn’t think?—
I didn’t think they’d dothat.
I should have.
Because I’ve been in this circle my whole damn life. I know how it works.
You cross the wrong girl?
You make the wrong choice?
You go against the script?
People pay for it.
And they made Jade pay.
For me.
I chose her.
I crowned her.
I told every single one of them she was mine, my queen, the girl I loved.
They didn’t touch me—because no one ever touches me.
I’m too golden. Too worshipped. Too untouchable.
So they destroyed her instead.
Because hurting her was how they could hurt me.
And I let it happen.
I’m the one who should have been covered in slime.
Not her. Never her.
My hands shake.
I stand up so fast my chair falls over behind me. The sun hasn’t even risen. I’m still in my clothes from the dance. My jacket smells like her perfume.
I want to tear my own skin off.
Around six in the morning, I storm downstairs. My mother is already up, wrapped in her silk robe, sipping her green juice at the marble counter like yesterday wasn’t a fucking disaster.
When she sees me, she lights up—fake bright, country club bright.
“Oh, Leo,” she says. “Thank goodness. Your aunt called me at midnight asking if those rumors were true?—”
