CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Tristan
The dining hall is loud.
Too loud.
Not just noise—buzz.
The kind that moves faster than facts and sticks harder than truth.
“…coach pulled her?—”
“—not just benched?—”
“—three days off campus?—”
“—burnout—”
I stop mid-step, tray in hand.
“What?”
No one answers me straight.
They never do.
They just glance at me like I’m supposed to already know, then go back to eating like they didn’t just drop Stella’s name into the middle of my chest like a weight.
Three days off campus.
For Stella.
That doesn’t make sense.
She’s the most locked-in person here.
The most disciplined.
Unless—
My jaw tightens.
Yeah.
Unless she pushed too far.
Unless she burned so hot she finally cracked.
I can see it.
The way she looked this morning.
Cold. Controlled. Empty.
Like she stripped everything out of herself except performance.
I grab food without thinking and scan the room.
