I flushed and shoved both phones in my pocket, emerging to find Rory waiting with crossed arms and worry on her face.
“Fuck, Eva, when you didn’t meet me after practice, I got worried.”
I hadn’t told her about the blackmail, just about the breakups. She didn’t know about Alek at all. That was my secret. I couldn’t make myself tell anyone what he’d done.
I also hadn’t told the group chat that Cole and Tristan had spent the night over the weekend.
And Rory remembered the rule—don’t ask questions.
“Massi asked me to make sure you’re eating,” she said, and her eyes were too fucking amused. “Pretty sure that means Cole’s nagging him to nag me, but whatever. Want to grab breakfast so I can tell him I did my duty?”
I nodded shakily. By the time we got to the cafe, Violetta was already at a table. She slid a set of note cards in front of me. “Quiz in Bio Chem today, if you forgot.”
Gratefully, I picked them up and started flipping through them as worry about my grades and getting into med school sent me spiraling. Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry anymore—not that I’d had much of an appetite to begin with. I stood, my chair scraping against the tile like nails on a chalkboard.
“I’ll walk you to the library,” Violetta said, eying the half-eaten sandwich she’d brought from home.
Cole strolled into the coffee shop. His eyes found mine immediately, smoldering, burning into me. Without taking his gaze from mine, he took one step toward us. My friends shifted, blocking his path, and vulnerability flickered across his face before his expression hardened. When he finallypicked up his order and left, the whole group sighed with relief.
“You don’t have to do this alone,” Violetta said softly. “We’ve got your back. So does the team.”
“And the puck bunnies,” Katie said.
The girls escorted me to the library like Secret Service agents. On the table where we usually studied was a coffee—oat milk with sugar-free vanilla—with a note in Tristan’s messy scrawl that said simply, “Kitten.”
I should have thrown it away, should have told him to stop, should have done anything but pick it up, let it warm my hands, and inhale the sweet smell, as if it were the hug I needed more than anything.
When Tristan materialized and tried to take a seat at the table, my friends ran interference. I caught a glimpse of the hurt in his golden eyes before Katie grabbed me by the wrist and moved us to a corner where they could ward him off more easily.
The coffee was fucking delicious.
I surviveda week of constant company, of losing my goddamned mind from not getting a moment alone because they all cared so fucking much, before I managed to slip away. Haruto failed to notice me following him into a classroom, so I could lean against a wall and desperately attempt to catch my breath as panic overcame me.
What was I doing? I was so behind in my classes. Cole and Tristan were waging war on my heart, and I could feel the weight of Alek’s gaze on me every time I showed up to my job.
Cole kept sending me evidence. Tristan kept taking careof me. And I kept using what they gave me while letting everyone else treat them like monsters.
I was the monster, the manipulative bitch they’d accused me of being.
My breath turned ragged as I tried to calm my raging heartbeat.
As my vision narrowed, I slumped against the wall then wavered on my feet.
“Shit,” someone said, and then a muscular arm wrapped around me. “I’ve got you, sparrow.”
Dizziness washed over me, and my knees buckled. Those same arms lifted me like I was a princess, their reassuring solidity holding me with confidence. “Arms around my neck.”
Cole’s voice was a quiet buzz against the roaring in my ears. I clutched at his chest, seeking his comfort and warmth, ignoring the danger that blared in the back of my head.
“Hey hey hey hey hey,” he crooned, stepping into a nearby stairwell and tucking me up against his chest, his arms steel bands around me. “Breathe, Eva. In and out. In and out.”
I breathed in time with his instructions, and he continued to murmur nonsense at me as he directed my breathing until it was slow and steady.
“I have you, sweet sparrow, I promise. Take another breath.”
My heart calmed, and I relaxed against him, too scared and exhausted to fight the need to feel safe for a goddamned moment.
“This is bullshit, Eva,” he murmured against the top of my head.
