Chapter 5
Rebry’s finger hoe mer the call button. The surge of adenine that shot through her bely was inment and overwhelming
“Janet? What alan yon mean?
“Y” Mis exclaimed urgently. “He saw those fake pictures of you online. He’s in computer science club, right? Ife traced the Proso guy’s don and wom after him! You need to get over there–Theard becheating the guy to a palp!“
Kelsey abandoned her call and sprinted across campits teard the boys‘ dormitory. Her mind raced dead her feet. Why would Jason do chie? Wan
gemine protection or just another performance? The confesion tore at her as she can, her hallet trained lungs burning with each breath
Aermed had already gathered eutside the building. When they saw Kelsey approaching, the whispers intensified, but they parted to let her through. She felt their eyes burning bwto ber–comme sympathetic, others judgmental, all istrusbe Each step forward felt bike wading through moleses, her dancer’s grace suddenly abandoning her.
That’s when she saw it
Jason had pissed a heavyset guy with glasses to the ground. His eyes were wild with rage as he pummeled the boy’s face again and again with relentless fists. She’d never seen this side of him before this uncontrolled fury that transformed his handsome features into something almost unrecognizable. For a brief, terrible moment, Kelsey felt a flicker of her old feelings–the belief that fason truly cared about her
The boy was sobbing, begging for mPTCY
“I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have photoshopped those pictures of your girlfriend? Please! Please stop!”
But Jason seemed deaf to his pleas, his fists only coming down harder and faster
The boy’s face was covered in blood, and he had already lost consciousness, yet Jason’s assault didn’t slow Horror replaced Kelsey’s momentary admiration. This wasn’t protection–this was something darker, more primal. A performance taken too far.
Kelsey snapped out of her shock and banged forward, wrapping her arms around Jason to restrain him. The contact with his body–once so fambar and comforting–now felt alen and dangerous.
“Stop it she cried, her voice shaking.
“Jason, that’s enough! He’s unconscious!”
Only then did Jason’s fists halt mid–air. She felt the tension in his mascles, the beaving of his chest against her arms. For a moment, they were trazen a macabre tableau–the unconscious boy, the vengeful boyfriend the devastated girlfriend–all arturs in a tragedy none of them bad fully written.
The incider blow up quickly. The boy’s parents initially wanted to press charges, but when they discovered what their son had done, they reluctantly agreed to settle the matter privately. The school administration had been surprisingly lenient with Jason, citing his previously clean record and the provocative nature of the offense against Kelsey
Jason suffered minor injuries as well. Kelsey accompanied him to the infirmary to get his hands bandaged. Seeing his bloody, swollen knuckles, her voice trembled. Each cut on his hands represented a piece of her heart that was breaking all over again.
“Jason why would you do that?”
After all, their relationship was just
but couldn’t say
Jason just shrugged casually
a charade to him. Why go to such extremes? The question hung between them, loaded with all the things she knew
“You’re my girlfriend. Someone masses with you, I protect you at that how it’s supposed to be?”
is tone was so sincere, his eyes so earnest, that for a fleeting second, she almost believed him again. Almost.
Kelsey’s expression grew even more conficted. How could someone so convincingly? How could he make her doubt what she knew to be true? The cognitive dissonance was excruciating–knowing he was using her while witnessing actions that looked like genuine care.
She had an afternoon class and reluctantly left, the smell of antiseptic clinging to her clothes like a reminder of the violence she’d witnessed. As she sat through her literature lecture, her und kept replaying the fight, seeing Jason’s face contorted with rage. Was any of it real? Was it possible be
KEM NOČ This Coal Commer Tock Everything
Chapter 5
actually rated, even in battle?
After class ended, she hesitated briefly before stogging by the campus café to pick up some soup for Jason at the infirmary. The small Jer of kinds felt both foolish and necessary–a final offering to whatever had existed between them, real or imagined.
But as she approached the door, clutching the warm container in her suddenly cold hands, the overheard Tyler’s votes coming from insida
“perta hand it to Stan–he’s next level! These the charming boyfriend act wasn’t enough, now he’s playing the wounded her too
Chapter 6
Chapter 6
