Elijah avoided the library.
For two days, he took different hallways, ate lunch behind the gym, and ignored every message from Brielle.
She hadn't brought up the kiss. Not once. No teasing. No glare. Just… silence. Like it didn't matter.
But it did.
To him, it had meant everything, and nothing all at once. Like crossing a line they couldn't uncross.
Meanwhile, Brielle walked through the school like she hadn't just set his world on fire. She laughed with friends, rolled her eyes at boring classes, and gave him only occasional, unreadable glances.
He didn't know whether to feel relieved… or replaced.
Then came the whispers.
"She kissed him?"
"Elijah Carter and her?"
"She probably dared herself to do it."
Elijah first heard them in the chemistry lab. Low enough to be cowardly. Loud enough to sting.
He didn't tell anyone.
But someone had.
And it wasn't Brielle.
Ariana Lane watched the buzz unfold with a smile she barely contained.
She hadn't known about Brielle until she returned from her travel break. But the day she'd seen her beside Elijah in the library, too close, too comfortable, it lit something in her. Jealousy, maybe. Or panic. The kind of panic you get when the guy you'd been quietly crushing on for years starts looking at someone else.
Someone with messy hair, quick wit… and Elijah's full attention.
So, Ariana did what people like her did best.
She used her charm.
She smiled. She leaned in during conversations. She "accidentally" mentioned overhearing something about Elijah and Brielle during tutoring.
The rumor spread like gasoline on dry grass.
But what she didn't plan for, was Zane.
Whispers clung to the hallway like smoke.
Brielle. Elijah. A kiss.
Some called it a joke. Others didn't.
By lunchtime, even Zane Woods had heard.
And Zane didn't handle rejection well.
So he showed up, uninvited.
Brielle saw him first at the school gate, leaning against his bike like he belonged to another world. A world she'd escaped.
"Seriously?" she said flatly.
Zane grinned. "Heard you've got a thing for nerds now."
Her fists clenched, but her face didn't twitch. "Leave."
"Or what?" he said, stepping closer. "You'll kiss him again in front of me?"
Elijah was watching from a distance. His heart kicked into gear, but Brielle beat him to it.
"I don't need to prove anything to you, Zane," she said. "We're done."
Zane's smile faded.
"For now," he muttered. Then he walked away, the threat clear in his voice.
But the fallout wasn't over.
The next day, when Elijah opened his locker, a bundle of papers spilled out, tests from last term.
Marked.
Answered.
None of them were his.
He stared at them, stunned. A knot formed in his chest.
A setup.
A cruel one.
But who?
Not Brielle. No matter how chaotic she was, she wouldn't stoop to this.
And not… Ariana?
No.
He dismissed the thought instantly. Ariana had always been kind. She used to sit with him when no one else would. She understood him.
This couldn't be her.
But if not… then who?
Elijah felt the walls begin to close in.
And he had no idea that this was just the beginning.