"You were right, Logan. She really is having a hard time letting go."
Audrey froze. The heat from the paper coffee cups seeped through the cardboard sleeves, burning her skin, but she could not force her fingers to let go.
This wasn’t a misunderstanding. The realization hit her with the physical force of a blow. All those canceled dates, the sudden need to study alone, the text messages left on read for hours while he was supposedly in meetings, none of it was about the student council. He hadn’t been pulling away because he was stressed. He had been pulling away because he was with her.
Just yesterday, Logan had told her he was overwhelmed with duties and needed space. He had left her texts on read all morning. He said he had a meeting right now, but she had wanted to surprise him with his favorite vanilla latte anyway. Relationships required effort. That was what she told herself every time he pulled away.
She didn’t expect to walk into the crowded, suffocating student union to see him laughing, with Zoey Mitchell hanging casually on his arm.
Logan’s easy, charming smile vanished the second he saw her. His shoulders stiffened. His eyes darted around the noisy room, instantly checking to see who was watching. He hated a scene.
Zoey looked at Logan with exaggerated sympathy before turning back to Audrey. A slow, condescending smile spread across her perfect face. "You must be Audrey."
Audrey blinked. "Yes. I am his girlfriend."
Zoey let out a small, breathy laugh. On the other hand, Logan just sighed, looking down at the floor.
"Logan," Audrey whispered. The rushing sound in her ears grew louder, drowning out the cafeteria noise. "What is she talking about?"
"Audrey, please," Logan said, keeping his voice very low as he stepped back, putting a fraction more distance between them. "Do not do this here. People are staring."
They were. Students at the nearest tables had stopped talking. A few of them were leaning in, their eyes locked on the drama unfolding by the door.
"Do what?" Audrey asked. Her chest felt so tight she could barely breathe. "You never said we were over."
"I told you things were complicated," Logan said defensively, his face flushing a splotchy red. He was crumbling under the public attention, taking the easiest way out. "This right here—this is exactly why I needed some space."
He said it loud enough for the people at the next table to hear.
Zoey stepped slightly in front of him, acting like she was protecting him from a threat. "It is okay to be hurt, Audrey. But showing up here and harassing him is just sad. You need to move on."
Audrey’s throat completely closed up.
Logan hadn’t broken up with her. He simply stopped trying, let her keep hoping, and started dating someone else. And now, he was letting Zoey paint her as the crazy, obsessed ex-girlfriend just to save face.
A girl at a nearby table leaned over and whispered something to her friend. The friend covered her mouth and gasped.
Audrey looked down at the coffee cups in her hands. The vanilla lattes he loved. She walked over to the nearest trash can, dropped them both inside, and walked out.
The whispers of fifty people followed her all the way out the door.
One year later.
Audrey had spent twelve months perfecting the art of being invisible. She had meticulously rewired her entire daily routine to avoid people. She packed her bags three minutes before lectures ended so she could slip out the back door before the rush. She entirely stopped eating in the cafeteria, opting for a quiet bench behind the science building. She took the long, winding campus paths that no one else used, always keeping her head down and her wireless earbuds in—playing absolutely nothing—just so people wouldn’t talk to her.
She sat hidden in the corner of the campus library, head down, buried in an oversized black hoodie, hoping the "desperate ex" label would finally fade.
Then, a synchronized ping shattered the quiet.
All across the reading room, phones lit up. Audrey pulled hers from her backpack. A notification from the Westbridge Anonymous Confession page glared back at her.
Her stomach dropped. It was a blurry, zoomed-in photo of her and Mason Calloway, the football captain.
Yesterday, she had dropped her wallet on the sidewalk. Mason jogged past, picked it up, handed it back, and smiled. It was a four-second interaction.
But the bold caption read: Looks like the football captain finally has a girlfriend. Mason Calloway falls hard, huh?
"Is that Audrey Ellis?" a harsh whisper carried from the next table. "The girl who lost her mind over that council guy? No way Mason Calloway is dating her."
Panic hit her like a physical blow. Not again. She could not be the campus joke a second time.
Audrey shoved her notebook into her bag, ignored the staring eyes, and bolted out of the library. Pulling up the football schedule on her phone as she hit the bright afternoon sun, she saw practice was just ending.
She marched straight to the athletic complex.
Her heart hammered a frantic rhythm against her ribs with every step. She furiously rehearsed exactly what she was going to say. She needed him to contact the page admins. She needed him to publicly deny it. Mason Calloway was the golden boy of the athletic department; surely he would be furious that some random journalism intern was being linked to him. He would be annoyed. He would want to clear his name immediately. All she had to do was ask him to fix it, and the rumor would die before it even started.
The smell of cut grass and sweat hit her as she rounded the corner to the locker rooms.
Mason Calloway was walking right toward her.
Flanked by three massive teammates, he looked completely exhausted, his hair plastered to his forehead with sweat. Yet, even completely drained, it was violently obvious why half the campus was obsessed with him. He moved with an easy, rolling confidence. One of the defenders shoved his shoulder, making a joke, and Mason laughed—a loud, rich sound that made the rest of the group laugh with him.
"Good drill, Captain," a passing freshman called out.
Mason threw him a casual, two-finger salute without missing a beat, his broad shoulders slumping just slightly from the grueling drills.
Then he saw her.
He stopped. His teammates bumped into him, cursing loudly, but Mason’s warm brown eyes locked onto Audrey. The exhaustion vanished instantly, replaced by a slow, highly irritating smile.
Audrey marched right up to him, ignoring the giant athletes staring at her.
"You," Audrey snapped, her voice shaking with leftover panic as she forced herself to stand tall. "We need to talk."
Mason looked down at her. He wiped a streak of sweat from his jawline with the back of his hand. He didn’t look confused or annoyed. He looked incredibly entertained.
"Do we?" Mason asked, his voice a low, breathless rumble.
Audrey shoved her phone into his chest. "Yes. We do."
Mason glanced at the screen, taking in the blurry photo and the ridiculous caption. He looked back down at her angry face.
"Well," Mason said softly. "I guess I should formally introduce myself to my new girlfriend."