[BOOK2]
Friendship built their world. Love will break it open. ❤️
*****
I want her.
I want her more than I've ever wanted anything.
But I can't have her. Because the moment I admit that out loud, the moment I risk everything we've built, I could lo...
{Song of the Chapter – Let me down slowly by Alec Benjamin}
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"Baby, what's going on?"
My voice barely gets past the knot in my throat as I step toward her, desperate to close the space she's putting between us.
But Isla? She doesn't budge.
She grabs my wrist—not with softness, but with fingers like iron, cold and unrelenting—and tugs me through the hallway without a word. Past the crowd. Past the laughter. Out into the open chill of the courtyard behind Bridges Hall.
The music still thumps inside like a heartbeat I can't get back into. The string lights overhead flicker, tired and dim, like they're seconds away from dying out.
Like us.
She lets go of my hand like it's made of flame, and the emptiness it leaves behind is instant and unbearable.
Her eyes won't meet mine. Her lips press together like she's holding something in. Like if she says the words too fast, she'll fall apart before she can finish them.
"We need to talk."
No. No, not like this.
I already feel it. The shift. The fracture in the earth beneath us. The taste of something ending, and the ache that comes before the ruin.
"Okay," I manage to say, my breath catching. "So talk."
She swallows, hard, and I see her hands tremble—just slightly. She blinks like she's trying to keep it together, like she's already lived this moment a hundred times in her head. Then she says it, mechanical and rehearsed.
"I'm done."
The silence that follows isn't silence. It's impact.
"What?"
My stomach sinks so fast it feels like the floor is collapsing beneath me.
"Us," she says, voice flat, as if detachment might save her. "We're over, Theo."
I freeze. My world tilts. My mouth goes dry. I swear I feel my heart stutter in my chest.
"No," I breathe, stepping toward her, almost stumbling. "No, you don't mean that."
She doesn't flinch.
"I do."
She says it like a knife. Like she knows where to cut. Where it'll hurt the most.
"Why?" My voice breaks. "What the hell is going on with you?"
"I don't want this anymore. I don't want you anymore."
The hit lands harder than anything I've ever taken on a pitch. I suck in air like I'm drowning. Like if I don't find something to hold on to, I'll go under.
