[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...
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I don't know how long I've been kneeling on the pavement.
Same spot. Same fucking pavement.
Where she left me. Where I begged. Where everything inside me broke wide open.
The music inside Bridges Hall keeps thumping—bass pulsing, laughter echoing, lives continuing like the world didn't just fall apart right here on the concrete. Like my heart isn't bleeding out in real time.
I haven't moved. Not because I can't. Because if I do... it becomes real. She's gone.
And I don't know how to breathe in a world where Isla Sophia Brookes isn't mine.
Lewis paces a few feet away, running his hands through his hair like he's trying to rip the confusion out strand by strand. His breaths come fast. Uneven. Helpless.
"What the hell just happened, man?" he asks, voice raw and sharp. "That wasn't her. That wasn't Isla. She doesn't talk to you like that."
I stare at the pavement, where my life cracked open. "She looked me in the eyes and told me I was disposable."
Lewis stills. Like the words knock the breath out of him.
"No," he mutters. "No, she didn't mean that. She was crying. Shaking. That was her breaking, Theo. Not hating you."
I don't say anything. If I do, I'll fall apart again.
Then—footsteps. Slow. Deliberate.
And a voice that makes my blood turn to ice.
"Well, that was dramatic. Bravo, Golden Boy."
Jake.
He struts out of the building like he didn't just pour gasoline over the only thing I've ever loved and toss a match with a smile.
He stops in front of us, hands in his pockets, smugness dripping off him like oil.
"Hell of a show," he says. "The downfall of Harrington's favourite son. Pretty tragic stuff."
I'm on my feet before Lewis can blink.
I slam him against the brick wall, forearm pressed to his throat. His head whips back with a sickening crack, and the concrete vibrates from the impact.
"What the fuck did you do to her?" I growl, voice low and dangerous.
Jake coughs, but that damn smirk stays plastered on his face. "Careful, Dwyers. You really wanna do this here?"
I press harder. "What did you say to her?"
"Maybe she just opened her eyes," he says with a shrug. "Realized you're not the hero in her story after all."
