Chapter 4 Masks and Missteps

Ella's POV

I hadn't expected the truth. Not like that. Not from her. Abby Hawthorn, the girl who made my life hell in high school, had sat across from me with her heart in her hands, offering an apology... and something more. Something terrifying.

And the worst part?

I felt something too.

I hadn't slept much after the café. Lela and Kate knew something was off the second I walked into our dorm with red cheeks and silent lips, but I wasn't ready to talk. Not yet. Not about Abby.

Especially not after what happened next.

We were walking across campus me, Lela, and Kate, heading to the dining hall, joking about cafeteria tacos when the unmistakable sound of Abby's laugh cut through the air like glass.

She stood near the entrance, surrounded by her usual group of flawlessly dressed, ridiculously loud friends. One of them nudged her and pointed in our direction.

"Oh look," Abby said with a smirk. "The misfits are out in daylight. Someone call security."

I stopped cold. My stomach dropped.

Lela's jaw tensed. "She did not just say that."

Kate grabbed my wrist, like she thought I might lunge at her. "Ignore it. She's not worth it."

But I couldn't ignore it. Because just forty-eight hours ago, she'd told me I was the person she'd wanted to kiss. She'd looked at me like I mattered.

Now she wouldn't even look at me at all.

I didn't say anything. I couldn't. My throat was too tight, like every word I wanted to shout was caught in a net of confusion and disappointment.

I walked faster. Away from the group. Away from her.

But I could still feel her eyes on me.

And for the first time in a long time, I wished she'd stop looking.

Abby's POV

It was like swallowing glass.

The way Ella's face fell, the way she turned and walked past me like I was a stranger again it tore something inside me. But I had to do it. I had to.

If my friends had even suspected what I felt for her... it would be over.

Everything I'd built. My status. My image. Gone.

So, I did what I knew how to do best.

I made her hate me again.

"You've got a real talent for wrecking people's day," Marcy said beside me, laughing like it was a compliment.

I faked a smile and threw my hair over my shoulder. "Some people deserve it."

My chest burned with the lie.

Because she didn't. Not anymore.

She hadn't deserved high school. She hadn't deserved that moment outside the dining hall. And she definitely didn't deserve me acting like nothing had happened between us.

I kept my head high as the group wandered inside, laughing and gossiping about some party that weekend. But the second they looked away, I glanced back over my shoulder.

Ella was gone.

And I already missed her.

Let me know if you want Chapter Five to dive deeper into the fallout maybe with Ella pulling back emotionally, and Abby struggling to maintain her mask, or even a moment where Lela or Kate confronts Abby. This is a great point to let the tension simmer before the next big twist.

I should've felt powerful.

That's how this worked, right? You humiliate before you're humiliated. You take control of the story before someone else writes it for you. That's what I'd always done.

But now, standing in the middle of my perfectly curated circle of friends, I just felt... hollow.

Marcy kept talking, something about how the "weird art kids" were organizing another open mic night. Normally I'd be the one cracking jokes, pretending to gag, but I couldn't focus. My eyes kept flicking back to the path Ella had walked.

The way her face crumpled she'd hidden it fast, but I saw it. I felt it.

And I hated myself for it.

Why did it feel worse than every insult I'd ever thrown?

I told her the truth. At that café, I had looked her in the eyes and said what I hadn't even admitted to myself. That I'd wanted her. That every glare, every insult in high school had been smoke hiding the fire underneath.

And for a second, I thought she might actually see me. Not the mask, not the girl who tore her down, but the broken, confused mess underneath.

Now she'd just remember that I turned on her the second someone else was watching.

I shouldn't have cared. I wasn't supposed to care

"Abby, you good?" Julia nudged me, pulling me back. Her eyeliner was flawless. Her judgment even sharper.

"Fine," I said too quickly.

She raised an eyebrow. "You're zoning out. Thinking about that nerd again?"

I froze.

"What?" I played dumb, hoping my face didn't give me away.

"Ella, or whatever her name is," Julia continued. "The one you roasted back there? You've been acting weird since orientation."

My heart skipped. I shrugged, tossing on my best bored expression. "Just annoyed she's everywhere. Like a bug you can't swat."

That got a laugh out of the group. I hated how easy it was. How the old mask still fit.

But when I laughed with them, it sounded wrong in my own ears.

I couldn't tell them the truth. That I wasn't annoyed Ella was everywhere I was terrified she wouldn't be anymore. That she'd finally get tired of me and cut me off for good.

That this time, she'd walk away before I was brave enough to ask her to stay