Claimed by the Alpha

: M

eant something had already happened and my body had not finished processing it yet. I lay on my back in the dark of my room and s

g. A bruise, maybe, or the phantom sensation of being grabbed too hard.

rough the curtains. No bruises, No mark, Just skin, exactly as it

a

ossible. I pushed it back down and reached for my phone. Six forty-seven. My alarm was set for seve

xplanation was correct. Arena lighting. Stress. An overactive imagination fuel

ne pointed. But I had spent three years learning the texture of being invisible, and I knew immediately when that texture changed. Heads tilted. Conversati

oup assembled every morning to perform the ritual of being seen, was empty. The absence felt louder than her presence would have.

de my shoulders stay tight all t

ook te

from nowhere like she had been waiting just around the corner. She probably had been. Dar

ng to you t

rday. I heard about the classroom and I heard about Liam Black telling Jessica Martinez to back off, which people are describ

nd worked the combinatio

side mine and waited until I looked at her. Her eyes were direct and serious in a wa

across from me at a lunch table and announced that she was sick of sitting with people who talked about television and that

. "Liam helped me out of a

d at me. "

t's

e exactly three times and you are terrible at it every single time." She let that sit for a second. "When you're ready to

t have to

picked up her bag. "I want to. Come o

e looking at me sideways and no Jessica, which made every hallway feel like a pause before a loud noise. I set

was anxious, which was something I had been working on. Nothing extraordinary about them. Nothing that

ard the sound before they stopped laughing, that sharp crack like something tearing, and when I looked at the fr

thing. I was a person who hid under bleachers and got shoved into classrooms and could not even confront the girl w

ld no

oice snapped me back. "Can you

correctly and spent the rest of the class keeping my eyes on my n

energy, backpacks zipping and lockers slamming, and I kept my head down and spun my co

e. I unfolded it. The handwriting was careful and unhurried, like some

. Meet me at the east library anne

read it three times. Around me, students pushed past with their noise and their convers

wn it away. Any reasonable person would have thrown it

ully and put it in the

ome to wait f