REJECTED BY MY FIRST LOVE, CHASED BY THE CAMPUS KING

owing morning. I looked up from the book I was reading. "You said that

ts married." Bella lifted her head. "Why would you want to wake up for that?" "To att

's nursing textbooks lay scattered beside an unfinished packet of biscuits. Seraphina sat by the window, already dressed, reading through a casebook. She glanced at Bella. "Water is on your desk." Bella turned towards her with the g

ply didn't see the point in speaking when silence would do. Unlike Bella, who could become friends with a stranger before learning their surname, or Kiara, who considered silence an opportun

Kiara. "Can fashion wait till tomorrow" "Fashion never waits," Kiara replied,

sations blending with the sounds of traffic and distant music. The university looked entirely different from the previous night's co

"Bella!" "What? I saw it last night." I tightened my grip on my bag. "It was nothing." Bella stopped walking. "Eliana Rose, I have known you long enough to recognize when you're hiding somethi

in this room!" I rolled my eyes, but my cheeks had already begun to warm. "His name is Darian Blake." Bella's smile disappeared. No

r?" "Yes, Kiara." "The one who-" "Kiara." She closed her mouth. "How long have you liked him?" I looked away. The answer had lived inside me f

textbook? How could I tell them that what started as admiration had slowly become something I carried into every ordinary day? It wasn't just his face. Although, heaven knew, his face had certainly not made the situa

ing the moment into a lesson instead of a humiliation. He was intelligent without making other people feel stupid and conf

know he's loved? Girl, that is the most romantic and most stressful thing I've ever heard."

s, all the moments I'd treasured, all the times I'd imagined what it might be like if he ever looked at me differently, meant nothing to him? What if I walked up to him and discovered that the beautifu

book. "Uncertainty is not the same as rejection," she said. I turned towards her. She shrugged slightly. "You're treating an answer you haven't received as though it's already a disappoi

being comforting. Embarrassment isn't fatal." Bella started laughing. I laughed too, even though my stomach was twisting into knots. Perhaps they were right. Perhaps

sing my feelings to a man while three women stand behind me like an audience." "Fine," Kiara said. "We'll stand far away." "That is not better!" For the first time that

ng, dramatic, theatrical sigh that always meant trouble. Bella closed her eyes. "No." "I

re we go," I muttered. "Lucien Cross," she announced, like she was announcing a weather disaster. "That man was stand

? Like he was doing you a favor by being efficient? Like did he say 'here is your phone, I have businesses t

back, that calm, almost detached composure in the middle of all that screaming. The brief nod. The way he had left before I could even say more than thank you. It hadn't made