Chapter 29 #2
My feet are already moving, rushing across the cafeteria floor while every cell in my body hums with fury.
The cap crumples in my fist, forgotten. My vision is filled with her—Red, frozen in the middle of this chaos, Nicole spinning around her, looking like the ground is about to give way beneath her.
“Enough.” My voice cuts through the cafeteria, erupting sharply, loud and final.
Everything stops. Conversations jam. Laughter ends mid-breath.
The silence is abrupt and sharp, like a clean cut. Every head turns toward me, necks stretching out, phones half-lowered, jaws slack.
Nicole turns slowly and smug at first, until she sees my face.
Her smirk falters.
Good because I’m not here for drama. I’m not here for another scene in the twisted little show she plays.
I’m here to put an end to it.
“You want attention, Nicole?” My voice stays steady, even as my hands shake. “Congrats. You got it. Now shut your fucking mouth.”
She laughs, but it’s softer now, unsure. “Oh, look who finally decided to show his face.”
I take a step closer. Followed by another. Each step is deliberate. Controlled. There’s nothing casual about how I move toward her now—only purpose and fire.
I’ve spent weeks pretending none of this mattered. I’m done pretending. And if this is the only chance Red will hear me, then it has to be now.
“You want a show, Nicole?” My voice deepens. “Fine. Here it fucking is.”
Gasps break the silence.
“You’re correct. There was a bet.”
The noise is immediate.
Aubrey’s eyes widen. She covers her mouth. Noah’s jaw clenches so tightly I swear he might break something. Lola rushes in and stands next to Aubrey. But Sam doesn’t move. She watches me, wide-eyed and shattered, her entire world breaking apart all over again right there in front of me.
Her pain devastates me.
“Yeah,” I keep going, even when it burns. “It started with a fucking bet. I threw down a two-hundred-dollar bet to Jace, saying I could get her to fuck me before the end of the year. Thought it’d be funny. Thought she was easy.”
I turn my head, and my eyes lock on Nicole.
“You know, like you.”
The impact of my words hits harder than any physical punch. Nicole flinches, her face twisting, but I keep going.
“And I made that bet,” I say, voice hoarse, chest burning. “Because I was a piece of shit who couldn’t handle the fact that she didn’t want me. That she looked straight through the mask and saw every fucked-up part of me I tried to hide. That she shut me down without blinking.”
My voice cracks, and I don’t bother to fix it.
“She wasn’t easy. She wasn’t a game. She was fucking everything.”
I look at Red, and the words spill out of me as if they’ve been clawing their way up for weeks.
“She’s smart, brave, and sharp as hell. She walked into my world and tore it apart.
All that fire, fuck-you attitude, and stubbornness as sin.
She called me on every lie, didn’t fall for the charm, didn’t laugh at the lines, and didn’t melt like every other girl did.
She stood there, unshaken, making me want more and feel things I didn’t have words for. ”
My hands shake. I let it all show. I let it bleed.
“I fell for her.”
My eyes remain fixed on Red’s, while every wall inside me is already breaking down.
“I fell for the girl I was supposed to fuck and forget. Not in some fake-ass high school way where you say it to get her back. I mean really fell. Hard. Fast. No parachute. No plan. I fucking fell.”
I swallow hard, my throat tightening.
“And yeah, I never told Jace there wasn’t a bet anymore,” I say, voice raw. “Because if I had, he would’ve known I lost. And I wasn’t about to make a joke out of what we had. Red, you are not some punchline I could laugh off at lunch. You are the only real thing I’ve ever felt.”
Her mouth parts. Just barely. Her eyes lock onto mine.
I keep going.
“And yeah, I fucked it all up. Lied through my teeth. Broke your trust. Took something pure and cracked it right down the middle. I hurt the only girl who ever made me believe I could be more than the shit I’ve always been. More than just another asshole with a smile and a game plan.”
My voice lowers, stripped down to the truth.
“But I need you to hear this, Red.”
The entire room remains silent. No one dares to move, or even breathe.
“I love you,” I say. “I’m in love with you. I think I was from the second you told me to fuck off in that hallway.”
I step closer, heart pounding against my ribs, fists clenched at my sides. But my eyes, fuck, my eyes are only on her.
“You don’t need to forgive me. You don’t have to talk to me either. But I will tell you one thing: I will never let anyone treat you like you’re disposable again. Not even me.”
Every nerve in my body is stretched tight, pushed to the limit.
Sam doesn’t say a word.
Part of me expects her to turn and walk away, to throw my words back in my face, to spit the truth I already know—that I broke us, that I lit the match and let it burn. That she owes me nothing, and walking away would be the strongest thing she could do.
And if she did, I would let her.
Because it would be her decision.
Her eyes glisten, catching the light, holding the weight of everything we’ve never said and everything I’ve already destroyed.
Then she moves.
Not away. Toward me.
One step and then another.
The air in the cafeteria is thick with silence. Everyone holds their breath, waiting and watching. The entire world seems frozen in this impossible moment.
She stops inches from me, close enough for me to see the tear slide down her cheek.
My fingers twitch, aching to reach out, to wipe it away, or hold her the way I should have from the start. But I don’t move.
Her gaze slides over my face, slow and searching, as if she’s trying to decide whether I mean every word or if I’m still the same asshole who broke her heart.
And she hits me.
A solid punch to my shoulder. It’s not hard, but enough to make me stumble back a step.
“You asshole,” she whispers, her voice trembling. Then she grabs my shirt with both hands, fists clenched in the fabric, pulling me toward her as if she’s finally done holding back.
Her mouth crashes into mine.
And fuck.
It’s everything.
Fury. Relief. Fire and forgiveness. All teeth, lips, and that kind of kiss that hurts in the best fucking way.
I kiss her as if I’m coming back to life.
My arms wrap around her waist, pulling her close. I kiss her with everything I have—every breath, every ache, every damn apology I can’t find the words for.
When she finally pulls back, her breathing is uneven, her chest rising quickly against mine. She doesn’t let go, simply presses her forehead to mine, lips parted, eyes closed.
“You broke me,” she whispers.
The words hit suddenly. Sharp. Honest.
“I know,” I say. No excuses. Just the hard fucking truth.
Her eyes open, and the intensity behind them almost knocks me over.
“Don’t do it again.”
“Never.”
My voice cracks when I make the promise. I mean it with everything I’ve got. Everything I am.
Applause erupts all around us. It shatters the silence, and it takes me a second to realize what’s happening. Someone whistles from across the room. Another person yells out something about finally.
Eventually, we turn slightly, still wrapped up in each other. I glance around the cafeteria. It’s full of students watching two idiots find their way back to each other.
I see Noah leaning against a nearby table, his arm around Aubrey’s shoulders, his face soft in a way I’ve never seen. Aubrey wipes a tear from her cheek, trying to hide it, but she’s smiling too. That quiet, full-hearted kind of smile that says she never stopped hoping we’d figure it out.
Sam notices them too. Her fingers still curled in my shirt, grounding us both.
I glance back at her. Her eyes still sparkle with something that hints this isn’t the end of our story. And this time, I’ll fight like hell to keep her mine.