Chapter 005 Cant Show Weakness
Hearing Ethan defend her like that, Chloe felt honey sweetness flood her chest.
She looked up at his clean profile, touched. "Class president..."
Leo let out a laugh that was all fury. "None of your business. Who the hell are you?"
He didn't play by anyone's rules. The look he gave Ethan was the look you'd give a dead man — a barely contained violence simmering behind his eyes.
Ethan was a model student.
Not exactly handsome, but clean-cut — fair-skinned, glasses, slight build, the kind of boy who said "excuse me" to everyone.
Polite in everything he said and did. But underneath — a pride so brittle it cracked at the slightest scratch.
And now Leo was talking to him like that. Ethan felt the humiliation burn.
He clenched his fists. "And who the hell are you?"
The words dropped. The hallway went dead silent.
Even Chloe flinched.
Had the bookworm lost his mind?
Did he have a death wish, provoking Leo like that?
Leo's mouth twitched. His expression was unreadable. "Say that again."
Ethan mistook the silence for awe.
He pushed his glasses up and continued: "Leo, if I recall correctly, you ranked dead last in the class on last semester's finals. Second to last in the entire grade. You single-handedly dragged down the class average.
What you should be doing right now is studying — making sure you don't drag everyone down again — instead of wasting your worthless time parading your devotion."
Not enough. He went on: "And your feelings? They're worthless. They don't do Clo any good. Clo has the grades, the family, the looks, the online following. She deserves better."
"Class president..." Chloe looked moved.
Not just Chloe — every girl in the hallway looked stirred.
Mia whispered, "The class president is like a book boyfriend. So cultured."
"Right?"
Leo listened to the whole speech. He wasn't nearly as angry as everyone expected.
He narrowed his eyes. "And what capacity are you speaking in right now? Chloe's suitor, or..."
"Clo and I are strictly platonic." Ethan flushed red and pushed his glasses again. "I'm the class president. It's my duty to discipline you."
Leo let out a cold, dismissive laugh.
He stepped forward. Before Ethan could process what was happening, Leo grabbed him by the collar. Dark lashes shadowed whatever was in his eyes. "Class president. You really think that means anything?"
Chloe finally panicked. "Leo, stop it."
"Exactly," Mia piled on. "The class president isn't wrong. You can't just get mad and start swinging — what does that make you?"
The standoff was about to boil over when the door across the hall swung open.
Every head turned.
Chloe blurted the redhead's name in shock: "Ryder? What are you doing here?"
She had reason to be shocked.
Ryder was in their class. He dyed his hair red, hung around Leo all day, and looked like trouble.
But underneath, he was a pushover. A scholarship kid — his family lived in a condemned apartment block, his dad worked factory shifts, his mom was bedridden with a disability.
Ryder stuck out in a place like this like a sore thumb.
"Someone's treating us to dinner," Ryder said, then shot Leo a nervous look. "Lee — what's going on here?"
Leo opened his mouth — but a slender, pale hand landed on Ryder's shoulder.
Luna: "Step aside."
Ryder scrambled out of the way.
The moment Chloe saw Luna, every question in her head evaporated.
Chloe's family situation was actually pretty ordinary. Her parents ran a fruit stand that barely scraped by.
The heiress image she projected was partly funded by her summer social media earnings.
Mostly, it was bankrolled by Leo — her personal ATM.
The designer dress Chloe was wearing? Leo's birthday gift to her. Even this birthday dinner — the bill went on Leo's tab.
Almost no one at Lincoln High knew Leo was a trust fund kid.
Even Chloe only figured out Leo had money from the gifts he kept giving her.
But she couldn't have imagined this — that Leo's family lived in Crescent Bay, that they were old money — the kind with real pull in New York's upper circles.
That world was lightyears from hers.
And Leo never flaunted it.
He'd wear cheap clothes, eat street food, never put on airs.
Luna was different.
She'd been raised as a pampered heiress — every detail of her life, from food to fashion, was impeccable.
Even with her black hair just tossed over her shoulders, the shine and silk of it was simply better than anyone else's.
Her face — bone structure and skin both flawless — had light makeup. When she looked at you, it was casual, with the kind of arrogance that didn't need to announce itself.
Chloe's smile died. Alarm bells went off in her head.
Who was this girl? Leo's admirer?
No. It couldn't be.
She curled her fingers into fists.
"Leo."
Luna stepped forward and grabbed Leo's arm, forcing him to let go of Ethan's collar.
Leo's fingers twitched twice, then released. He dropped his gaze, a dark, bitter shadow pooling under his lashes.
He was used to it. Used to Luna always siding with everyone else.
Seventh grade. He and Hayes had gotten into a fight.
When Luna showed up, she didn't ask what happened. She'd torn into him — called him every name in the book — and didn't speak to him for a week.
Her own brother. He didn't matter at all.
Leo figured this time would be no different.
But then Luna spoke: "What happened?"
Leo went still.
He stared at her, stunned.
For a split second, he thought he'd heard wrong.
Then Luna frowned. "Why aren't you talking?"
Leo licked his lower lip, then the sharp point of his canine.
So many words on the tip of his tongue — but not one came out.
When you've been alone long enough, the words for hurt just don't come anymore.
When he stayed silent, Luna didn't push.
She looked at Ethan. Ran her gaze over him — and as his cheeks flushed deeper and deeper, she spoke: "Can you tell me what happened?"
Ethan was sweating. He pushed his glasses up reflexively.
He met Luna's eyes — dark, bright, relentless — for exactly one second.
Behind his thick lenses, his gaze darted away.
"Leo has an unrequited crush on our classmate Chloe. Today's her birthday. He showed up uninvited. She asked him to leave, and he's been hovering in the hallway ever since, waiting for the party to end."
"I think it's a form of coercive harassment that puts psychological pressure on the girl. The time he's spending performing devotion — he should be studying. He's at the bottom of the grade, dragging down the class average for the rest of us."
"I gave him some constructive feedback. And Leo here flew into a rage."