My palm still burned but i didn't care.

  I didn’t wait around for his reaction or the crowd’s. If I stayed another second, I was either going to swing again or have a total breakdown, and I wasn’t giving them the satisfaction of either.

  Water was dripping down my sleeves, and my short godet skirt felt like lead. The wind cut right through me, cold and mean. My teeth tried to chatter, but I clamped my jaw shut so hard it ached.

  Nobody moved or said a word. They just stood there and watched like they were waiting for me to grow horns. Jaden's friends laughed, they laughed so hard it hurt my ego.

  But he surprisingly didn't...

  The anger burning inside me was unbearable that i just cursed them all.

  "Fuck all of you. Fuck the principal, fuck the teachers, fuck this damn school and this miserable town."

  I walked straight through the circle of them.

  "you're all pathetic losers."

  I could feel their eyes crawling all over me—judging, whispering, taking me apart. they were taken a back...good. they were not enjoying it as much anymore.

  I didn’t look at any of them. Not the principal, not the girl, and definitely not him.

  The school gates screeched as I shoved them open. The sound was deafening in the silence I left behind, but I didn’t look back. Let them choke on it.

  At least one person was not part of the plot, the always sleeping gate man... he didn't even notice when I passed by.

  The air outside was even worse. The mountain mist was thick, and the wind had a nasty sting to it. My shoes squelched and my fingers were already going numb, but I was shaking more from pure, hot rage than the cold.

  Of course it went down like this. Of course I’m the one who gets the blame.

  Mia’s voice was already in my head, telling me I overreacted, that I’m too impulsive, that I’m “too much.” Maybe she’s right. The thought made my chest tight.

  I ducked off the road and into the woods, not even thinking about where I was going. I just needed to be away. Away from the school, the eyes, and the sound of that pond.

  Branches scraped my arms as I pushed deeper into the trees images of everyone laughing and pointing fingers lingered as i ran ...until it finally went quiet. No whispers. Just the wind.

  me and the wind...

  me and the wind and maybe the unfamiliar trees.

  Finally something that wouldn't judge me or laugh at me or even hate my mere existence.

  I found a massive oak tree with low branches and dropped my bag after running for some good time.

  My arms felt like jelly from fighting the water earlier, but I forced myself to climb. I needed to get high up. I needed distance and the comfort of being alone, and untouchable and very far from the people of Villaluz..

  Once I found a steady branch, I slumped back against the trunk and that’s when the real shaking started.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “They just stood there,” I whispered. A lone tear drop finally breaking loose, running its way down the curve of my cheek.

  My voice sounded pathetic even to myself.

  For a second, I wondered: what if I hadn’t made it up? If I’d stayed under, would they have finally moved? Or would they have just kept watching the show?

  I swallowed hard, staring out at nothing. I didn’t want to go home. I didn’t want to explain myself or hear how I should’ve “handled it better.”

  So I just sat there. Cold, soaked, and trying like hell to ignore the feeling the shame i just experienced.

  I curled up tighter, pulling my knees to my chest. The rain started as a few cold stings before turning into a steady soak. My hair was a wet mess plastered to my face, and my clothes felt like a second, freezing skin.

  I couldn’t stop thinking about their eyes. The way they looked at me—like I was a punchline they’d been waiting to drop. Like I was something gross.

  My chest felt so tight I could barely get air in. I kept seeing that circle of faces in the dim day light, that deafening silence, and how bone-deep lonely it felt to stand right in the middle of it.

  I hated this place. I hated every single second of being here. I should’ve stayed in the city with people who actually knew me—where I didn’t have to claw for a shred of respect.

  “Great,” I muttered, my voice sounding flat and bitter. “Just my luck.”

  The rain picked up, and I just hugged myself harder. It felt like the universe was intentionally piling it on: the shame, the cold, the audience. I felt tiny. Like I was disappearing.

  Time blurred. The light eventually shifted, the clouds broke a bit, and the rain died down to a drizzle. I was numb and shaking, but that raw ache in my chest started to dull. I was still breathing. The world hadn’t actually ended.

  I stayed up there until the woods turned gray and the shadows started swallowing the trees. When I finally slid down, my legs were like weak, almost soulless. My shoes made the pathetic squelching sound with every step back towards the main rood.

  I stopped near the signal tower deep in the woods, my head a total mess. Run away? Hide? Go home and face the people who just humiliated me? I couldn’t decide. I didn’t want to, so i just sat there and bit my nails wishing I could disappear.

  But then, I stopped.

  A shoe. Just a single shoe planted right in my path.

  I was staring at the ground, wet hair clinging to my face, completely frozen. Slowly, I forced myself to look up.

  He was there. Tall, calm, and radiating a heavy, magnetic energy that seemed to swallow the very air between us.

  My heart did a slow, painful roll in my chest. He was devastating—the kind of beautiful that makes you feel suddenly, painfully aware of your own dishevelled state.

  He didn’t say anything at first. He just took me in, his gaze tracing over my soaked clothes and shivering frame.

  I felt exposed under his stare, my tongue turning to lead. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. Not when the moonlight was catching the damp strands of his blonde hair falling over his forehead, or the way it made the blue of his eyes glimmer like something crystalline and

  deep.

  “You planning on staying out here all night?” he asked. His voice wasn’t loud, but it had a low, resonant edge that snapped through my trance.

  I didn’t say a word. I couldn't. I just stared and swallowed, trapped in his orbit, wondering how someone could look like a god while I was falling apart and in ruin.

  i blinked at him, and for a second, I literally forgot how to move my own limbs.

  Then my eyes moved to his shirt, completely trashed from the downpour. The fabric had turned semi transparent and clinging to him like a second skin.

  He must have noticed my gaze on his chest for he crossed his arms. Then shifting his weight slightly and down at me like I was some small, fragile thing he could just decide the fate of on a whim.

  My brain completely short-circuited. I felt so... messy. My clothes were heavy and dripping, my hair was probably a disaster, and there he was, looking like a literal movie poster.

  I tried to think of something—anything—to say so I wouldn't look like a total freak, but my throat was tight and dry.

  I… panicked internally.

  I tried to stand straighter, tried to look… like someone who had her act together.

  But my foot slipped slightly on the wet earth, almost sending me sprawling back to the ground. I caught myself luckily.

  “Uh…” My voice came out all wrong, a squeak mixed with a cough, like I had no control over it. “I… I—” I stopped, looked down, then up again.

  My mind was scrambled. I had never questioned anyone before, never felt small talking to someone, but now… now I couldn’t even find the words. Not with a handsome stranger standing there, perfect in every way, looking down at me like he could read every thought and

  secret fear I had.

  He cocked his head slightly, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips, and I realised he was waiting. Patient, amused, yet… sharp, like he could sense my inner chaos.

  “Cat got your tongue?” he asked, voice low but teasing, like he knew exactly what he was doing.

  I swallowed hard, trying to force words past the lump in my throat. “N-no… I’m… I’m not planning to stay out here at all,” I stammered, almost too fast, almost tripping over the words.

  He didn’t move but looked at the spot on the ground i was seated a few seconds back, lifting a brow.

  "If you wanted to stay longer, i could accompany you." he said, his eyes looking back at me.

  On cue, i sat back down and watched him sit quietly beside me. "would you want to talk?"

  I knew he was asking if i wanted to talk about the reason as to why I was in the middle of no where at a time like this but it was best not to recall the events of the day. So i rocked my head gently.

  How could i recount an embarrassing moment to a ...

  He didn't insist, and we sat out starring at the moon.