Chapter 51: You'll eventually make a choice

No!" I say, my voice coming out much louder than I intend. Two girls sitting at a table a few feet away stop talking and look over at us. I freeze, waiting until they turn back around before I lean in close to Jackson. "Do not do that, Jackson. Promise me right now that you will stay away from my apartment. My mother is already working double shifts to pay our rent, and Leo is furious. If a Thorne shows up at our front door, it will ruin everything. Leo won't listen to a single word you say. He will just see the person who took his future away."

Jackson lets out a heavy sigh through his nose, slouching back into his chair. He looks frustrated that he cannot use his status or his power to fix my problems. "It just feels wrong to sit here and eat lunch while your family treats you like a stranger because of me. I want to protect you, Maya. That’s all I want to do."

"You are protecting me by keeping your distance while we are on campus," I tell him plainly. "We made a deal to keep this a secret for a reason. If the administration finds out about us, my academic scholarship is gone. And if my mother finds out I am lying about everything else, she will never forgive me."

Jackson opens his water bottle and takes a slow drink, his eyes still fixed on me. "Fine. I won't go to your house. But you need to take a bite of that sandwich. You need to eat something."

Before I can answer him, a sharp, loud clatter cuts through our conversation. A gray plastic lunch tray slams onto the table right next to mine, causing my water bottle to wobble.

I look up quickly and see Sarah sliding into the plastic chair right next to me. She doesn't glance at Jackson at all. Her face is pale, and her dark hair is tied up in a messy, loose bun with a few strands falling into her eyes. Her school blazer is wrinkled, and her mouth is set into a bitter line. She looks exhausted, like she spent the entire night staring at her bedroom wall.

"Sarah," I say, my heart rate speeding up again. "I didn't think you were coming to the dining hall today."

"I wasn't going to," Sarah says, her voice sounding dry and sharp. She unzips her school bag with a loud rip, pulling out a lined notebook and slamming it onto the table. Finally, she turns her head and looks directly at Jackson, then looks at me. "But then I walked into the room and saw the two of you sitting together in your favorite little corner, looking like everything is perfectly fine, and I decided I wanted to hear what you guys are talking about."

Jackson blinks, clearly taken aback by how aggressive she is being. He tries to keep his voice polite, but his shoulders square up defensively. "Hey, Sarah. We were just talking about the attendance records from yesterday. Maya said your mother called her house last night."

Sarah lets out a short, harsh laugh that doesn't sound happy at all. "Oh, yeah. She definitely called. My mom found out we weren't in our seats for yesterdays lectures, and she immediately went into a panic. She called Maya's mother to complain, and then she spent three hours screaming at me in the living room. Now I am grounded for the next two weeks, my father took my laptop away, and my parents think I am turning into a liar."

"Sarah, I am so sorry," I say, reaching out my hand to touch her sleeve. "I didn't mean for you to get into trouble with your parents."

Sarah pulls her arm away from the table, avoiding my hand. She keeps her eyes locked on Jackson’s face. "Don't apologize to me, Maya. You aren't the one who is actually benefiting from all these secrets. Jackson is the one who gets everything he wants while we pay for it."

Jackson’s expression changes instantly. The polite look disappears from his face, and his eyes turn hard. He sets his water bottle down on the table with a firm thud. "What is that supposed to mean, Sarah? I didn't ask you to skip your classes yesterday, and I didn't tell your parents anything. If you are angry about being grounded, that is between you and your family."

"I am not just angry about being grounded, Jackson," Sarah says, leaning forward until her elbows are flat on the white surface, staring him down. "I am angry because my best friend is destroying her relationship with her family just to keep you happy. Yesterday morning, I went to the sports rehabilitation clinic to check on Leo. He has been my friend since we were little kids. And do you know what he did? He ignored me. He wouldn't even look through the viewing window at me. He told the head nurse to tell me to leave the building and never come back."

Jackson frowns, looking confused by her words. "Why would Leo be mad at you? You don't have anything to do with my father's team or the academy contract."

Sarah opens her mouth to reply, and my body goe cold with fear. Jackson knows about the digital drive but doesn't know about swap was made by Sarah. He'll be said to know one more relationship was destroyed in the process of saving him.

"Sarah, please stop," I say, my voice cracking as I look at her. I can feel the tears starting to burn behind my eyes, and I am silently begging her to stay quiet.

Sarah looks at me, her eyes moving over my face. The anger in her expression shifts into a look of deep pity and frustration. She lets out a long breath through her nose, then turns her attention back to Jackson.

"Leo is mad because he figured I have been helping Maya hide her relationship with you from him. He looks at me and sees a traitor because I didn't tell him the truth about who his sister spends all her time with." Sarah says, changing her explanation but keeping her tone sharp.

Jackson relaxes his posture slightly, but his eyes remain guarded and defensive. "Leo needs to realize that Maya is her own person. She can make her own decisions about who she wants to talk to. My father did terrible things to your family, Maya, and I know that. I think about it every single day. But I am not my father. I am trying to fix things."

"You aren't fixing anything, Jackson," Sarah says, her voice rising slightly. A few students at the neighboring tables stop eating and turn around to stare at our corner. Sarah notices the attention, her jaw tightening as she lowers her voice back into a harsh whisper. "You are a Thorne. That is your last name. Every single time your family gets involved in something, normal people like us get hurt. Look at Leo’s legs. Look at Maya’s mother working extra hours just to buy groceries. And now look at Maya, lying to her own mother and skipping school just to hold your hand because you're stressed out. Your family ruins everything it touches."

Jackson stands up from his chair so quickly that the plastic legs scrape loudly against the floor tiles. The sudden movement causes his lunch tray to slide forward an inch. His face is pale with anger, his hands clenched into tight fists at his sides. He looks down at Sarah.

"I don't have to sit here and listen to you lecture me about my family, Sarah," Jackson says, his voice shaking with anger. "You don't know a single thing about my life, and you don't know what I am doing behind the scenes to handle this. Maya knows exactly who I am. That is the only thing that matters to me."

He looks down at me for a fraction of a second, his expression softening just a tiny bit. "I will see you after fifth period, Maya. Text me if you need me."

Jackson picks up his water bottle from the tray, turns on his heel, and walks quickly across the crowded cafeteria toward the main exit doors. The other players on the hockey team watch him walk past, looking confused by his sudden departure, but Jackson doesn't stop to talk to any of them. He pushes the metal handles of the double doors open and disappears into the hallway.

I sit frozen in my chair, my hands shaking so violently that I have to hide them under the table. The loud noise of the cafeteria seems to rush back into my ears all at once, making my head spin.

Sarah stays sitting right next to me. She watches the doorway where Jackson disappeared for a long time, then slowly turns her head to look at me. The sharp anger has left her face, leaving her looking tired.

"You cannot keep doing this to yourself, Maya," Sarah says very softly. "Jackson doesn't understand the real stakes here. He thinks this is just some college drama that he can fix by being nice to you. He doesn't know that his father is actively tracking digital footprints, or that Leo is broken inside because of what we did to that hard drive. You are going to have to make a choice between Jackson and your family eventually. And if you choose him, you are going to lose everything else."

I do not give her an answer. I just turn my head away and stare at my untouched sandwich, wishing the lunch bell would ring so I could go back to class and pretend to be invisible again.