Chapter 93 Chapter 93

Chapter 93 Chapter 93
  The next few days felt strangely quiet.
  Not peaceful.
  Just… restrained.
  Like the whole school had agreed to stop talking about the event out loud while still thinking about it constantly.
  Cass noticed the difference immediately.
  People still looked.
  Still whispered.
  But no one approached her anymore.
  No gossip. No questions.
  Just distance.
  At first, she thought it was a relief.
  Then she realized something worse.
  Zayelle had removed her from the conversation entirely.
  And somehow that felt colder than the rumors.
  At lunch, Lena dropped into the chair across from her and slid a tray forward.
  “You didn’t eat breakfast again,” she said.
  Cass shrugged.
  “I wasn’t hungry.”
  Lena studied her for a moment.
  “You know she’s doing this on purpose, right?”
  Cass didn’t pretend to misunderstand.
  “I know.”
  Across the cafeteria, Zayelle sat with the same group of girls, laughing softly at something someone said. The atmosphere around her was easy. Admiring.
  Comfortable.
  She wasn’t trying to dominate the room anymore.
  She didn’t need to.
  Her place had already been established.
  Lena leaned closer.
  “She’s not attacking you now,” she whispered. “She’s erasing you.”
  Cass looked back down at her food.
  “I told you I’m not playing anymore.”
  “That doesn’t mean she stopped.”
  Across campus, practice had just ended.
  The locker room smelled like sweat and cold metal, players talking loudly as they packed up.
  Jace sat on the bench, staring at the floor.
  His phone buzzed.
  A notification.
  Another photo from the event had been posted.
  This one worse.
  Jace and Zayelle leaving the stage together.
  The angle made it look intimate.
  The caption:
  Future secured.
  He locked the screen and shoved the phone into his bag.
  Marvin sat across the room tying his skates.
  “You should smile more in those pictures,” he said casually. “Makes it more believable.”
  Jace didn’t respond.
  Marvin finished tying the laces slowly.
  “You know what the best part is?” he continued.
  Silence.
  “You didn’t even have to do anything.”
  Jace finally looked up.
  Marvin met his gaze.
  “She’s walking away all on her own.”
  Jace stood.
  His patience had run thin.
  “What do you want from me?” he asked quietly.
  Marvin leaned back against the locker.
  “Nothing.”
  “Then stop.”
  Marvin’s expression hardened slightly.
  “You think this is about you?” he said.
  Jace didn’t answer.
  Marvin laughed once under his breath.
  “It’s about watching something fall apart,” he said. “And realizing you were never holding it together in the first place.”
  Then he grabbed his bag and walked out.
  Leaving the words hanging in the room.
  That afternoon, Cass decided to walk home.
  She needed air.
  Distance.
  Something that didn’t feel like the same walls closing in.
  The streets were quiet, leaves shifting softly in the wind.
  She almost didn’t hear the car slow beside her.
  The window rolled down.
  “Need a ride?”
  Cass stopped.
  Zayelle.
  Of course.
  Cass sighed softly. “No.”
  Zayelle didn’t drive away.
  “Get in,” she said calmly. “We should talk somewhere that isn’t a hallway.”
  Cass considered walking away.
  But something inside her was too tired to keep running from conversations.
  She opened the passenger door and got in.
  The car smelled faintly like lavender.
  Zayelle drove for a few minutes before speaking again.
  “You look calmer,” she said.
  “I stopped fighting.”
  “That’s usually the moment people start thinking clearly.”
  Cass looked out the window.
  “You think you won something.”
  Zayelle shook her head.
  “This isn’t winning.”
  “Then what is it?”
  “Correction.”
  Cass turned toward her.
  “You corrected my life?”
  “I corrected the imbalance,” Zayelle replied simply.
  Cass let out a small laugh.
  “You’re unbelievable.”
  Zayelle finally parked near the overlook outside town.
  The view stretched across the valley, quiet and wide.
  She turned off the engine.
  Then she looked directly at Cass.
  “You think I’m doing this because I want him,” she said.
  Cass didn’t respond.
  “That’s not the reason.”
  “Then what is?”
  Zayelle’s voice softened.
  “Because people like us don’t get the luxury of chaos.”
  Cass frowned.
  “Your families are building something bigger than this school. Bigger than these rumors.”
  “That’s their problem.”
  “No,” Zayelle said gently.
  “It becomes everyone’s problem when the wrong person disrupts it.”
  The words landed slowly.
  “You think I’m the wrong person,” Cass said.
  Zayelle held her gaze.
  “I think you’re the unpredictable one.”
  Silence filled the car.
  Then Cass asked the question she hadn’t wanted to say out loud.
  “And if he chooses me anyway?”
  Zayelle didn’t look worried.
  “If he does,” she said calmly, “then everything around him will start breaking.”
  Cass swallowed.
  “And you’re okay with that?”
  Zayelle’s eyes drifted back toward the valley.
  “No.”
  A quiet pause.
  “That’s why I’m making sure it doesn’t happen.”
  Later that evening, Jace sat on the back steps of his house, staring into the dark yard.
  His phone buzzed.
  A message from Cass.
  He opened it immediately.
  I talked to Zayelle today.
  His stomach tightened.
  Another message appeared.
  She thinks the world around you will break if you choose me.
  Jace stared at the screen.
  Then he typed back slowly.
  Maybe it needs to.
  The reply came after a long pause.
  Are you actually ready for that?
  Jace looked up at the house.
  At the lights in his father’s office.
  At the life that had been decided for him long before he understood it.
  His fingers hovered over the keyboard.
  Because for the first time
  He didn’t know the answer.