Chapter 17 : Ways to conversation
HAYDEN’S POV
By the time i stepped onto campus the next morning, I already knew something had happened.
You could feel it in the air.The way conversations cut off when i walked past. The way heads leaned together, whispers were heard when i walked by. A couple of freshmen actually turned to look at me like I was part of some boy band.
I didn’t need to ask what it was about.
I already knew it was about Ella and Lilian, the captain spot and apparently… me.
I shoved my hands into my pockets and kept walking toward the athletic building, jaw tight. I hated drama, especially when my name was sitting right in the middle of it like a trophy no one asked to win.
“Yo,” Marcus called from behind me. “You good?”
I stretched out my hands and shook him “Ya, I'm fine.”
He fell into step beside me anyway. “Word is detention turned into a showdown.” I didn’t respond. He glanced sideways. “You know they’re saying it’s not just about the captain thing.”
Of course they were. At this school, nothing was ever just about one thing. By the time I reached my locker, two sophomores were openly staring. One of them whispered, “That’s him.”
I slammed the locker door harder than necessary. I hadn’t meant for any of this to spiral. Breaking up with Ella was supposed to simplify things, like a clean cut with no more tension and no more weird glances across the hallway.
Instead, it had detonated everything and Stephen—of course—hadn’t helped. I spotted him at the far end of the corridor, leaning against the wall with two guys from the soccer team, laughing too loudly. He caught my eye and smirked.
I looked away immediately.
I’d been avoiding him for days.
As long as he kept whatever nonsense he was doing with random guys around school out of my room, I didn’t care. That was my only rule. My space stayed clean, drama and cum free. But Stephen didn’t like losing and he definitely didn’t like that I’d gotten involved with Ella.
The truth was, that the whole thing started wrong. It started as petty and it started with him.
Stephen and I had been at each other’s throats for months, living in the same house, playing on the same team and everyone expecting some legacy. We were compared to each other all the damn time. We were the School IT guys and he hated that teachers favored me. I hated that he acted like rules didn’t apply to him.
And Ella…Ella had been his; they were not officially, but everyone knew they were together, and I shouldn’t have crossed that line. Even if part of me wanted to prove I could and wanted to win this stupid competition between us.
The competition for cheer captain was scheduled for after school, and by lunchtime, the entire student body knew about it. Posters had practically materialized out of nowhere. People were placing bets. Someone had even made a poll online.
It was Ella vs. Lilian, Legacy vs underdog, and somehow: Who gets Hayden?
I rubbed my face. This was unbelievable. I skipped the cafeteria and headed outside instead. The bleachers near the practice field were mostly empty this early. I needed some peace.
“Thought I’d find you hiding here.”
I looked up. It was Lilian. She was standing a few feet away, hands tucked into the straps of her bag. She looked calm, too calm for someone who had apparently packed a suitcase the night before and left her dorm room to crash at her friend’s. Ya, she had told me. We had apparently gotten closer so we texted each other.
“I'm not hiding,” I said. “I'm just breathing.”
She walked closer and sat down beside me, leaving a small space between us. “You know they’re talking,” she said.
I sighed “I noticed.”
She exhaled slowly. “I didn’t mean for it to become… this.”
I studied her profile. She was way more beneath all the glam and tough exterior she puts out. It was like she transformed more anytime you spoke to her. “It was already this,” I replied. “You just stepped into it.”
She gave a small smile. For a moment, neither of us spoke. The field stretched out in front of us, empty and waiting. “I wanted to ask you something,” she said finally.
“Okay.”
“I want you there……at the match…. today.” I turned to her. “At the competition,” she clarified. “I want you there, not because of rumors or Ella. Just… because I want someone in the crowd who’s actually there for me.”
There was something steady in her voice. She was just real. I gave her a small smile “I’ll be there,” I said without hesitation.
Her shoulders relaxed slightly. “Thank you.” A second passed. Then she looked at me again. “Can I ask something else?”
“Depends.”
“Why did you really break up with Ella?”
I looked out at the field again. I could lie and say it just wasn’t working out or that feelings had changed but Lilian didn’t look like she wanted a robotic answer.
“She wasn’t mine to take in the first place,” I said quietly.
Lilian frowned. “What do you mean?”
I inhaled slowly. “Stephen and I… we’ve been going at it for a while. Competing, fighting. Whatever you want to call it. Ella was with him.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “So you fucked her to get back at him?”
“It wasn’t that simple,” I muttered. But it kind of was. “I liked her,” I added. “At least, I thought I did. But part of me knew what I was doing. I knew it would get under his skin.”
“And did it?”
“Yeah, it got a lot worse when I found out he was bisexual.”
She studied me carefully. “Then why end it?”
Because it stopped feeling like I was winning.Every time I looked at Stephen, I saw something in his face I didn’t like. He was hurt, that I could stop that low. I never wanted to announce to the world that he was bi but when I did I made him look stupid in front of the whole school.
“I don’t steal what’s not mine,” I said finally. “And I don’t build something on top of someone else just to prove a point. That’s not me.”
Lilian was quiet for a moment. “Were you sad?” she asked softly.
The question caught me off, guard. “Yeah,” I admitted. “Not just about Ella. It was about the whole thing. It felt messy and I don’t like messy.”
She nodded slowly. “You could’ve told her that.”
“Maybe.”
But Ella wouldn’t have wanted that answer. If I had not broken off with her, she would think I owe her since I broke her relationship.
Lilian looked down at her hands. “She thinks I took you.”
I almost laughed. “No one takes me anywhere I don’t decide to go.”
Her lips curved slightly. “I’m not trying to replace her,” she said. “I just… I don’t want to keep shrinking because she’s louder.”
“You shouldn’t.”
She glanced at me. “You really mean that?”
“I do.”
For the first time since she sat down, something in her expression softened completely.