Chapter 177 : Your Moves Ryan.

Chapter 177 : Your Moves Ryan.


AMBER’S POV

My hands were shaking, but for the first time in weeks, it wasn’t out of goddamn fear.

It was pure adrenaline.

Walking out of Hayden and Stephen’s dorm room felt like stepping out of a suffocating tomb. The crushing weight of their suspicion was gone, replaced by a cold, sharp fury that burned right through my veins.

Ryan thought he could use me as his fucking scapegoat. He thought he could drive me to the brink of a mental breakdown, watch me spiral into paranoia, and walk away with a fifteen thousand dollar paycheck and a smile on his miserable face.

He had no fucking idea what was coming for him.

"You ready for this?" Blake whispered, her hand gripping my shoulder tightly as we navigated the crowded walkway toward the Greek quad.

"I'm going to ruin his fucking life," I muttered, my voice dead and steady.

"That's my girl," Blake said, a vicious smirk playing on her lips. "Go set the fire. I’m going to hand the media the gasoline."

We split up, and I took a deep breath, smoothing down my cheer jacket. I needed to look fragile but hyper-observant. I needed to play the part of a girl who had finally connected the dots of a sick, twisted obsession, without letting a single soul know I’d ever been holding the tape in the first place.

Nobody could know about my phone.

This wasn't about the evidence yet….this was about poisoning the fucking well.

My first target was the cheer house.

On a Tuesday afternoon, the living room was practically a hub for every major gossip pipeline on camp. If a rumor started here, it was across the entire athletic department before dinner.

When I walked through the front door, Courtney and Chloe were curled up on the couch, their phones practically glued to their faces.

The tension from the past week's football drama was still hanging over the whole athletic department, and I knew they were starving for a new angle.

I let out a heavy, shaky breath, letting my eyes look wide and unnerved as I dropped my bag onto the floor.

"Amber?" Courtney asked, looking up and narrowing her eyes slightly. "Are you okay? You look completely freaked out."

"I am freaked out," I said, my voice cracking perfectly as I sat down across from them. I leaned forward, lowering my voice like I was sharing something terrifying. "I was just over near the athletic facility, and Jesus Christ... I can't keep my mouth shut anymore. Ryan is fucking losing it."

Chloe blinked, immediately hooked and sinker. "Ryan? The backup? What the hell are you talking about?"

"His obsession with Stephen and Hayden," I whispered, making sure the raw, genuine rage I felt sounded like fear. "It’s getting scary, you guys. Seriously. I’ve been noticing it for weeks, but the way he was talking today? He is completely fucking unhinged."

"What do you mean?" Courtney asked, leaning in closer.

"He hates them. Like, deeply, psychotically hates them," I snapped, letting the venom bleed through. "Have you guys seriously not noticed the way he looks at them during practice? The disgusting, bitter comments he throws around at the parties? He’s been tracking Stephen’s stats like some sick fucking voyeur, just waiting for him to trip up."

Courtney’s eyes widened as the gears started turning in her head. "Wait... at the bonfire last month, he was totally trashing Stephen's to one of the recruiters. I thought he was just being a cocky asshole."

"It's not just him being an asshole, Courtney. It’s a fucking sickness," I pressed on, my heart hammering a brutal rhythm. "He is desperate for that starting spot. He wants to see Stephen and Hayden completely ruined. I overheard him talking about how Stephen doesn't deserve his life, how Hayden is just a mindless fuckboy, and how they both need to be knocked off their fucking pedestals permanently. It made my skin crawl. The guy is a total snake, masquerading as a team player while he prays for their downfall."

"Jesus," Chloe breathed, her expression shifting to absolute disgust. "I always knew he was arrogant, but that sounds straight-up malicious. What a pathetic piece of shit."

"Exactly. He’s a parasite," I said, standing up and shaking my head. "He knows he doesn't have a bit of their talent, so he’s just sitting in the dark, wishing death on their careers. Just... watch your backs around him. He’s dangerous."

By the time I left the cheer house, the room was a goddamn hornet's nest.

Phones were already out, fingers flying across screens.

The virus was planted.

For the next forty-eight hours, I didn't stop.

I became a ghost in the machine, moving through the camp and planting the exact same toxic narrative everywhere I went.

There were no facts, no mentions of leaked files….just whispers about Ryan’s terrifying, deep-seated jealousy.

Every conversation was a strike.

At the Alpha Phi house, I dropped hints about how Ryan always seemed to be lurking in the shadows whenever Stephen and Hayden were around.

At the camp coffee shop, I ‘discreetly’ ranted to a couple of influential track athletes about how Ryan’s bitter locker-room toxicity was ruining the entire squad's morale.

"The guy is a fucking predator,"

I told a group of fraternity presidents over drinks at the campus bar, my voice dripping with icy venom.

"He didn't just want to win a football game. He wanted to see them destroyed. He’s been planning a way to backstab them all this while because his own life is a miserable fucking joke."

"I always knew the guy was a bit of a tool," one of the guys muttered, shaking his head. "But if he's that obsessed with sabotaging his own teammates, he's a fucking liability to the whole team."

"He is," I said, taking a slow sip of my drink. "He's a fucking coward."

The whispers grew into a deafening roar. It was beautiful. Every single corner of the camp athletic department was starting to turn.

Your move Ryan.