Chapter 69 : Storms Of Heart
HAYDEN’S POV:
By the time Ammy and I left the garden, the quiet calm from earlier is completely gone. That stupid video keeps replaying in my head.
Lilian is shoving Ella with students screaming, phones recording, and that stupid caption.
Star athlete’s girlfriend starts campus fight.
Great.
Exactly the kind of attention I don’t need when my scholarship is already hanging by a thread.
Ammy walked beside me in silence as we headed back toward the dorms. The path feels longer than before, and the campus that had seemed peaceful earlier now feels like a minefield.
Every student we pass makes me paranoid.
Are they looking at me because they recognize me? Because they saw the video? Because they’re waiting to see if the drama continues?
I shove my hands into my jacket pockets and keep walking.
“This is going to blow over,” Ammy says gently after a while.
I glance at her. “You don’t sound convinced.”
She gives a small shrug. “Campus gossip spreads fast. But it also burns out fast. Tomorrow something else will probably happen and everyone will move on.”
“Hopefully.”
But I know how these things work and being the star athlete makes it worse.
Anything connected to me becomes entertainment.
We finally reach the dorm building, the familiar brick structure rising ahead of us. Lights glow from several windows, and a few students linger near the entrance.
The moment we step closer, my stomach drops.
Lilian is standing near the entrance. Her arms are crossed tightly over her chest, and even from a distance I can tell she’s furious and her eyes lock onto me immediately.
Great. Just what I needed.
Ammy follows my gaze and notices her. “Oh,” she mutters quietly.
Lilian pushes herself off the wall and strides toward us.
Her expression is a storm. “What the hell, Hayden?”
Yeah, no hello or a calm conversation. Just straight to the explosion.
I close my eyes for a second and rub my temples. “I’m really not in the mood for this right now,” I say.
Lilian’s laugh is sharp and disbelieving. “You’re not in the mood?” she snaps. “You disappeared while I was in the middle of a fight which was because of you!”
I glance around.
I could see a couple of students near the entrance pretending not to listen. They’re failing miserably.
“Lower your voice,” I mutter.
“Why?” she demands. “Are you embarrassed?”
Ammy shifts slightly beside me. “I should probably go,” she says quietly.
Lilian’s eyes finally land on her, and the temperature drops ten degrees.
“Oh,” Lilian says slowly. “Of course.” Her gaze flicks between us. “So this is why you disappeared.”
My patience snaps a little. “That’s not what happened.”
“Really?” she shoots back. “Because from where I was standing, my boyfriend walked away from me during a fight and ran off with another girl.”
Ammy steps forward slightly, her voice calm. “Hey, that’s not fair,” she says. “He just needed to get away from the crowd.”
Lilian’s eyes narrow. “And you were the one who helped him do that?”
Ammy doesn’t take the bait.
Instead, she turns to me with a small, polite smile. “I’ll see you later, Hayden.”
I nod. “Thanks… for earlier.”
“Anytime.”
She gives a short wave and walks past Lilian toward the dorm entrance.
Lilian watches her go with an expression that could melt steel.
Then she slowly turns back to me. “So,” she says coldly.
I sigh heavily. “Please don’t start.”
“Oh, I’m starting,” she says immediately. “You left me there!”
“You were shoving people into lockers!” I snap.
Her eyes flash. “She deserved it!”
“Maybe,” I say, running a hand through my hair.
“But that doesn’t mean you should start a public fight in the middle of campus.”
“Wow.” Her voice turns icy. “Now you’re taking her side too?”
“I’m not taking anyone’s side!”
A couple of students walking into the dorm slow down, clearly curious.
Fantastic. Exactly the audience we needed.
I lower my voice. “There’s literally a video of it online,” I say. “Half the campus has seen it.”
Lilian freezes. “What?”
I pull out my phone and open the clip Ammy showed me.
When I hold it up, Lilian’s expression shifts from anger to shock as she watches herself shove Ella into the lockers.
Her face drains of color. “Oh my god.”
“Yeah,” I say tiredly.
She scrolls through the comments, her jaw tightening with every line.
Then she suddenly shoves the phone back toward me. “This is Ella’s fault.”
I stare at her. “Lilian….”
“She started it!” she insists. “She has been running her mouth about me for weeks!”
“That still doesn’t make this better.”
Her eyes flare again. “So you’re just going to lecture me now?”
I feel my exhaustion boiling over. “Lilian, I just took one of the most important exams of my life,” I say sharply. “My scholarship might depend on it. I spent the last two days studying nonstop, and the second I walked out of the building there was a fight happening between my girlfriend and another of my supposed to be ex?”
Her expression hardens. “And instead of staying with me, you left with her.”
I blink. “With who?”
She points toward the dorm door. “That girl.”
“Ammy?”
“Yes, Ammy!”
“She just showed me the video,” I say.
“Oh, I’m sure that’s all she did.”
My jaw tightens. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I?” she fires back. “Because from what I saw, you two looked pretty comfortable walking off together.”
“That’s because she was helping me get away from the circus!”
Lilian scoffs. “You mean from me.”
For a moment, neither of us speaks.
The tension between us feels like a stretched wire about to snap.
Finally, I rub my face with both hands. “I can’t do this right now.”
Her expression goes rigid.
“What does that mean?”
“It means I’m exhausted,” I say. “And angry. And stressed about ten different things.”
Her voice drops dangerously low. “So you’re just walking away again?”
I hesitate, then I sigh. “Yeah,” I admit.
Her eyes widened slightly.
I pick up my bag and step toward the dorm entrance.
“Hayden.” Her voice stops me.
I glance back. Lilian’s anger has shifted into something else now. It was like she was hurt.
“You really chose her over me today,” she says quietly.
My chest tightens. “That’s not what happened.”
But the look on her face tells me she doesn’t believe me. And honestly? I’m not sure anything I say right now would make a difference.