As soon as jace heard the teachers words , he stood up ,grabbed his bag , and walked straight towards the door . Nova and Aven followed right behind him , and even zim whi was halfway out already looked at me and signaled me for me to come along too .
I said ,"I don't want to go . I want to stay in class."
But she just called me crazy ,made an annoyed face and started packing my stuff herself .she shove my notebook into my bag , grabbed my hand ,and started pulling me towards the door .I kept repeating ,"I don't wanna come ," but she didn't listen and just like that ,I was dragged out with them .
By now ,all the students were in class ,and we five were the only ones outside .suddenly ,zim threw her arm around my shoulder and said ,"let's all go to canteen "
Aven gave a lazy thumbs up and we started walking ther together .
When teachers saw us outside during the first lecture, no one was surprised this was nothing new for them but this time ,instead of eating there , we picked up our food and headed to our club room
Our club room was on the rooftop a small space where we spend most of our day .it had everything we needed ;a table ,a chairs,a few games and some music equipment .
Just like every day, we climbed up . Jaceflopped down the moment we arrived and fell asleep. Aven and zim started playing games ,while Nova and I plugged in our headphones and open our books to read .
And like always ,time passed without us realizing ...until school was over.
I entered my room and jumped straight onto the bed, staring at the ceiling.
Within 5 minutes, I was already asleep…
In my dream, I saw someone standing still, reaching their hand out toward me.
Just as I was about to see their face—
My phone rang.
I woke up suddenly, startled, wiping the sweat off my forehead.
I picked up the call.
Zim said,
"Hey, listen. Don't say no—let's go to the club tonight."
I asked irritably,
"But why? What's the need for that?"
And just then—
someone started knocking on my room's door.
I listened carefully… it was Jace.
I lazily got up and opened the door.
There stood Zim and Jace, practically begging me with puppy eyes.
I rubbed my head, sighed, then placed a metaphorical stone on my heart and said yes, still pretending to be mad.
At the decided time, I arrived outside the club with Jace.
From a distance, Jace spotted Aven and Nova, and waved at them, calling them over to the entrance.
Now the four of us stood there, waiting for Zim.
I sighed and said,
"Why is she late today?"
Aven, laughing, replied,
"Maybe she tricked us and ditched."
Nova, annoyed, snapped,
"Shut up! Do you think she's like you or what?"
We saw Zim approaching with a girl.
The moment I saw her, I knew—she was Jessi.
I was the only one who knew that Jessi was Zim's lover.
The others were full of questions and confusion, just as Zim and Jessi walked up and stood in front of us.
Before Nova could ask anything, Zim, smiling nervously, said,
"Hi guys, meet my girlfriend, Jessi."
Jessi looked at all of us with a warm smile.
Everyone was totally shocked.
Aven's jaw literally dropped, and Nova placed her hands on her hips, staring at Zim angrily.
But Jace just burst out laughing.
Jessi already knew me—we'd met before—so ignoring the others for a moment, she asked me casually,
"How's life going?"
I replied,
"Everything's fine."
Then Jessi looked at everyone with hope in her eyes, waiting to introduce herself.
Aven, using his flirty tone, said,
"I'm Aven Sinclair."
Then Nova, a bit more gently, told her name.
Jace was still in shock and just stood there quietly.
Finally, everyone had been introduced to each other.
We all went into the club.
After a while, Jace, being Jace, went off to dance with some random girls.
Aven had drunk way too much.
Zim and Jessi were dancing together on the floor.
That left just me and Nova.
She looked at me with sharp eyes and asked,
"Did you know about all this?"
gesturing toward Jessi.
I nodded quietly.
She sighed and said,
"It's fine. If Zim's happy, then it's all okay."
As always, Jace and Aven said their goodbyes and walked off with some girls.
Zim and Jessi were both drunk, so Nova took the lead and offered to drop them home.
But she was still worried about me.
She turned to me and asked,
"Will you be able to get home on your own?"
Just then, drunk Zim started hanging onto me like a koala, slurring,
"Heeey baby, you're sooo cute…"
I pushed him away from me and handed him over to Nova, saying confidently,
"I'll go home on my own."
Jessi was still stumbling toward the taxi, and after helping her get in,
the three girls waved goodbye as the taxi drove off.
I stood there, drained and tired, looking around at the dim, empty street.
As I looked around, I saw drunk people stumbling everywhere.
But I ignored all of them and decided to take a taxi.
Then, suddenly, I changed my mind and chose to walk home.
On the way, there was a dark alley.
Right before entering it, I noticed someone was following me.
I tried to ignore it and kept walking forward.
But with each step I took, I could hear footsteps behind me.
Anxiously, I turned around.
Sweat trickled down my forehead.
There was a man.
And something about him felt very wrong.
His eyes scanned me from head to toe — in a way that made my chest tighten.
My heart grew heavy.
My legs froze.
My mind was blank.
Still, I gathered the courage to take out my wallet and offer it to him.
But he just slapped it away.
He started walking closer.
Panicking, I turned and ran.
But suddenly, his friends appeared in front of me.
They caught me right there.
Fear rushed through me.
I was shaking.
One of them reached out and touched my face.
I screamed with all the strength I had:
"I'm a boy! Let me go! Please!!"
I struggled and kicked, but they were too strong.
They held me tightly, their grip rough and unforgiving.
One of them laughed and said,
"Doesn't matter."
He slid his hand under my hoodie.
And then, they threw me into a car parked nearby.
That's when my tears started falling.
I began to cry, completely terrified.
One of them climbed on top of me.
I trembled.
I was frozen with fear.
But then—
a gunshot rang out.
And everything went black.
I lost consciousness.
"The next morning when I woke up, I found myself in my corner. My sister was sitting beside me, and my brother was standing near the door, looking at me.
…As soon as I opened my eyes, I couldn't quite make sense of anything, but then the memories of the previous night started flooding back.
It was like a tape playing in my head.
My tears weren't in my control anymore. I was crying.
My hands were trembling.
My senses felt heavy and overwhelmed.
Out of fear, I hugged Cloe tightly.
Jace, who still seemed shocked, ran toward me and stared at Cloe, concerned.
Cloe kept asking me what happened, telling me to say something—anything—but I just kept crying.
After a while, once I calmed down a bit, Jace sat beside me.
He gently ran his hand through my hair and asked softly, "What happened? Tell me, please."
Cloe was also looking at me with hope and concern.
In a shaky, frightened voice, I told Jace,
"Never leave me alone again."
Jace pulled me into a hug and began gently rubbing my back.
I decided in that moment to tell Jace and Cloe everything that had happened to me the previous night.
Taking a deep breath, I shared it all.
Cloe immediately hugged me tightly.
Jace got up and walked away.
Cloe carefully cleaned and dressed the wounds on my face.
Then she left for work.
I went downstairs.
Jace was sitting on the couch and looking at me.
Somewhere deep down, I could feel it—
what had happened to me had disturbed him."...