Break my heart into pieces
The last bell rang, and the school exploded into noise.
Chairs scraped against tile. Bags zipped. Someone in the hallway shouted loud enough for half the floor to hear. The late afternoon sun poured through the long corridor windows, turning everything gold — lockers, polished floors, dust in the air.
To anyone else, it was just another school day ending.
To Jay, it felt like the beginning of something.
She leaned back in her chair, twirling her pen between her fingers as the classroom emptied around her. Aries was arguing with Percy over something stupid — probably basketball. Eman was halfway under his desk looking for a missing charger. Kiko was loudly begging Cin for notes he should have copied weeks ago.
Jay smiled to herself.
Keifer had texted her during lunch.
After class. Don’t disappear.
That was all.
No emoji. No teasing insult. No half-hearted excuse to cover up the fact that he missed her.
Just a text so short it had kept her distracted all day.
And that annoyed her, because Jay Jay Mariano did not get nervous over boys.
Especially not over Keifer Watson.
Except… she kind of did.
Because the past few weeks with him had been something she still didn’t fully know how to hold.
He’d become her safest habit without her noticing.
The boy who rolled his eyes when she was dramatic but always stayed.
The one who pretended her jokes were annoying but memorized every single one.
The one who’d started reaching for her hand like it was instinct.
Jay hated how much she liked him.
Hated even more that she liked liking him.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
Jay blinked.
Aries had twisted around in his chair, eyebrow raised, grin already forming.
Jay rolled her eyes. “Why are you so obsessed with me?”
“Because your face is suspicious.”
Percy leaned against the desk beside him, arms folded. “She’s definitely hiding something.”
Jay scoffed. “Unlike you losers, I have a rich inner life.”
“Rich?” Aries snorted. “Your last two brain cells are fighting for custody.”
Jay gasped dramatically and threw her pen at him.
He ducked, laughing.
“There she is,” Percy said, shaking his head.
Jay grinned, feeling light.
God, she felt good today.
Hope was such a dangerous thing.
Cin looked up from stuffing books into his bag, eyes narrowing slightly.
Unlike the others, he noticed things.
He noticed the way Jay kept checking the time.
The way she kept fixing her hair when she thought no one was looking.
The softness in her face every time her phone lit up.
And he noticed Keifer hadn’t shown up to class after lunch.
Cin’s jaw tightened.
He had seen Keifer earlier.
Pale.
Shaking.
Looking like a man walking to his own execution.
Cin had known about the plan.
Not the original cruelty of it — not at first. Not the revenge angle against Aries. But enough.
Enough to know Keifer had started something ugly months ago.
Enough to know it had stopped being fake long before Keifer admitted it.
Enough to know Keifer was about to destroy the only good thing he had ever let himself have.
Cin looked at Jay now and felt sick.
She looked happy.
Too happy.
“Jay.”
She glanced at him. “What?”
Cin opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
What was he supposed to say?
Don’t go?
Don’t trust the boy you love?
Run while you still can?
Instead, he forced out, “Don’t stay late.”
Jay blinked, then laughed. “Wow. Thanks, dad.”
Aries made a gagging noise. “That was weirdly tender.”
Cin flipped him off.
Jay stood, slinging her bag over one shoulder.
“Alright, children. Try not to commit crimes while I’m gone.”
Aries grinned. “No promises.”
Percy called after her, “If Keifer’s finally confessing his undying love, tell him I’ve always known I’m hotter.”
Jay laughed over her shoulder.
And walked out.
That laugh would haunt them later.
Because it was the last one they’d hear from her for a very long time.
⸻
The hallway outside Section E was almost empty now.
Most students had already started heading downstairs, their voices echoing faintly from lower floors. The corridor was washed in sunlight, quiet in a way schools never really were.
Jay spotted Keifer immediately.
He was standing by the lockers near the far window.
Hands shoved into his pockets.
Shoulders stiff.
Head slightly bowed.
The sight of him made her chest loosen with relief.
There you are.
For the past week, he’d been distant. Off. Strange in ways that made her chest hurt if she thought about it too long.
But this was it.
The explanation.
The reason.
Maybe even an apology.
Maybe he’d kiss her and tell her she was overthinking again.
Jay smiled before she could stop herself.
“Okay,” she called as she walked closer. “This better be worth ditching my fans for.”
Keifer looked up.
And Jay’s steps slowed.
Because something was wrong.
Terribly wrong.
He looked… hollow.
Not cold. Not irritated. Not annoyed in that sharp-edged way he usually was.
Just wrecked.
Like he hadn’t slept.
Like he hadn’t eaten.
Like he was holding himself together by sheer force.
Jay frowned.
The joking tone fell away immediately.
“Keif?”
He swallowed.
Didn’t answer.
Jay stopped in front of him, close enough now to notice the slight redness around his eyes.
Fear curled in her stomach.
“What happened?”
Before he could answer, footsteps sounded behind her.
Jay turned.
Aries, Percy, Cin, and the others were walking out into the corridor.
Aries frowned instantly.
“What’s going on?”
Percy glanced between Jay and Keifer, unease settling over his features.
Cin went still.
Keifer hadn’t wanted an audience.
But Section E always found each other.
Even in disaster.
Jay laughed softly, trying to shake off the dread. “Apparently your best friend decided to become mysterious and dramatic.”
No one smiled.
Jay’s heart skipped.
She looked back at Keifer.
And suddenly she understood:
this wasn’t going to be okay.
Keifer stared at her.
Really stared.
Like he was memorizing her face.
The sunlight caught in her hair. Her eyes were bright, even now. Her lips were curved in the ghost of a smile she was trying to hold onto.
She looked beautiful.
Alive.
Trusting.
And he was about to ruin her.
Because months ago, when Keifer had decided he hated Aries enough to want to break him, Jay had been the perfect target.
Aries’ cousin.
The girl everyone underestimated.
Too loud. Too messy. Too much.
Keifer had thought it would be easy.
Get close.
Use her.
Watch Aries fall apart when she did.
Simple.
Cruel.
Deserved, he’d told himself then.
Until Jay.
Until her stupid laugh.
Her stupid loyalty.
Her stupid heart.
Until she had walked into his life and made him remember what it felt like to want something clean.
And now, because of choices he’d made, because of enemies he’d made, because of a family that would use Jay to punish him —
he had to become the monster she thought he was.
Maybe that was justice.
Maybe he deserved to lose her like this.
But she didn’t deserve what came after.
So he made himself speak.
“We need to end this.”
The words were calm.
Controlled.
Practiced.
Jay blinked.
For a second, she just looked confused.
“What?”
“This.” He gestured between them. “Us.”
The silence that followed was unbearable.
Jay stared at him.
Then she laughed.
A small, disbelieving sound.
“Stop.”
Keifer’s fingers curled inside his pockets so hard his nails bit skin.
“I’m serious.”
Jay shook her head slowly.
“No, you’re not.”
“Jay—”
“No.” Her voice sharpened. “Tell me what happened.”
Aries stepped forward. “Keif, what the hell?”
Keifer ignored him.
Because if he looked away from Jay now, he’d never finish.
“You made this easy,” he said quietly.
Jay frowned.
“What?”
Keifer’s throat tightened.
He almost stopped.
Almost told her everything.
Almost fell to his knees and begged her to run.
But if he did, they’d take her.
His family. The people waiting for him to fail.
They’d destroy her.
So he forced himself to keep going.
“You liked me,” he said. “You trusted me. It wasn’t hard.”
The words landed like a slap.
Jay went still.
Completely still.
Aries let out a harsh breath. “What the fuck?”
Percy stared. “Keifer…”
Jay looked at Keifer like she didn’t recognize him.
Like she was trying to fit his face to the boy who kissed her under bleachers and stole fries off her tray and called her ridiculous when she cried at movies.
Her lips parted.
No sound came out.
Keifer thought he might die.
Then Jay laughed.
It was quiet.
Broken.
The kind of laugh that made everyone in the hallway go cold.
“So that’s it?”
Keifer said nothing.
He couldn’t.
Jay swallowed hard.
Her eyes were shining now.
Not with anger.
With hurt so pure it made Cin feel sick.
“You used me?”
Keifer’s silence answered for him.
Jay’s gaze shifted.
To Cin.
Cin looked away.
That was all it took.
She understood enough.
Enough to know this wasn’t just heartbreak.
It was humiliation.
Section E had always been her safe place.
Her people.
And now she was standing here, exposed in front of all of them.
Aries looked between Keifer and Jay, panic rising.
“Jay, wait—”
She held up a hand.
It trembled.
But it stopped him.
“No.”
Her voice was so soft it barely carried.
That scared them more than if she’d screamed.
Jay looked at Keifer one last time.
And Keifer almost broke.
Because she wasn’t furious.
She wasn’t loud.
She wasn’t even crying.
She just looked… wounded.
Like something precious inside her had cracked clean through.
She searched his face for something.
A sign.
A lie.
A reason to stay.
Keifer gave her nothing.
Because giving her the truth now would kill her faster later.
Jay smiled.
It was small.
So heartbreakingly fragile that Percy had to look away.
“I actually believed you.”
Keifer flinched.
Aries saw it.
His face darkened instantly.
“What did you do?”
Jay nodded once.
Like she was sealing herself shut from the inside.
Then she stepped back.
Turned.
And walked away.
No dramatic exit.
No tears.
No shouting.
Just Jay Jay Mariano —
the loudest girl any of them had ever known —
walking down the sunlit hallway like a ghost.
Every step measured.
Every breath controlled.
Holding herself together with nothing but pride.
No one moved.
No one knew how.
They watched until she disappeared around the corner.
And then the silence shattered.
Aries lunged first.
His fist slammed into Keifer’s jaw so hard Keifer staggered back into the lockers.
The metal rattled.
Cin grabbed Aries before he could swing again.
“Stop!”
Aries shoved him off. “Tell me this is a joke!”
Cin looked wrecked.
“It’s not.”
Percy stepped forward slowly, eyes fixed on Keifer.
“What the hell did you do?”
Keifer wiped blood from his lip.
Said nothing.
Because there was no explanation that could undo what they had just watched.
No truth that could put light back into Jay’s eyes.
And as the hallway fell silent again, all Keifer could think was—
Jay would go home tonight believing she had never been loved.
And he had done that to her with his own hands.
Jay didn’t remember leaving school.
Later, when she tried to think back on it, all she could recall were fragments.
The harsh scrape of her shoes against the corridor floor.
Someone calling her name from far away.
The blur of sunlight in her eyes.
The taste of blood where she’d bitten the inside of her cheek hard enough to stop herself from crying.
She kept walking.
Past the staircase where Aries once nearly broke his ankle trying to impress girls from Section C.
Past the empty canteen where Keifer used to steal food off her tray and then act offended when she complained.
Past the court where he had once pinned her wrist against the fence and kissed her so gently she had forgotten how cruel the world could be.
Every memory hit like glass.
Jay didn’t let herself stop.
Because if she stopped, she knew she’d shatter right there on the school floor.
And she refused to let anyone see that.
Not Section E.
Not Keifer.
Not herself.
By the time she reached the girls’ washroom, her hands were shaking so badly she could barely push the door open.
It was empty.
Thank God.
The second the door clicked shut behind her, Jay stumbled forward like her knees had finally given out permission to fail.
She barely made it to the sink before the first sob ripped out of her.
It wasn’t graceful.
It wasn’t quiet.
It was ugly.
The kind of sound that comes from somewhere so deep inside you that it doesn’t even feel human.
Jay gripped the sink so hard her knuckles went white.
Her whole body shook.
Her breathing came in sharp, painful bursts that scraped her throat raw.
Her reflection stared back at her from the mirror.
Wide eyes.
Trembling lips.
A girl she didn’t recognize.
Jay let out a broken laugh.
Because of course this was how it ended.
Of course she had been stupid enough to believe she could have something good.
A mother who hated her.
A father too far away to save her.
A life she had spent fighting tooth and nail just to survive.
And somehow, somehow, she had still been foolish enough to let herself hope.
She remembered every moment with Keifer all at once.
His hand brushing hers under the desk.
The way he’d tuck loose hair behind her ear like it annoyed him to care.
The soft look he thought she never noticed.
The way he had once said, so quietly she almost missed it—
You make things feel less heavy.
Jay made a sound halfway between a laugh and a sob.
Liar.
Her chest hurt so badly she thought she might die from it.
She pressed a hand over her mouth to smother the sounds, sliding slowly down the cabinet until she hit the floor.
The cold tile bit through her skirt.
Jay curled into herself.
For the first time in years, she let herself feel it.
Not just heartbreak.
Humiliation.
Because she had trusted him.
More than that—
she had let him see her.
The real her.
The scared little girl beneath all the sarcasm and noise and recklessness.
And he had used that.
Used her.
The worst part wasn’t that Keifer had broken her heart.
It was that he had made her believe she was safe first.
Jay sat there until her breathing stopped sounding like drowning.
Until her tears slowed enough for her to wipe them away with trembling fingers.
Until the ache in her chest dulled just enough for her to stand.
When she finally looked at herself again, her face was blotchy.
Eyes swollen.
Mascara smudged.
Jay stared at herself in silence.
Then she turned on the tap.
Cold water splashed over her hands.
Over her face.
She scrubbed at every sign of weakness until her skin stung.
Because no matter what—
she still had to go home.
She still had to survive tomorrow.
The day after that.
And the one after that.
Jay dried her face.
Reapplied lip balm with hands that still wouldn’t stop shaking.
Tied her hair back tighter.
Pulled her shoulders back.
Built herself back up in pieces.
Not because she was okay.
But because no one had ever come to save Jay Jay Mariano.
She had learned young that if she wanted to survive pain, she had to become smaller than it.
By the time she stepped out of the washroom, the hallway was nearly empty.
The sun had shifted lower now, throwing orange light across the floor.
Everything looked softer.
Kinder.
Like the world didn’t know it had just ended for her.
Jay walked slowly toward the gates.
Outside, the air was warm.
Students were drifting home in groups, laughing, planning, complaining.
Life was still moving.
Jay wanted to scream at them for that.
How dare the world keep spinning when she felt like she’d stopped breathing?
But instead, she just kept walking.
Her phone buzzed once in her bag.
Jay froze.
Her heart leapt before she could stop it.
Keifer.
It had to be.
Maybe he’d come to his senses.
Maybe he was going to tell her it was all a lie.
Maybe—
Her hands shook as she pulled the phone out.
Unknown number.
Jay stared at the screen until it stopped ringing.
The hope died so quickly it almost made her laugh.
Stupid.
She shoved the phone back into her bag and kept walking.
The streets blurred.
She didn’t remember crossing the road.
Didn’t remember passing the bakery she always stopped at with Cin.
Didn’t remember the corner store where Percy once made her buy him chips because he forgot his wallet.
Her feet moved on instinct.
An hour later, Jay turned onto her street.
And stopped.
There were too many cars outside her house.
A familiar motorcycle.
Aries’.
Percy’s beat-up car.
Cin leaning against the gate, face tight with worry.
Jay frowned.
Her pulse kicked up again.
What now?
For one brief, foolish second, something inside her sparked.
Maybe they’d come to explain.
Maybe Keifer had told them the truth.
Maybe this nightmare wasn’t over yet because it could still be fixed.
Jay tightened her grip on her bag and walked forward.
Aries saw her first.
Relief crashed over his face so hard it almost looked painful.
“Jay.”
His voice was softer than she’d ever heard it.
That alone made her stomach drop.
Percy looked wrecked.
Cin straightened immediately.
And standing just behind them—
Keifer.
Jay stopped dead.
Everything inside her went cold.
Her face shuttered instantly.
The tiny, trembling hope she had been nursing all the way home was crushed beneath something harder.
More final.
She let out a short, bitter laugh.
“Seriously?”
No one answered.
Jay’s gaze slid over all of them.
At the guilt on Aries’ face.
The panic in Percy’s.
The devastation in Keifer’s.
And something inside her snapped shut.
Whatever softness she had left died right there.
She looked at Keifer like he was nothing.
A stranger.
“Did you all come to watch the rest?”
The words hit like a slap.
Keifer took a step forward.
“Jay—”
“Don’t.”
Her voice cracked like glass.
That stopped him.
Jay swallowed hard, forcing herself steady.
“You’ve done enough.”
The front door opened.
Every head turned.
Jeana stepped out.
Perfect lipstick.
Sharp eyes.
Cruel smile.
Jay went rigid.
Her breath caught so sharply it hurt.
Because no matter how much time passed, no matter how old she got—
that woman still had the power to make her feel thirteen again.
Small.
Afraid.
Trapped.
Jeana’s gaze swept over Section E with bored irritation.
Then landed on Jay.
And hardened.
“There you are.”
Jay’s fingers dug into her palms.
Her voice came out smaller than she wanted.
“Mom?”
Section E stilled.
They had never heard Jay sound like that before.
Not scared.
Not exactly.
But wary in a way that made something primal in Aries bristle.
Jeana stepped closer.
“We’re leaving.”
Jay blinked.
“What?”
“I said,” Jeana repeated, each word precise, “we are going home.”
Jay frowned, confusion momentarily overpowering her hurt.
“I’m already home.”
Jeana’s smile was thin.
“No. You’re coming with me.”
The street went silent.
Even the wind seemed to stop.
Jay stared at her mother.
Then gave a tiny, disbelieving laugh.
“No.”
Everyone froze.
Because Jay had always fought.
Always pushed back.
Always burned.
But there was no fire in her now.
Only exhaustion.
Jeana’s face darkened.
“Don’t make a scene.”
Jay took a step back.
Her breathing quickened.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Behind her, Aries moved without thinking.
He stepped closer to Jay’s side.
“You heard her.”
Jeana looked him up and down like he was dirt.
“This is family business.”
Aries didn’t budge.
“She said no.”
Jay looked at him.
For one second, her face almost broke.
Because Aries—
loud, stupid, loyal Aries—
had always been her first safe place.
But Jeana knew exactly where to strike.
She tilted her head.
Cold.
“You think you know my daughter?”
Jay went pale.
Because that tone—
that look—
meant danger.
Real danger.
For everyone.
Jay stepped in front of Aries before he could speak again.
“Aries, stop.”
He frowned. “Jay—”
“Please.”
That word silenced him.
Section E had never heard Jay beg.
And they had no idea that what scared her most in that moment wasn’t going with Jeana—
it was what Jeana might do if she didn’t.
Jay looked at her mother.
And for the first time that day—
for the first time since Keifer shattered her—
real fear took root in her chest.
Because heartbreak was one thing.
But going home with Jeana?
That was something far worse.
And Section E was about to find out just how much of Jay’s pain had always lived behind closed doors.
The silence outside Jay’s house was so sharp it felt like a held breath.
No one moved.
The late afternoon sun had slipped lower, casting the street in amber light, but the warmth didn’t reach any of them. The world felt suspended — like everything was waiting for the first crack.
Jay stood in front of Aries now, her back stiff, shoulders trembling so faintly that only the people who knew her best could tell.
To anyone else, she might have looked composed.
Section E knew better.
Jay was terrified.
That realization hit them harder than anything Keifer had said in the hallway.
Because Jay wasn’t afraid of much.
She’d mouthed off to teachers. Started fights she had no chance of winning. Walked into rooms like she owned them even when she had every reason not to.
Fear didn’t belong on her face.
But now?
Now she looked like she was thirteen again.
Like a child standing on the edge of something she’d spent years trying to outrun.
Jeana stepped forward, heels clicking against the concrete.
Her lipstick was perfect. Her hair was smooth. Her expression was almost bored.
It was that calmness that made Keifer’s blood run cold.
Monsters who enjoyed hurting people rarely looked like monsters.
Jay swallowed.
“Mom,” she said quietly, trying to steady her voice, “I’m not going anywhere today.”
Jeana smiled.
Not kindly.
Not maternally.
Just enough to show how little Jay’s words mattered.
“Do you want to embarrass me in front of your little school friends?”
Jay flinched so slightly most people would have missed it.
Keifer didn’t.
Neither did Cin.
Jay was already calculating.
How much she could push.
How much she could survive.
That alone made Cin feel sick.
Because no teenager should know how to negotiate their own safety like that.
Aries stepped up again, jaw tight.
“She said she’s not going.”
Jeana’s eyes slid to him slowly.
“Who are you?”
“Someone who actually listens when she says no.”
Percy muttered, “Aries—”
But Aries ignored him.
His temper had always burned hot, but this was different.
This wasn’t school drama.
This was Jay looking like she might pass out from fear.
Jeana gave a small, almost amused laugh.
“How touching.”
Then she looked at Jay again.
The smile vanished.
“Get inside.”
Jay’s fingers curled around the strap of her bag so tightly her knuckles turned white.
“No.”
The word was barely audible.
But it was there.
Aries almost smiled.
That’s my girl.
Then Jeana moved.
So fast none of them expected it.
Her hand cracked across Jay’s face with a sound so sharp it split the street in two.
The slap echoed.
Jay stumbled sideways, her bag falling from her shoulder.
Percy swore.
Cin lurched forward.
Aries saw red.
But Jay’s hand flew up instinctively.
Not to hit back.
To cover her cheek.
Like her body had learned that reflex years ago.
And that was what truly horrified them.
Not the slap.
The familiarity of it.
Jay made the smallest sound.
A broken little inhale.
Not because it hurt.
Because she had known this would happen.
Keifer felt like he was going to throw up.
Aries was already moving.
“You crazy bitch—”
Cin and Percy grabbed him before he reached Jeana.
It took both of them.
Aries fought like a man possessed.
“Let me go!”
Jeana didn’t even look at him.
She was still staring at Jay.
Cold.
Disappointed.
“As usual,” she said, voice sharp enough to cut, “you make everything difficult.”
Jay blinked hard, eyes glassy now.
But she still didn’t cry.
Didn’t yell.
Didn’t break.
She just whispered, “Please don’t do this here.”
That sentence hollowed Keifer out.
Because there was no outrage in it.
No shock.
Only shame.
Like Jay was more embarrassed for them seeing this than for what was happening to her.
Jeana crouched, picking up Jay’s bag from the ground.
She unzipped it.
Pulled out a folded set of clothes.
Toiletries.
Documents.
A passport.
Jay froze.
The color drained from her face.
Her lips parted.
“What…?”
Jeana stood, holding the bag like proof.
“Your things are packed.”
Jay stared.
And for the first time that day, panic overtook heartbreak.
“No.”
Jeana’s expression didn’t change.
“You’re leaving tonight.”
Jay took a shaky step back.
“No.”
This time louder.
Raw.
Aries stopped struggling.
Everyone went still.
Because Jay had finally cracked.
“No!” she shouted, voice breaking. “You can’t—”
Jeana stepped forward.
“And why not?”
Jay’s chest heaved.
Because how could she explain this?
How could she tell them that leaving with Jeana didn’t mean going home?
It meant being trapped again.
Locked in a world where every breath was permission someone else granted.
It meant disappearing.
It meant losing the tiny scraps of herself she had fought so hard to keep.
“I have school,” Jay said desperately. “I have exams—”
Jeana scoffed.
“You think school matters?”
Jay’s eyes flicked wildly to Angelo.
He was standing near the gate now.
Jay hadn’t even noticed him arrive.
Her cousin.
Her safe place once.
The boy who used to sneak her snacks after Jeana locked her in her room.
The one who had promised, when they were younger, that he’d always protect her.
Jay’s face crumpled.
“Kuy—”
The word barely left her lips.
Angelo looked wrecked.
His eyes were wet.
But he didn’t move.
Didn’t step in.
Didn’t save her.
Jay’s breath caught.
And in that moment, something deeper than heartbreak tore inside her.
Because Keifer breaking her heart had hurt.
But Angelo staying silent?
That was betrayal from the bones out.
Jay’s face went blank.
Not sad.
Not angry.
Just empty.
Like her body had decided feeling anything more would kill her.
Jeana turned to the man standing by the car.
Her new husband.
Broad shoulders. Beer gut. Smug face.
The kind of man who looked at people like things he could own.
“Get her in.”
Jay stepped back.
Aries shoved free of Cin and Percy this time.
“No one’s touching her.”
The man laughed.
“You little punk—”
He grabbed Jay’s arm.
Hard.
Jay gasped.
Keifer moved without thinking.
So did Aries.
But Jay beat them both to it.
“Stop!”
Her scream cut through all of them.
She was crying now.
Not loudly.
Just tears spilling down her face as she shook her head frantically.
“Please,” she whispered, looking at Aries. At Percy. At Cin. At Keifer. “Please don’t.”
They froze.
Because Jay wasn’t asking to be saved.
She was begging them not to make it worse.
Keifer had never hated himself more.
Jay looked at him last.
And that look would haunt him forever.
Not because it was angry.
But because it held no anger at all.
Just devastation.
Disappointment.
The final death of trust.
You did this.
Not just today.
Not just with the lie.
You made me weak enough to hope.
Keifer took a step forward anyway.
“Jay, don’t go.”
Her laugh was so soft it barely sounded real.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”
That should have hurt.
Instead, it just felt deserved.
Jeana opened the car door.
Jay stood there for one trembling second.
The wind caught her hair.
The sun lit the tear tracks on her cheeks.
She looked heartbreakingly young.
Heartbreakingly tired.
Then she bent.
Picked up her fallen bag.
Straightened her shoulders.
Wiped her face.
And walked to the car herself.
Not because she was giving in.
But because Jay Jay Mariano had spent her whole life learning one thing:
if she couldn’t win—
she would at least choose the way she lost.
She got in without another word.
The door slammed shut.
Aries shouted her name.
Percy cursed.
Cin punched the gate hard enough to split his knuckles.
Keifer just stood there.
Unable to breathe.
Unable to move.
Watching the taillights disappear down the street.
Watching the girl he loved be taken away.
Watching the first real home he had ever found vanish into the dark.
And when the car was gone—
when the street was empty again—
Keifer finally broke.
He dropped to his knees on the pavement.
Blood still drying at the corner of his mouth.
Hands shaking so hard he couldn’t make fists.
And for the first time in years—
Keifer Watson cried.
