Chapter 1
People still talked about it like it was funny.
That was the worst part.
Not the video itself.
Not the whispers.
Not even the way strangers still looked at her sometimes like they remembered every second.
It was the laughing.
The endless, relentless laughing.
Even now.
Three years later.
Mya Bennett stood in front of her bathroom mirror at six-thirty in the morning, curling mascara onto her lashes while rain hammered against the tiny apartment window beside her.
Her mother was already screaming at someone on the phone in the kitchen.
Again.
“You think I’m stupid?” her mother snapped. “I know exactly what you’re doing—”
Cupboards slammed.
Mya closed her eyes for one second.
Just one.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Senior year.
One more year and she was gone.
That was the only thought that got her through mornings like this.
One more year.
Her phone buzzed against the sink counter.
Kate: u alive?
Mya smirked faintly.
Barely.
Kate: wear the black jeans today
if i have to suffer through chemistry, at least let me look at something pretty
Mya: you’re deeply concerning
Kate: and yet lovable
Another shout exploded from the kitchen.
Mya’s shoulders tightened instantly.
“You ruined my life, Darren!”
Silence.
Then quieter.
More dangerous.
“I should’ve known better than to trust you.”
Mya stared at herself in the mirror.
She looked tired already.
Dark hoodie. Messy hair. Guarded eyes.
No one at Rosewood High remembered who she used to be before freshman year.
Before the party.
Before Cody Hayes.
Now she was just the girl from the video.
The girl everyone had laughed at.
The girl who recovered too quietly for anyone to notice she never really recovered at all.
Her mother’s voice cracked again.
Mya grabbed her backpack and left before the fighting could swallow the apartment whole.
—
Rosewood High looked beautiful in the rain.
That was the annoying thing about rich schools.
Even miserable places looked cinematic.
The massive brick buildings glistened beneath gray skies. Expensive cars lined the parking lot. Football banners snapped violently in the wind.
And right there in the center of everything—
Cody Hayes.
Of course.
Leaning against his black truck like the universe had personally designed him to ruin lives.
Football jacket. Wet dark hair. Sharp jawline. Lazy arrogance.
Surrounded by people.
Always surrounded by people.
Girls laughed too hard around him. Guys watched him like he hung the moon.
Mya hated that she understood why.
He looked dangerous in the way storms did.
Beautiful until they destroyed something.
Kate appeared beside her under a shared umbrella.
“Oh good,” Kate muttered. “Satan’s here early.”
Mya snorted softly.
Across the parking lot, Cody glanced up.
And immediately saw her.
Every single time.
Like his body recognized hers before his brain could stop it.
His expression shifted instantly.
Mocking amusement.
Mya’s stomach twisted with automatic irritation.
“Don’t,” Kate warned quietly.
“Don’t what?”
“Start something before first period.”
Too late.
Cody was already walking toward them.
Rain slid down the sleeves of his letterman jacket as students parted around him instinctively.
Jaxon Reed walked beside him, grinning at literally everything as usual.
Jaxon was chaos wrapped in expensive cologne and pretty-boy smiles.
Cody was worse.
Because Cody looked calm when he destroyed people.
“Well,” Cody drawled once he reached them. “If it isn’t my favorite nightmare.”
Mya smiled coldly.
“If you’re trying to flirt, maybe get tested for brain damage first.”
Jaxon barked a laugh.
Cody’s eyes flickered.
Briefly amused.
Briefly dangerous.
Kate groaned dramatically. “It’s eight in the morning. Can you two postpone the sexual tension until after caffeine?”
“Ew,” Mya said instantly.
Cody smirked.
“There’s the hostility I missed over summer.”
“You should’ve missed me harder.”
“Oh, I tried.”
That stupid smile.
That stupid, devastating smile.
Mya hated how effortlessly he wore confidence.
Like cruelty had never cost him anything.
Like freshman year had never happened.
Rainwater soaked through her sneakers as she stepped around him.
His hand caught her wrist suddenly.
Not hard.
But enough.
Electricity shot violently up her arm.
Both of them froze.
The air changed.
It always did when they touched.
Mya yanked free instantly.
“Don’t touch me.”
Something unreadable crossed his face.
Then disappeared beneath arrogance again.
“Relax, Bennett. You had something in your hair.”
“I’d rather be bald.”
Jaxon laughed again.
Kate rolled her eyes. “You’re both exhausting.”
But Mya was already walking away.
Heart beating too fast.
She could still feel his hand on her skin.
God.
She hated him.
—
The hallway buzzed with senior-year energy.
College applications. Football season. Prom committees already starting drama in September because apparently teenagers were clinically insane.
Mya kept her head down near her locker.
Not because she was weak.
Because attention at Rosewood was dangerous.
Especially hers.
“Yo,” someone whispered nearby.
“Is that her?”
Another voice.
“That video was brutal.”
Heat flooded her chest instantly.
Three years.
Three fucking years and people still talked about it.
Mya slammed her locker shut harder than intended.
The freshmen nearby startled.
Good.
She started toward class—
Then stopped cold.
Because someone had taped a printed screenshot onto her locker.
A photo.
Old.
Humiliating.
Freshman year.
Mya at that party.
Wide-eyed. Mortified. Seconds before the entire room started laughing.
Her throat closed instantly.
Around her, students slowed.
Watching.
Always watching.
And in thick black marker across the photo:
STILL EASY.
Something ugly twisted inside her ribs.
Not sadness.
Not embarrassment.
Rage.
Pure rage.
“Jesus,” Kate whispered beside her. “Mya—”
Mya ripped the paper down violently.
Her hands shook.
Not because she was going to cry.
She learned a long time ago never to cry at school.
Predators smelled blood.
“Who did it?” Kate demanded.
Mya already knew.
Not specifically.
But generally.
Football crowd.
Popular crowd.
The people who worshipped Cody Hayes and treated cruelty like entertainment.
“Forget it,” Mya muttered.
But then—
A familiar voice behind her.
“Well that’s creative.”
Everything inside her went still.
Cody.
Of course.
He stood a few feet away holding textbooks loosely in one hand.
His expression unreadable.
Students nearby went silent instantly.
Waiting.
Mya folded the crumpled paper in her fist slowly.
“You think this is funny?”
“No.”
“Really? Because your friends seem entertained.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
“They’re not my friends.”
“That’s adorable, considering they spend half their lives following you around.”
A few nearby students shifted awkwardly.
Cody stepped closer.
Too close.
“You think I told someone to do that?”
Mya laughed once.
Sharp.
Humorless.
“I think you don’t stop them because watching me get humiliated has always been your favorite hobby.”
Something dangerous flashed in his eyes then.
Not anger.
Something darker.
Guilt.
It vanished quickly.
“You still holding onto freshman year, Bennett?”
The hallway went silent.
Kate muttered, “Oh my God…”
Mya stared at him.
“You mean the night you filmed me getting publicly humiliated while everyone laughed?”
Cody’s face hardened instantly.
“I didn’t film it.”
“But you started it.”
Neither moved.
The tension between them felt alive.
Students openly stared now.
This was entertainment at Rosewood.
Their hatred had become school mythology.
Cody leaned closer slightly.
“You know what your problem is?”
Mya smiled coldly.
“Enlighten me.”
“You act like you’re the only person who remembers that night.”
For one split second—
His voice sounded almost angry at himself.
Then the bell rang.
The moment shattered instantly.
Students surged through the hallway.
Noise crashed back in.
Cody stepped away first.
Back to detached arrogance.
“See you around, Bennett.”
Mya’s pulse hammered painfully as she watched him disappear into the crowd.
Kate exhaled slowly beside her.
“That boy wants to either kiss you or kill you.”
Mya grabbed her books harder.
“Hopefully the second one.”
But the lie tasted strange in her mouth.
—
Lunch period was worse.
It always was.
Rosewood’s cafeteria operated like a kingdom.
Athletes at the center. Rich kids orbiting around them. Everyone else trying not to drown socially.
Mya sat across from Kate near the windows.
Rain still battered the glass outside.
“Okay,” Kate said carefully. “We need to discuss the psychotic hallway tension.”
“We really don’t.”
“You two looked two seconds away from ripping each other’s clothes off.”
Mya choked on her drink.
“Oh my God.”
“I’m serious.”
“He’s a narcissistic asshole.”
Kate shrugged. “Hot narcissistic asshole.”
“Traitor.”
“Accurate observer.”
Mya rolled her eyes and looked away—
Straight toward Cody’s table.
Mistake.
He was already looking at her.
Of course he was.
Jaxon said something beside him that made several football players laugh, but Cody barely reacted.
His eyes stayed locked on hers.
Like he was trying to start a fight from across the cafeteria.
Or finish one.
Mya looked away first.
Annoyed instantly by that fact.
Kate noticed.
Smirked knowingly.
“I hate your face,” Mya informed her.
“Mm-hmm.”
Then suddenly—
A carton of milk exploded across Mya’s table.
Cold liquid splashed across her hoodie, books, and lap.
The cafeteria erupted in laughter.
Mya froze.
Across the room, one of the football players grinned.
“Oops.”
Humiliation crashed through her instantly.
Hot.
Sharp.
Familiar.
Her chest tightened painfully as laughter echoed around her again—
Just like freshman year.
Just like that party.
Kate stood up immediately. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
But Mya barely heard her.
Because Cody had stood up too.
The entire cafeteria quieted slightly.
Cody stared across the room at his teammate.
Expression lethal.
“What the fuck was that?”
The guy laughed nervously. “Relax, man. It was a joke.”
Cody moved fast.
His chair slammed backward hard enough to screech across tile.
“Does she look like she’s laughing?”
Silence.
Real silence this time.
The football player’s confidence faltered instantly.
Mya stared at Cody in shock.
He looked furious.
Actually furious.
Not amused.
Not detached.
Furious.
The teammate scoffed weakly. “Why do you care?”
Cody’s voice dropped dangerously low.
“I said apologize.”
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Mya’s heart slammed violently against her ribs.
Because suddenly every eye in the cafeteria wasn’t on her humiliation anymore.
It was on Cody Hayes defending her.
Which made even less sense.
The teammate muttered something under his breath before grabbing his tray and leaving entirely.
The tension remained.
Heavy.
Sharp.
Cody looked toward Mya then.
And for one impossible second—
He looked regretful.
Like he remembered every horrible thing he’d ever done to her all at once.
Mya stood abruptly.
“I don’t need your help.”
His gaze hardened instantly again.
“Good for you.”
She grabbed her soaked backpack.
Hands shaking.
Humiliation and anger and confusion clawed violently through her chest.
Because this was the problem with Cody Hayes.
He could ruin her.
Humiliate her.
Make her hate herself.
And somehow still be the only person in the room who looked ready to burn the world down when someone else hurt her.
Mya pushed past him hard enough for their shoulders to collide.
Electricity snapped between them again.
Neither acknowledged it.
But both felt it.
She left the cafeteria with her pulse racing and humiliation burning beneath her skin.
Behind her, the entire room exploded into whispers.
And Cody watched her go with a look on his face that no one there understood.
Not even him.
