Chapter 8: The Rumors Begin
304 Words
By Monday morning, everything changed.
Not between Luca and me—we were still texting late into the night, still meeting in quiet corners of campus where the world couldn’t see us—but around me. Around us.
Whispers followed me down the hallways.
“Isn’t that the girl with Luca Donovan?”
“I heard he picked her up on his bike last night.”
“She doesn’t look like his type.”
Their stares made my skin itch. I kept my head down, pretending not to hear, but inside, I was trembling.
Luca didn’t seem fazed. He never did. He leaned into his reputation like armor—untouchable, unbothered, untamed.
But I wasn’t built for this kind of attention.
After my literature lecture, I found him waiting outside the building, sitting on a bench like he didn’t care that half the campus was watching him.
Or me.
“You okay?” he asked as I sat beside him.
I nodded. “Everyone’s talking.”
He shrugged. “They always do.”
“But it’s different now. Because it’s about me.”
Luca looked at me then, his jaw tight. “I can stop this, Emma. I can back off, if it’s too much.”
The words stung more than I expected.
“Is that what you want?” I asked.
He didn’t answer right away. Instead, he reached out and gently tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. The way his fingers lingered on my cheek made me forget we were in public.
“No,” he said quietly. “It’s not.”
And just like that, I knew—I didn’t care what people said.
I wanted him. All of him.
The broken parts. The beautiful parts. The parts the world didn’t see.
Even if it came at a price.
- Writer
