Cole:
She looked different.
Not physically—though she carried herself taller, like her spine had stiffened with steel. Her hair was pulled back, her steps steady, her eyes scanning forward as if nothing could knock her off balance. But something in her had shifted. She was no longer the quiet girl from orientation, or the one who hesitated during every line read in rehearsal. She wasn’t even the sad girl in the park I kissed, or the broken version of herself I held through sobs in my apartment.
She was all of them. And more.
Juliette had become something else entirely.
Untouchable.
And that scared the hell out of me.
I saw her crossing the quad from the other side of campus, just as I was heading toward practice. She didn’t see me—or maybe she did and just didn’t care. Either way, s
