Seven Dares To Fall

Front Row Seat

The reply came back almost instantly.

Unknown: uh who is this

Evelyn stared at the screen, heat crawling up her neck. Right. Of course. She'd just impulse-texted a complete stranger at 9 p.m. because her boyfriend was busy laughing with her childhood bully and she'd had exactly one wrong-number text saved in her phone like it meant something.

This was humiliating on an entirely new level.

Evelyn: sorry, wrong number. ignore this

Unknown: wait

Unknown: is this jaxon's lab partner? the coffee girl?

Evelyn's stomach dropped straight through the floor.

Evelyn: how does EVERYONE know about the coffee thing

Unknown: babe you're famous. this is noah btw, jaxon's best friend. you texted the group chat i accidentally added you to on monday

Unknown: you good? that text sounded rough

Evelyn hesitated, thumb hovering over the screen. She didn't know this person. Had no reason to say anything real to him.

And yet — something about the fact that a total stranger had noticed, had actually asked, when her actual boyfriend hadn't managed it once all week, cracked something open in her that she wasn't ready to examine.

Evelyn: rough week. sorry for bothering you

Noah: you're not bothering me. for what it's worth, jaxon mentioned you. said you don't talk like everyone else here

Evelyn blinked at the screen three times, like the words might rearrange themselves into something less confusing.

Jaxon mentioned you.

Evelyn: he talks about me?

The reply took longer this time.

Noah: he doesn't talk about anyone. so. yeah

Evelyn set the phone down on her chest and stared at the ceiling for a long time after that, Liam's unanswered text sitting cold in a different thread entirely.

She should have known the universe wasn't done with her yet.

The next morning, Evelyn walked into the dining hall already braced for stares — she'd gotten used to those by now, a week and a half into becoming campus's most-discussed cautionary tale. What she wasn't braced for was Sienna Monroe standing directly in her path, arms crossed, a small crowd already gathering like they somehow knew a scene was about to happen.

"There she is," Sienna said, loud enough to carry. "The girl of the hour."

Evelyn kept walking, tray in hand. "Not now, Sienna."

"Oh, I think now's perfect." Sienna stepped sideways, blocking her path with practiced ease, like she'd choreographed this exact moment. "I heard you had quite the night last night. Stood up at dinner and everything. Must've been humiliating."

Evelyn's face went hot. How did she already know that?

"That's none of your business."

"It kind of is, though." Sienna's smile sharpened. "Considering I'm the reason Liam was late."

The crowd around them had grown, phones already sliding out of pockets, that familiar hum of anticipation Evelyn had come to dread.

"We were just talking," Sienna continued, voice pitched perfectly for maximum audience. "He needed someone to vent to. About how exhausting it's been, dating someone who cares more about her five-year plan than actually being present. His words, not mine."

The words landed exactly where they were meant to.

Evelyn's throat tightened, but she refused — refused — to let it show. Not here. Not in front of half the freshman class and their phones.

"If Liam has a problem with me," she said, voice steadier than she felt, "he can tell me himself. Not send his messenger to do it in a dining hall."

A ripple of oooh went through the small crowd.

Sienna's expression flickered, just barely, before smoothing back into that same unbothered smile. "Cute. Almost believable. But we both know what this is really about, don't we? You spend one week around Jaxon Hayes and suddenly you're brave enough to talk back? That's adorable, honestly."

"This has nothing to do with Jaxon."

"Doesn't it?" Sienna tilted her head, delighted. "Everyone's talking about it. Poor little planner girl, in over her head with two guys at once. Must be exhausting, keeping up with all that attention you clearly don't know what to do with."

Evelyn's grip tightened on her tray.

She had a comeback loaded — something sharp, something true — and she never got the chance to say it, because that's exactly when the room shifted.

Not loudly. Not dramatically.

Just a change in the air, the way a room changes when someone walks in that people are afraid of.

Jaxon.

He didn't say anything at first. Just walked in, saw the crowd, saw Evelyn standing in the middle of it with her tray gripped like a shield, and something in his expression went very, very still.

Sienna's smile didn't waver, but something behind her eyes did.

"Jaxon! Perfect timing," she said sweetly. "We were just talking about you, actually."

"Were you," Jaxon said. Flat. Not a question.

He walked straight past Sienna like she hadn't spoken at all, stopping beside Evelyn instead, close enough that the crowd's whispering dropped an entire octave.

"You okay?" he asked, quiet, just for her.

Evelyn nodded, too stunned to trust her own voice.

Jaxon turned back to Sienna, and whatever expression crossed his face made even her take half a step back.

"You've got a real hobby, don't you," he said. "Cornering people who can't corner you back."

"I was just having a conversation—"

"With an audience." He glanced pointedly at the phones still raised around them. "Funny how that works."

Sienna's jaw tightened, the first genuine crack Evelyn had seen in her all week. "This isn't your business, Jaxon."

"Made it my business the second you decided the dining hall needed a show." His voice didn't rise. It didn't need to. "We're done here."

For a moment, nobody moved.

Then Sienna forced a laugh, tossed her hair, and said, "Wow. Didn't realize you two were already at the protective-boyfriend stage. Guess the rumors write themselves." She turned, throwing one last look over her shoulder at Evelyn. "Careful. You're playing a game you don't understand the rules to."

She walked off, crowd parting for her like she'd planned that too.

The dining hall slowly went back to normal — phones lowering, conversations resuming, the whole spectacle folding itself away like it had never happened.

Evelyn finally exhaled.

"Thank you," she said quietly. "You didn't have to do that."

Jaxon shrugged, already turning to grab a tray like the last ninety seconds hadn't happened. "She does this. Finds someone new every semester. Figured you could use the assist."

"Still. Thank you."

He nodded once, and for a second — just a second — something almost like a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth before he caught it and smoothed it away.

"Don't get used to it," he said. "I don't usually do that."

"Do what?"

He was already walking toward the food line, but he tossed the answer back over his shoulder like it cost him something to say it out loud.

"Care."

Evelyn stood there, tray forgotten in her hands, watching him go — and didn't notice, until her phone buzzed again in her pocket, that Sienna's parting words weren't the only thing she should have been worried about.

Liam: we need to talk. tonight. it's important