Seven Dares To Fall

The Talk

Evelyn arrived at the courtyard bench ten minutes early, which should have told her something about how nervous she actually was.

Liam showed up fifteen minutes late.

No apology. Just dropped onto the bench beside her like the last week hadn't happened, like he hadn't stood her up, like she hadn't watched him laugh with Sienna close enough to touch.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey." Evelyn kept her voice even. "You said we needed to talk."

"Yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck, not quite looking at her. "So, people are talking. About you and Jaxon."

Of course that's where this started.

"There's nothing to talk about," Evelyn said. "We're lab partners."

"That's not what it looks like."

"What does it look like, Liam?"

He finally met her eyes, and something in his expression made her stomach twist — not guilt, exactly. Something closer to annoyance, like she was the inconvenience in this conversation.

"It looks like you've been spending a lot of time with a guy everyone's scared of, while your actual boyfriend's been trying to figure out why you've gotten so distant."

Evelyn's jaw dropped slightly. "I've gotten distant? You stood me up for dinner. I saw you with Sienna, Liam. Laughing. Sitting close. And you didn't even mention it."

"That's different."

"How is that different?"

"Because it's Sienna," he said, like that explained everything. "We've known each other forever. It's not like that."

"It looked exactly like that."

"You're twisting it." His voice sharpened, just slightly, just enough that a few students nearby glanced over before looking away. "This is what I'm talking about. You've gotten paranoid. Suspicious. Ever since the Jaxon thing started."

Evelyn felt her face go hot, the old familiar instinct to apologize, to smooth things over, to believe she'd overreacted rising in her throat before she caught it and shoved it back down.

"Don't do that," she said quietly. "Don't make this about me being paranoid when I watched it happen with my own eyes."

Liam exhaled hard, like she was the one being unreasonable. "Look. I didn't come here to fight. I came here because people are talking, and it's embarrassing, and I need you to fix it."

"Fix it," Evelyn repeated, flat.

"Stop hanging around him. Switch lab partners if you have to. I don't care how. Just — make it stop. For both our sakes."

Something cold settled in Evelyn's chest.

"You're not even going to ask if there's a reason I haven't switched partners. You're not going to ask what actually happened at orientation, or in lab, or any of it. You just want it to disappear because it's inconvenient for your reputation."

"That's not—"

"It is, though." Evelyn stood, bag slung over her shoulder, hands shaking slightly in a way she hoped he couldn't see. "You didn't ask if I was okay once this whole week. Not after the coffee thing. Not after Sienna cornered me in the dining hall in front of half the school. The first real thing you've said to me in days is a demand to fix your image."

Liam's jaw tightened. "You're overreacting."

"Maybe." Evelyn's voice cracked slightly on the word, but she kept going. "Or maybe I'm finally seeing something I should've seen a long time ago."

She walked away before he could answer, before the tears building behind her eyes could fall in front of him, in front of anyone who might be watching this unfold the way half of campus seemed to watch everything lately.

She didn't go back to the dorm. Couldn't — not yet, not with Chloe's inevitable questions and the exhausting effort of explaining everything all over again.

Instead, her feet carried her toward the library, toward the quiet corner on the third floor she'd claimed as hers during the first week, back when her biggest problem had been figuring out the dining hall swipe system.

The library was nearly empty this late. Just the hum of fluorescent lights and the occasional creak of old shelving settling.

She found her usual table, dropped into the chair, and finally let herself breathe.

That's when she heard it. Footsteps, slow, unhurried, coming from the stacks behind her.

Evelyn turned, half-expecting a janitor, and found Jaxon instead, a stack of books balanced against one hip, looking equally surprised to see her there.

"You're here late," he said.

"Could say the same about you."

He set the books down on the table across from hers without being asked, sliding into the seat like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I'm always here late. You're the new variable."

Evelyn laughed, a small, tired sound that surprised even her. "Guess I needed somewhere quiet."

"Rough talk with the boyfriend?"

Her head snapped up. "How did you—"

"You've got the same look you had after the dining hall thing." A faint, almost imperceptible pause. "Figured it wasn't the first fight this week."

Evelyn didn't bother denying it. "He wants me to switch lab partners."

Something flickered across Jaxon's face — gone almost before it arrived. "And are you going to?"

"No," she said, and surprised herself with how fast the answer came, how certain it sounded even to her own ears. "I'm not switching because he's embarrassed by rumors he helped create."

Jaxon studied her for a long moment, something unreadable behind his eyes. "You're not what I expected," he said finally.

"What did you expect?"

"Someone who'd fold the second things got complicated." He leaned back slightly. "You didn't fold at the party. You didn't fold in the dining hall. And you're not folding now."

"Should I be taking that as a compliment?"

"Take it however you want." A ghost of a smile, there and gone. "I don't hand those out often."

Evelyn felt her face warm, and quickly busied herself pulling out a textbook she had no intention of actually opening.

They sat in comfortable silence for a while after that — the kind that didn't need filling, the kind she hadn't realized she was starving for until she had it.

It was almost ten when Jaxon's phone buzzed against the table, screen lighting up where she could see it from across the table before he flipped it face-down.

But not before Evelyn caught the name on the screen.

Dad — County Correctional

Jaxon's whole body went rigid.

He didn't say anything. Just stood, gathered his books in one quick, controlled motion, and said, "I have to go."

"Jaxon—"

"I'll see you in lab." His voice was tight, clipped, already retreating somewhere she couldn't follow. "Thanks for the company."

He was gone before she could say another word, footsteps fast and uneven down the stairwell, leaving Evelyn alone at the table with a half-open textbook and a name burned into her memory she was never supposed to see.

Dad — County Correctional.

So it was true. Every rumor, every whisper in the hallway, every careful deflection — all of it had been circling something real the entire time.

Evelyn's phone buzzed in her pocket.

She expected Liam. Braced for another round of demands.

Instead, it was Noah.

Noah: hey, weird question — has jaxon seemed off to you tonight?

Evelyn stared at the screen, heart pounding.

Evelyn: why, what's going on?

The three dots blinked for a long, agonizing moment before Noah's reply finally landed.

Noah: his dad's hearing got moved up. tomorrow morning. nobody expected it this soon