I bought a notebook on Thursday. Black. Unlined. The kind with no branding on the cover – forgettable, the kind of thing that could sit on a desk and look like nothing.
It wasn't nothing.
I started writing on the first page in the parking lot of the bookstore with the engine still running and my coffee going cold in the cupholder. Not prose. Not feelings. Dates. Times. Facts.
February 14 – Bar. Rhys and I meet. Nobody knows yet. But within weeks of the deal going public, Caleb drops the expulsion half–truth like a grenade. The campaign starts.
March 3 – Fake dating visible on campus. Caleb sees us together publicly for weeks. Within 48 hours of the deal becoming obvious: anonymous gossip post about the tutoring arrangement appears on campus confessions page. Jade's move, but fed by inf
