Snowed In,Hearts Out.

CHAPTER 11- THE WEIGHT OF TRUTH.

Jake’s POV

He never meant for it to go this far.

Not with Lila. Not with the way she laughed when she forgot to be shy. Not with the way her eyes searched his face like she was trying to read every word he hadn’t said.

And definitely not with the truth he’d been hiding from her.

Jake sat on the bleachers of the empty gym, fists clenched. The lights were dimmed, the air still carrying echoes of the school event earlier. Music. Laughter. Lila, smiling in that red dress, dancing without fear.

He wished he could freeze that moment. Keep her in it. Before everything crashed.

He heard her soft footsteps before he saw her. Lila climbed the steps and sat beside him, breathing in the silence.

“You’ve been distant all evening,” she said quietly.

He didn’t answer right away.

Then, like ripping off a bandage, he whispered, “There’s something I need to tell you. And after that, you might hate me.”

Her breath caught.

Jake looked straight ahead. “Before we got close, the guys… we had this dare. A stupid, toxic thing. They dared me to talk to the ‘new quiet girl’ and get her to fall for me.”

Lila said nothing.

Jake’s voice cracked. “At first, it was just a game. I didn’t even want to do it. But then… I met you. And suddenly, none of it felt like a game anymore.”

He turned to her.

“But I never told you. And now it’s too late to pretend it didn’t start like that.”

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Lila’s POV

She couldn’t move.

Her heart was pounding so loudly it drowned out everything else. The lights. The cold air. The boy next to her.

She stared at Jake, her mouth dry. “So… was any of it real?”

Jake opened his mouth. Then closed it. And that said everything.

Lila stood up slowly.

A sharp ache twisted in her chest—anger, embarrassment, heartbreak all crashing into each other.

“All this time,” she whispered, eyes stinging. “I told you things I’ve never told anyone. I trusted you, Jake.”

He stood, reaching out. “Lila, I swear, I never meant to hurt you. I fell for you. That wasn’t the dare. That was me.”

She backed away.

“Then you should’ve told me the moment it stopped being a dare.”

She walked down the steps, the gym suddenly too cold, too wide, too full of memories she didn’t want anymore.

Behind her, Jake called her name.

But she didn’t look back.