Chapter Five-Lies Between Us
1243 Words
Aleeyah’s POV
Sleep didn’t come easy that night.
Every time Aleeyah closed her eyes, that anonymous message replayed in her mind.
It wasn’t Jaxon. Be careful who you trust.
She wanted to ignore it, pretend it was some prank. But something about the tone — calm, deliberate — didn’t feel random.
And if it wasn’t him… then who?
By morning, her nerves were raw.
Tessa noticed.
“Okay, what’s going on with you?” Tessa asked, chewing on her cereal.
Aleeyah forced a smile. “Nothing. Just tired.”
“Liar,” Tessa said flatly. “You’ve been staring at your phone since six a.m. Did someone text you?”
Aleeyah hesitated. For a moment, she thought about showing her the message. But something held her back. Maybe it was paranoia — or maybe, for the first time, she wasn’t sure she could trust even her roommate completely.
She stuffed her phone in her pocket. “It’s nothing important.”
Tessa frowned but didn’t push. “Okay. But whatever it is, don’t let it eat you alive, okay?”
Aleeyah nodded — but the truth was, it already was.
---
That afternoon, Aleeyah went to the Media Lab, pretending to work on a project.
But she wasn’t focused. She opened the student forum instead, scrolling back through every comment on that cursed post.
And then she noticed something.
A username — FalconFan_07.
They’d commented early, before the post blew up.
And they’d written: “Wouldn’t be the first time. Heard he’s already talking to her.”
Her heart skipped. The phrasing was familiar.
She remembered a week ago, at lunch, when Tessa’s friend Mia had said almost the same words — “Wouldn’t be the first time, right?” — while scrolling through her phone.
Could it be a coincidence? Maybe.
But what if it wasn’t?
Aleeyah saved the screenshot before she could talk herself out of it.
---
Jaxon’s POV
The gym had always been his place to escape — but lately, it felt like another battlefield.
Everywhere he went, the whispers followed.
“Did you hear?” “He’s denying it.” “Typical Jaxon move.”
He’d learned to tune them out — except when they involved her.
That, he couldn’t ignore.
He was mid-shot when Coach Reynolds walked in, clipboard under his arm.
“Miller,” he said gruffly. “You’ve been off your game this week. Everything okay?”
“Yeah,” Jaxon lied.
The coach studied him for a moment. “You know, sometimes silence makes things worse. If you didn’t do it, say so.”
Jaxon met his eyes. “Doesn’t matter what I say. People believe what they want.”
Reynolds sighed. “Then give them something better to believe.”
The words stuck with him long after the coach left.
---
That evening, Jaxon was in the campus café, scrolling through messages from friends — most of them unhelpful.
Then one caught his eye. It was from Tyler.
“Bro, I might’ve found something. Meet me behind the bleachers.”
He went.
Tyler was waiting, hoodie up, looking unusually serious. “Okay, this stays between us. Promise?”
“Yeah.”
Tyler handed him a printout. “This is from the student server logs. I asked a friend in IT. The post came from a dorm Wi-Fi network — Maple Hall.”
Jaxon froze. “That’s… Aleeyah’s dorm.”
“Yeah,” Tyler said grimly. “And guess who else lives there? Mia. Tessa. Half the girls who were at that club meeting.”
A cold realization hit him.
It hadn’t come from his team.
It had come from hers.
He clenched his jaw. “If it’s someone close to her—”
“Then she’s in deeper trouble than we thought,” Tyler finished.
---
Aleeyah’s POV
By evening, she was pacing her room, phone in hand, debating whether to text Jaxon.
She hated the idea. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that this was bigger than just a rumor.
Tessa walked in mid-thought.
“Hey,” she said casually. “You missed dinner. Everything okay?”
Aleeyah glanced at her, her heartbeat quickening. “Yeah. Just… distracted.”
Tessa smiled. “Are you sure? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“I’m fine,” Aleeyah said quickly. Too quickly.
Tessa studied her for a moment before nodding. “Okay. Well, if you need me, I’ll be in Mia’s room.”
The door closed behind her, and Aleeyah exhaled.
Something didn’t feel right.
The moment Tessa mentioned Mia’s name, her gut twisted again.
She opened the screenshot on her phone — that same username, FalconFan_07. The profile picture was nothing but a blue circle. But the timestamp matched the exact time Mia had been on her phone in the cafeteria that day.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she saved another screenshot — this time of Mia’s old Twitter account.
Same username.
“God,” Aleeyah whispered. “It was her.”
---
Jaxon’s POV
He didn’t expect to see her that night.
He was walking across the quad, hoodie pulled up, when he spotted Aleeyah standing alone under one of the streetlights, holding her phone like it weighed ten pounds.
She looked up as he approached — startled, but not afraid.
“What are you doing out here?” he asked softly.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
He smiled faintly. “Couldn’t sleep.”
She hesitated. Then, quietly, “Me neither.”
He noticed her fingers tighten around her phone.
“You okay?”
She hesitated. “I think I know who started it.”
That caught him off guard. “What?”
She handed him her phone, screen glowing. “Look.”
He read the username, then glanced at her, stunned. “You’re sure?”
“She used the same name before. And she’s friends with Tessa. She probably overheard something at the meeting and twisted it.”
Jaxon swore under his breath. “That explains everything.”
For a moment, silence settled between them — heavy, shared.
Aleeyah crossed her arms, voice trembling. “I just don’t understand why. I didn’t do anything.”
He looked at her — really looked. “People don’t need a reason to hurt someone. Sometimes, they just do.”
Her eyes shimmered faintly in the lamplight. “I hate that this even happened.”
He stepped closer — not touching, just close enough that she could feel the warmth of his presence.
“I know,” he said quietly. “But you’re not alone in it.”
She looked up, surprised by the gentleness in his tone. “Why are you doing this, Jaxon?”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Maybe because I wish someone had believed me once.”
Something in his voice cracked then — just a little — and it made her chest ache.
She didn’t know what to say, so she didn’t.
They just stood there, under the quiet rain beginning to fall, two people caught in a storm that wasn’t of their making.
---
When Aleeyah finally went back to her dorm, her heart felt heavier — but her fear felt lighter.
Because for the first time, she didn’t see Jaxon as the rumor said he was.
She saw him for what he really was — someone broken in familiar ways.
And maybe… that was what scared her the most.
- Writer
