HATING YOU WAS EASIER

JUST ONCE

The rest of the day dragged on.

Noah barely heard a word in any of his classes. Sophia’s friends kept shooting him looks across the hallways…some smug, some pitying, all of them clearly already filled in on whatever version of the morning confrontation she had given them. By the time the final bell rang, he just wanted to get in his car and drive until the noise in his head quieted.

She was waiting for him again.

Sophia stood beside the Range Rover with her arms wrapped around herself, looking smaller than usual. When she saw him, she straightened and forced a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“Can we talk?” she asked. “Please. Just five minutes.”

He almost kept walking. Almost. Instead he stopped a few feet away and waited.

Sophia stepped closer. Her voice dropped. “My parents are in Zurich until Friday. The house is empty. I keep replaying this morning and I hate how it ended. I hate that you’re pulling away.” She reached out and curled her fingers into the front of his shirt. “Let me fix it. Properly. Tonight. No more talking. Just… us.”

Noah looked down at her. The smart thing would have been to say no again. To get in the car and leave. But the restless, hollow feeling that had been sitting in his chest for weeks flared hot, and for one weak second he wanted it gone,even if only for an hour.

“Okay,” he said.

Sophia’s eyes lit up. She didn’t give him time to change his mind. She slid into the passenger seat the second he unlocked the doors.

*****

Her house was silent and massive, all white stone and glass. Sophia didn’t bother with lights. She led him upstairs by the hand, fingers tight around his like she was afraid he might still disappear.

The moment the bedroom door shut, she kissed him.

It was hungry, almost desperate. Noah kissed her back, hands sliding under her blouse, pushing it up and off. She helped him, then reached for his shirt, yanking it over his head. Her bra came next. When his palms covered her bare breasts, she arched into the touch with a soft, broken sound.

“I’ve wanted this for so long,” she whispered against his mouth.

He didn’t answer. He walked her backward until the backs of her knees hit the mattress. She fell onto it and pulled him down with her. Clothes came off in a messy rush…her skirt, his jeans, the last scraps of fabric between them. When he finally settled between her thighs, Sophia was already breathing hard, eyes glassy.

Noah pushed into her in one slow thrust.

She gasped, nails digging into his shoulders. “F**k…Noah…”

He set a steady rhythm, hips rolling deep. Sophia moaned openly, legs wrapping around his waist, heels pressing into his lower back like she was trying to keep him inside her forever. The wet sound of their bodies filled the room. She kept saying his name, over and over, like a prayer, like if she said it enough times he might start feeling the same way she did.

He fu**ed her harder.

Sophia came first, crying out and clenching around him so tightly it dragged him over the edge with her. He buried himself deep and spilled inside her with a low, rough sound, face pressed into the side of her neck. For a few seconds there was only the sound of both of them trying to catch their breath.

Then the emptiness rushed back in.

Noah pulled out and rolled onto his back, staring at the ceiling. Sophia curled against his side immediately, one leg thrown over his, fingers tracing lazy circles on his chest.

“That was perfect,” she murmured, voice soft and satisfied. “Stay the night. We can go again later. I’ll make you breakfast in the morning.”

He sat up and reached for his boxers.

Sophia’s hand stilled. “Noah?”

“I can’t stay.” He kept his voice even. “Early morning.”

She sat up slowly, dragging the sheet over her breasts. The happy glow on her face flickered. “You’re leaving? Right now?”

“Yeah.”

Silence stretched. Then her voice turned sharp. “So that’s it? You get what you want and you just go?”

Noah pulled his shirt on and finally looked at her. “You offered. I said yes. Don’t make it into something it wasn’t.”

The hurt that flashed across her face was real this time. She laughed once, bitter and small. “You’re such a bastard.”

He didn’t argue. He finished dressing, pocketed his keys, and left the room without another word. Behind him he heard her say something else, but he was already halfway down the stairs.

He didn’t drive home. He ended up back at the nearly empty school parking lot instead, engine off, hands loose on the wheel while the sky turned dark blue. The restless feeling under his skin was worse now, not better.

That was when he saw her.Elena Voss.She sat on the low brick wall near the side entrance, backpack at her feet, phone lighting up her face. The scholarship girl. The one who had walked past him and Sophia that morning like they were nothing worth noticing.

She looked up when he got out of the car, then immediately looked back down like he wasn’t worth the effort of staring.

Noah told himself he was only walking toward the building to grab a notebook he’d forgotten. The fact that his path took him straight past her was a coincidence.

She spoke first, still not looking at him.

“Rough night?”

He stopped. “What?”

Elena finally lifted her eyes. In the yellow parking-lot lights they looked colder. “You’ve got that look. The one guys get when they’ve done something they already regret.” Her gaze flicked over him,messed-up hair, slightly wrinkled shirt, the faint scratch near his collarbone. “Don’t worry. I’m not asking for details.”

Heat crawled up the back of his neck. “Are you always this friendly to people you don’t know?”

“Only the ones who smell like someone else’s perfume and look like they just ran from a mistake.” She stood and swung her backpack onto one shoulder. “Sophia Ramirez spent half of lunch telling her friends she was going to ‘fix things’ with you after school. Guess she did.”

The accuracy of it pissed him off more than it should have.

“You don’t know s**t about me,” he said.

Elena’s mouth curved, not quite a smile. “I know enough. Guys like you are simple. Money. Nice car. Pretty face. You think the rest of the world is just here for your convenience.” She adjusted the strap of her bag. “I’ve met a hundred of you. You’re all the same.”

Something hot and defensive flared in his chest. “And girls like you are all perfect, I suppose.”

“No.” Her voice stayed calm, almost bored. “Girls like me just don’t get surprised when people turn out exactly as expected.”

She stepped past him, close enough that her shoulder nearly brushed his. The clean scent of mint trailed after her. Noah turned to watch her go, jaw clenched.

At the edge of the lot she glanced back once.

“Oh, and Reyes?” Her eyes glinted under the lights. “Next time you decide to use someone just to feel nothing, maybe don’t make it so obvious. It’s pathetic.”

Then she walked away, ponytail swinging, leaving him alone in the dark with the taste of Sophia still on his skin and a new, sharp dislike already settling under his ribs.

Hating Elena Voss, he decided, was going to be easy.