Harper lay sprawled across her bed, laptop balanced on her stomach, a half-empty mug of coffee warming her palm. The dorm was cloaked in quiet, save for the occasional creak of the radiator and the soft hum of Tyla's music bleeding faintly through the wall.
Her phone buzzed again. And again.
She groaned, dragging it closer. 25 new requests.Her notifications bar was glowing like Christmas lights.
She scrolled through them lazily — most were strangers with usernames she didn't recognize. Some were classmates she'd barely spoken to. All of them with the same sugary tone:
"Hey girl, we should totally hang out sometime 💕"…
"You seem so cool! Let's be friends 🤩"
Her lip curled. "Oh, now they want to be friends?" she muttered, taking a sip of coffee. "Where were you last semester when I was invisible?"
She set the mug on the nightstand and pulled her laptop closer, opening Instagram in hopes of distraction. But even there — her feed was buzzing. Posts, shares, and one particular message blinking at the top of her inbox:
Omg, Harper Reed?? i'm such a big fan 💗
She nearly choked on her sip. "Fan?!"
Right on cue, the washroom door creaked open and Tyla leaned in, already in her pyjamas, her hair in a messy bun. "Why are you yelling like someone proposed to you?"
Harper held up her phone helplessly. "I apparently have a "fan" now."
Tyla snorted, crossing the room and hopping onto the bed beside her. "Oh no. Not just a fan. You have an audience,babe. Ever since you kissed Mister Tall- blonde -and-Broody, half the campus wants a piece of you."
Heat crawled up Harper's neck instantly. "Shut up. Don't say it like that."
"What? Kiss?" Tyla grinned, deliberately slow, watching Harper squirm.
"Tyla—"
"—with Logan Hayes."
Harper buried her face into her pillow with a groan, muffling her voice. "It wasn't even—ugh, it wasn't real"
Tyla raised a brow, snatching Harper's phone to scroll through the endless messages. "Mm-hmm. Well, fake or not, the whole school is shipping it. "
"What do you mean?"Harper asked .
With a smirk, Tyla opened the tiktok, and a few seconds later, she spoke.
"Look at this—" she shoved the screen in Harper's face. "There's literally a fan edit already."
Harper peeked, her stomach flipping when she saw her own face beside Logan's, slowed, and replayed with sparkly filters and dramatic music.
She buried herself deeper into the pillow. "I hate this campus !"
Tyla chuckled, patting her back. "No, you don't. You just hate that your heart is racing every time his name pops up."
"I am not—"
"Yes, you are."
Harper didn't argue. She just let the silence stretch, her coffee going cold on the nightstand, her phone buzzing endlessly on the blanket.
Because Tyla was right.
Harper finally sat up, shutting the laptop with a snap. The glow from the screen vanished, leaving only the dim fairy lights strung along her wall. She toyed with the rim of her mug before whispering, "He said it was nothing."
Tyla blinked. "Who? Logan?"
Harper nodded, trying to laugh it off, but her voice cracked. "Yeah. Like the kiss meant nothing. Like I'm just some… pawn to make people believe whatever story he's selling." She stared at her phone, her reflection ghosted in the dark screen. "And the stupid part is—I thought it meant something. Even for a second."
Her words tangled in her throat, half bitterness, half ache.
Tyla's smirk faded. She slid closer, her arm draping around Harper's shoulders. "Hey, don't do that to yourself. You're not some side character in his little drama. You're Harper freaking Reed."
But Harper's laugh was hollow. "You didn't see my dad earlier." She looked down at her trembling fingers. "He was so… disappointed. Said all I do is make things worse. Like I'm walking trouble."
Her chest tightened, her lips trembling despite the brave front she tried to hold. "I just—I wanted him to be proud of me for once. But all he sees is a mess who kissed the wrong guy."
Silence filled the dorm, heavy and sharp. Then Tyla, without a word, pulled Harper into a full hug, tight and steady. Harper stiffened at first, then melted into it, burying her face against her best friend's shoulder.
"You're not a mess," Tyla murmured, stroking her hair. "You're human. You're allowed to feel things, even if they're messy. And your dad? He'll deal. That's his job. Yours is to breathe, survive, and maybe…" she leaned back enough to meet Harper's eyes, "let yourself fall for someone, even if it scares you."
Harper's throat burned, but she nodded, forcing a watery smile. "I don't think I'm allowed to fall for Logan."
Tyla smirked, brushing away the tear Harper didn't even notice had slipped. "Allowed or not… looks like you already did."
No, I can't "
She whispered.