The corridor buzzed with whispers as Ananya slipped inside, hugging her books to her chest like armor. She could feel the stares, the half-hidden smirks, the curious glances. Each one burned.
Did you see that?She's the girl caught between them.Riyan's latest conquest, obviously.Aarav deserves better…
The words weren't spoken aloud, but she could hear them anyway—woven into every hushed voice, every laugh that wasn't meant for her but still cut like glass.
She pushed through the classroom door and dropped into her seat, forcing her hands to stay still. But her fingers trembled against the notebook.
Her mind replayed it again and again—the courtyard, the crowd, the way both boys had looked at her as if she was a prize to be claimed.
She hated it.She hated them.She hated herself most of all for caring.
A single tear slid down before she could stop it. She brushed it away furiously, her throat tight.
How had she gone from invisible to this? A mess of rumors, a name on everyone's lips. The girl trapped between the perfect gentleman and the dangerous rebel.
Her phone buzzed.
Riyan:You okay?
She stared at the screen, pulse stuttering. Just two words, but they lit up her chest with anger and something far more dangerous.
Her fingers hovered. She wanted to throw the phone, to scream at him for pulling her into his orbit, for making her feel things she had no business feeling.
But another message came.
Riyan:Don't listen to them. None of them matter.
Her chest ached. Because he was wrong. They did matter. Their whispers mattered. Her reputation mattered. Her parents, her family, her carefully built image—it all mattered.
And yet, deep inside, she wished she could believe him. That the world could vanish, leaving only the way his eyes had burned when he looked at her, as if she wasn't invisible, as if she mattered.
A knock jolted her from her spiral. Aarav stood at the doorway, his expression careful, protective. Too many eyes turned to watch.
"Ananya," he said softly, "can we talk?"
Her stomach twisted. Two different boys. Two different worlds. And the entire campus watching her next move.
She didn't answer. She couldn't.Because the truth was tearing her apart:She didn't know who she was angrier at—Riyan, Aarav, or herself.