"Hey, bitch!"Someone grabbed Daniel from behind, hard enough to force him to a stop."You deaf? Didn't you hear me?"He exhaled slowly and turned to face Michael. "What now, freshman?" He wasn't in the mood for this, not with his emotions still raw and unsteady from the call with Lily earlier that afternoon, not when he didn't trust himself not to do something he'd regret."What, you in a bad mood?" Michael's grin was all teeth. "You letting people get to you now? Don't do that." He leaned in, voice dropping into something meaner. "Just because you're somebody's bitch doesn't make you any less of a dog. Honestly, it just proves that's exactly what you are."Something in Daniel's head gave way, clean and total.It wasn't the first time someone had tried to bait him, Charlie had done it a hundred times over. But this hit somewhere different, somewhere raw and unguarded."If you know what's good for you," Daniel said, voice low and dripping venom, "back off." His eyes had gone red-rimme

Dance planning started without any problems. Daniel couldn't say for certain whether it was the fight with Michael that had done it, but no one dared give him trouble anymore.Even Charlie seemed like he had started walking on eggshells around him, like one wrong word might land him in the same hospital bed Michael had occupied.The school covered decorations and the core refreshments through its own budget, though students were free to chip in for extras — better wine, additional catering — if they wanted the night to feel less like a school function and more like the kind of party people would actually remember.After that strange almost-conversation with Rachel at his door, something in Daniel had settled into clarity. He knew now, with surprising certainty, where his feelings actually lived. Rachel, meanwhile, remained convinced of the opposite. She had expected him to come crawling back, to fight for her the way he once had — instead, he barely looked her way at all, hadn't spoke

By the next morning, the entire campus had latched onto nothing else. Everyone wanted to know how it would end. Half the school seemed to be rooting for Rachel to say yes and go with Daniel, while the other half accused him of trying to sabotage her relationship purely out of bitterness and leftover jealousy. By noon, it had completely swallowed every other conversation on campus. Students were commenting under every post, tagging Rachel directly, demanding she finally give Daniel his answer.Daniel found himself almost grateful for the noise. As long as the entire school was fixated on his and Rachel's drama, no one had any room left in their heads to keep dissecting the rumor about him and Lily. For the first time in days, that particular fire had gone quiet on its own.Rachel, meanwhile, couldn't stop running the numbers in her head, not about the dance, but about Daniel himself.Objectively, he was everything a girlfriend could want. Handsome. Gentle, in the way he used to be with