St. Briar's Academy in South London was a place where appearances mattered. Blazers crisp, shoes polished, secrets hidden beneath layers of gossip and gold. Amira had never belonged to the glittering elite — not until she met Kieran.
He was everything she wasn't: popular, rich, magnetic. Yet somehow, he noticed her. The quiet girl with ink-stained fingers and a sharp mind. He made her feel seen. Special. Loved.
It started with glances in the hallway. A note slipped into her locker. "You make the noise in my head go quiet." She melted. She fell. She gave him her first kiss, her first poem, her first heartbreak.
Because it was all a game.
Kieran's friends knew. It was a dare — "Make the weird girl fall for you." He played his part well, whispering poetry that wasn't his, faking vulnerability, calling her "his muse." And then… he shattered her.
The truth came out during a party she was never meant to hear about. In a video — him laughing, mocking her, bragging that she thought it was real.
She didn't cry.
Not where anyone could see.
But something in her broke… and something colder took its place.
---