Percy's POV (continuation)
The hallway swallowed us in silence once the classroom door shut.
Her weight was warm against me, but she felt small — too small for all that noise she'd just unleashed.
I guided her toward the back exit, where the stairwell lights flickered half-dead.
She mumbled something I couldn't make out, her words tangled in sobs and hiccups.
"Easy," I said softly. "Breathe, Jay. It's over."
She shook her head weakly. "No, it's not. It never is."
Outside, the air hit like ice. The wind cut through her shirt, and she shivered. I pulled my jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Her hands clutched it like it was the only solid thing left.
"I messed everything up again," she whispered.
"No," I said. "They did."
Her eyes fluttered open, wet lashes catching the light from the corridor window. "You saw their faces?"
"I did."
"And?"
I hesitated. "They looked scared. Ashamed, maybe. But not enough."
She gave a soft, broken laugh. "They never are."
We walked across the empty courtyard — her steps uneven, mine steady out of necessity. She leaned into me the whole way, muttering things under her breath. Half apologies, half memories.
When we reached the bench under the old oak, I set her down gently. She looked up at the stars, dazed and glassy-eyed.
"Percy…"
"Yeah?"
"Do you ever wish you could just forget everything? Like—wipe it clean, all the names, all the mistakes…"
"Every day, sistah" I said.
Her lips trembled into something like a smile. "Same."
She went quiet for a bit, watching the branches sway above us. Then, almost in a whisper:
"Thank you… for finding me before they did."
"I'll always find you," I said, meaning it more than I should have.
For a long time, neither of us moved. The world around us went still — cold air, faint crickets, the smell of rain threatening.
She eventually drifted off against my shoulder, still breathing unevenly.
And as I sat there, I realized something that made my chest tighten —
She didn't need saving.
She just needed someone to stay.So I did.
Even when her words stopped making sense.
Even when her tears dried.
Even when the night turned to dawn and I could already hear the rumor mill spinning inside those halls.
I stayed.Because someone had to.
Keifer's POV:
The hallways were quieter than usual.
That uneasy kind of quiet that hums with what everyone's too afraid to say out loud.
Section E hadn't said a word all morning. No jokes, no side talk, not even Yuri's usual smug remarks.
Just silence — the kind that sits heavy on your chest.
I hadn't slept.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face again.
Red eyes. Shaking hands. The sound of that flask hitting the floor.
And the words.
"You lied… You both did… You tracked him, not me…"
My own name in her mouth had never sounded that broken before.
I told myself not to go looking for her.
That if I did, I'd only make it worse.
That she needed space, not another reminder of everything she said she hated.
But the thing about guilt — it doesn't care about logic. It just sits there, pounding, until you move.
By next class , Yuri finally spoke.
"She meant what she said," he muttered, arms folded, eyes still bloodshot.
I didn't reply.
"She's not wrong, either," he added. "We did track Percy. We did lie about Kiko."
"I know," I said quietly.
He turned toward me, angry. "Then why are you acting like it doesn't matter?"
"Because if I start acting like it matters," I said, voice tight, "I won't stop."
He scoffed. "You should've thought of that before you lied to her face "
I didn't argue. I couldn't.
I just stood up and left before he could say anything else.
The corridor leading to the back exit still smelled faintly like whiskey — hers, not mine.
Someone had cleaned the mess, but the echo of that night lingered, ghost-like.
I found myself staring at the spot where she'd stood.
Where her voice cracked and everything we built started collapsing.
"I just wanted a place where I could be loved unconditionally…"
Those words kept replaying, softer each time, until they didn't sound angry anymore. Just tired. Defeated.
She'd been right — that kind of love doesn't exist in our world.
Not in Section E.Not with people like me.
And yet, standing there, I wished it did.And yet, standing there, I wished it did.
Through the window, I spotted Percy crossing the courtyard — her beside him, wrapped in his jacket, her head low.
She looked small again. Fragile, but alive.
He glanced up once and saw me watching.
Didn't glare. Didn't smirk.
Just looked — long enough for me to know what he was saying without words:
You did this.And maybe he was right.
Maybe we all did.
But I couldn't bring myself to turn away.
Not yet.
Because for the first time since I met Jay, she wasn't looking back.....
Section E's POV:
No one moved for a long time after the door slammed shut.
Her voice still echoed through the walls — raw, cracking, honest in the kind of way that left scars.
Rory was the first to exhale. "She really said all that."
Cin didn't answer. His eyes were red again, fixed on the spot she'd stood — like he could still see her trembling there, flask in hand, the words spilling faster than her tears.
"She knows about the tracker," Felix muttered, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Of course she does," Calix snapped. "We were sloppy. You think she wouldn't notice we knew things she never told us?"
Edrix leaned forward, elbows on his knees. "Doesn't matter who found it — she doesn't trust any of us now."
David looked like he'd been punched. He kept glancing at the empty doorway, whispering under his breath, "She wasn't supposed to find out like that."
Mayo scoffed. "Find out? You mean break down in front of half the class while that outsider watched?"
"percy that OUTSIDER you mentioned" Josh said quietly, "was the only one who tried to calm her down."
That shut everyone up.
Cin finally stood. His chair scraped against the floor like a scream. "You heard what she said."
No one answered.
"She just wanted a place where she could be loved unconditionally." His voice cracked. "And we made her feel like a project,even after what all she did for us.."
Blaster kicked the desk in front of him. "We were trying to protect her—"
"By tracking her?" Denzel cut in sharply. "By lying?"
For a second, it looked like they might fight.
Then Kit said softly, "We did it because we were scared. We all saw what happened when a girl was here , we did it all because we didn't want to repeat what happened before.."
Eman sighed, eyes on the floor"guess it did repeat and this time we all lost someone who changed us for the better, we lost her..."
The room went still again.
Outside, the wind rattled the windows — same cold air from before, same day, but it felt different now.
Like something sacred had broken.
Cin moved to the window, watching Percy and Jay walk across the courtyard — her head lowered, his arm barely keeping her steady.
"They'll think we're the villains," he murmured.
Rory looked up at him. "Maybe this time, we are."
And none of them argued, maybe because they knew in their heart that they broke something, something important to all.....