Chapter 107
Ellie POV
The tent smells like antiseptic and damp canvas.
Lucas lowers me onto the cot with too much care. His hands hover even after I’m settled, fingers flexing as if he doesn’t know where to put them now that I’m not actively falling apart.
He starts with giving me some pain herbs and meds, “I’m not a healer,” he says. “But these will do before on gets here.”
I shake my head, pointing to the ones to him right. “Those are better.” I say.
He glances back. “Oh, right. You…are the healer.” He pluck them and gives them to me.
I down them with water, sweet water.
Ugh. I just wanted to shower.
Lucas moves to my leg.
“Don’t,” I stop him. “You’ll wrap it wrong.”
“Okay,” he hesitates. “How can I help then?”
“Ice.”
He’s gone in an instant, back with a cloth of ice, pressing it gently.
I hiss but thankful as the swelling settles.
“That’s…” he started in the quiet. “A nasty wound.”
I nod. Sipping the water again. Everything feels tight.
“And your head,” he whispers, a thumb brushing over the gash in my forehead from the rocks.
I don’t say anything.
Honestly, it was all just embarrassing how I failed so badly.
“I’m sorry,” he finally speaks again.
I blink. “What?”
“I shouldn’t have… left you out there,” he continues, words tumbling over each other. “I should’ve have tried to stop Dom, I should’ve gone after you instead of holding position. That was-” He exhales sharply. “That was the wrong call.”
I prop myself up on my elbows, confused by the intensity in his voice. “Lucas. I’m okay.”
He shakes his head like he doesn’t hear me. “No thanks to me. You could’ve been killed. You were hurt. And I was standing there telling myself it was smarter to wait. I thought… I thought you were fine, and turns out I was wrong. So wrong.”
“You didn’t know,” I say. “We both know the rules.”
“I didn’t follow my instinct,” he snaps, then softens instantly when he sees my expression. “I mean-I should’ve trusted myself.”
His guilt feels oversized, it presses in on me, heavy and uncomfortable.
“I survived,” I say quietly, putting a hand to his shoulder. “Besides, you found us. That counts for something.”
His gaze flicks down as I shift, the movement tugging fabric higher on my leg.
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His eyes lock onto the bruise.
It’s dark already — angry purple blooming along my calf where I slammed into the rock wall. I instinctively reach to tug my pant leg down.
“Ellie ”
“It’s nothing,” I say quickly.
“Ellie.”
Before I can react, his hand closes around my ankle.
Not rough. Not gentle either.
The contact jolts through me, and he pulls my leg closer without thinking, fingers warm against the cold skin that still aches.
His jaw tightens. He looks to my face.
“It’s just ” He stops, eyes locked on my neck.
I blink. “Lucas?”
His chin dips a bit. “You and Dom,” he says. “What….happened in that pit?”
I don’t know what he means until I move my hand to my neck. It’s sensitive. Right. Dominic had marked me.
“He touched you?” he asks.
The question is strained, sharp around the edges.
“I-what?” My pulse stutters. “No, it’s just…”
“That shouldn’t have happened,” he says, anger flaring beneath the worry. “It should’ve been me with you. Not him. You were wounded. He had no right.”
My stomach drops.
“Lucas,” I say, firmer now. “He didn’t…force me. It’s complicated. I just wasn’t sure and-”
“If you’re not sure,” Lucas’s gaze locks on me. “Then that a no, Ellie. He took advantage of that.”
I feel a burn flash through me. A fire.
“Lucas,” I snarl. “You’re crossing a line.”
His eyes flick up to my face, realization crashing in all at once. He loosens his grip immediately, like he’s been burned.
“I didn’t mean—” He runs a hand through his hair, breathing hard. “I just-seeing you hurt like that-I lost my head. It’s just…
Ellie… I was so worried.”
I stiffen, then nod. “I know.”
He leans over the cot, knee to the edge and give me a hug. I’m not sure what to do, but I accept it. Hugging him back, squeezing, pressingmy head into the crook of his neck taking a deep breath.
Then the tent flap snaps open.
Cold air rushes in.
Standing there is…Dom.
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t speak.
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His gaze takes everything in at once-Lucas over my cot, his arms around me, my body under him.
The color drains from his face.
Then my face.
Something heavy settles in his eyes, something quiet and final, like the last piece just clicked into place.
“Dominic-” I start.
He doesn’t answer.
Behind him, a familiar presence shifts.
Vivian peeks around the tent flap, eyes bright, smile sharp. Her phone is already in her hand.
Click.
She grins at the screen like she just won something.
My chest tightens, panic flaring. “Why would you-”
But Dominic is already turning away.
Walking.
Every step he takes feels like something tearing loose inside me.
What was…why did they…?!
I don’t understand why my throat burns.
I don’t understand why I care that he saw this-this moment that didn’t mean what it looked like, that couldn’t mean what it
looked like.
Why…did it feel so wrong?
Vivian POV
By morning, the photo is everywhere.
I don’t even have to check my phone to know it.
You can feel rumors before you hear them, like a change in pressure, a tightening of air. Whispers cluster in hallways. Glances linger too long. People look at me with softened eyes, like they’ve finally chosen the right side.
Still, I scroll.
Ellie on the cot. Lucas hugging her close. His hand unmistakably on her leg. Her face turned just enough to look intimate instead
of startled.
Timing is everything.
The image has already been cropped once to just Lucas’s hand on her leg, her marked neck. A third has been screenshotted so many times it’s lost clarity, which only helps. Blurred photos invite imagination.
And imagination is crueler than truth.
Hehe. It’s hard to look like a sorrow filled sister, one who’s distraught her sister is such a tramp, a mean liar. But I hold my mask.
By first period, the narrative has settled.
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Ellie never confused about choosing between Dominic and Lucas. She wasn’t hurt or turning them both down
Ellie was actively two-timing.
Trying to humiliate Dominic after losing him with Lucas’s help.
I hear it in fragments as I pass lockers.
“She always gave off weird vibes.”
“Honestly? I never trusted her.”
“I mean, Lucas? Really?”
Someone laughs. Someone else says, “Poor Dominic, she really had it out to get him. What a fake.”
I pause by my locker just long enough for a girl from my lit class to approach me, eyes shining with sympathy.
“I always liked you better,” she says quietly, as if it’s a confession. “You’re… calmer. Kinder.”
I offer a small, sad smile. “That’s sweet of you, but Ellie is just…cofused right now. Don’t hate her for it.”
Another voice joins in. “We were all rooting for you, honestly. The good sister.”
“That Ellie girl is such a tramp.”
I don’t correct them much.
But I don’t agree either-I just sigh, soft and heavy, like the weight of it all is exhausting.
“I wish her happiness,” I say gently. “I really do. I hate seeing things come to this.”
They nod eagerly. They want me to be gracious.
“But…” I hesitate, just long enough to seem reluctant. “It’s hard not to see how jealous she’s been lately.”
Heads tilt. Interest sharpens.
“She’s always resented Dominic’s position,” I continue softly. “And losing him like that to me… well. Some people lash out when they don’t get what they want. You remember how she used to chase him so much.”
I never say betrayal.
I say bitterness.
It reframes everything.
Ellie didn’t betray Dominic-she acted out.
She wasn’t cruel-she was hurt.
And hurt girls are dangerous, aren’t they?
By the time lunch rolls around, the damage is irreversible.
I spot Dominic immediately.
He’s seated with his friends, posture rigid, shoulders squared like he’s bracing. He looks tired, the dark under his eyes darker then usual. The table buzzes with low, heated conversation, hands gesturing sharply, voices layered with indignation
“She knew exactly what she was doing.” Marcus scoffs.
“That whole ‘boundaries’ thing? Such an act.”
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“Leading him on like that. I actuary thought she’d changed.”
I approach slowly.
Dominic doesn’t look up at first. He says nothing to his outraged friends.
If he defended her, this would be harder. Humiliate him more.
When I reach the table, he finally glances at me.
There’s something hollow in his expression now.
I sit beside him without asking.
My shoulder brushes his.
He doesn’t… pull away.
He exhales-slow, controlled-and leans just slightly into my presence, accepting comfort without protest.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur quietly, for his ears only. “You didn’t deserve this.”
He just purses his slips. Annoyed.
Across the table, Jake scoffs. “She was never innocent. She wanted to make a fool of you.”
Dominic stares at his food. Clearly not in the mood.
I rest my hand lightly on Dominic’s wrist. “Please don’t be cruel,” I say gently, the picture of reluctant empathy. “Ellie’s just… lost right now.”
They nod a bit, satisfied.
As I eat my lunch, I watch Dominic from the corner of my eye. The way his shoulders remain tense. The way his gaze drifts toward the doors occasionally, as if expecting someone who never comes.
By the time the bell rings, people have stopped whispering.
They speak openly now.
They’ve chosen me.
And I smile to myself, folding my napkin neatly, every piece exactly where it belongs.
Perfect. Perfect. Perfect.
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