Chapter Text
The fluorescent lights of the hallway hummed, casting a drab glow over the sea of lockers. Ryland Grace kept his head down. He clutched his worn textbook like a shield. To the rest of the senior class, he was practically invisible. Just another face in the crowd. A guy who blended into the lockers. Then there was Martin DuBois. Martin was a force of nature. He leaned against the wall a few feet away, laughing at something a varsity player said. He was effortlessly popular. Everyone loved Martin. He possessed the kind of easy charisma that Ryland could only dream of. To top it all off, Martin was dating the smartest girl in the entire school. They were the golden couple.
“Hey, Grace! Earth to Grace” Martin called out, breaking away from his crowd. He threw an arm around Ryland’s shoulders.
“You're brooding again.”
“Just trying to survive third period”
Ryland mumbled. He offered a small smile. He still wondered how a nobody like him ended up with a best friend like Martin.
“Well, your luck is about to change” Martin grinned, pulling him down the hall. „Today you’re gonna meet my friends. No arguments.”
Before Ryland could protest, he was dragged toward the cafeteria. Martin’s usual circle was there, but the atmosphere felt different today. The loud chatter died down as they approached. That was when Ryland saw her. She sat at the edge of the concrete bench, slightly detached from the rest of the group. Eva Stratt. She was breathtakingly beautiful, but she carried an air of absolute authority. Her eyes were sharp, evaluating, and deeply mysterious. She didn't look like she belonged here. As Ryland stumbled into the circle, Eva's gaze shifted. Her eyes locked onto his. A quiet, knowing smile touched her lips. Ryland’s chest tightened. He didn’t know what was coming next but he knew that meeting her will not be the best thing he ever did. His quiet, invisible senior year was officially over. Everything was about to change and he can’t do anything about it.
｡⋅ ‧₊˚. ˚⟡˖ ࣪
The next day, the cafeteria was just as loud, but the tension at the table was completely different. Ryland sat next to Martin, feeling entirely out of place. He tried to focus on his notebook, scribbling down some formulas just to look busy.
Across from him, Eva wasn't smiling. Her expression was cold, clinical, and slightly annoyed by the high school drama swirling around them, she never liked crowded places. Stratt glanced at Ryland’s notebook, her eyes narrowing at his messy handwriting.
“Your integration is wrong” Eva said clearly, cutting right through Martin’s loud conversation.
Ryland blinked, looking up. “What?”
“The third line” Eva pointed a sharp finger toward his page. She didn't look infatuated; she looked mildly insulted by his math. „You forgot to carry the constant. If you're going to try to look smart in public, at least get the equation right.” “Idiot” Eva mumbled.
Martin let out a low “Oooooh” laughing, Annie didn’t believed that Eva actually just spoke to someone beside Ilyukhina and even Yao looked up from his laptop to see what just happened. Ryland felt his face flush a deep crimson, he quickly looked down and realized she was right. Olesya noticed the way Startt’s gaze lingered on Ryland a second too long after delivering the insult. Eva was usually completely indifferent to people she found uninteresting, she never speak to anyone actually and the fact that she bothered to correct him meant something.
„Ouch” Olesya murmured leaning into Eva’s shoulder. „A bit harsh for the new guy, don't you think?”
„I don't tolerate sloppy work” Eva replied coldly, turning her back to Ryland to check her phone.
But Olesya caught the slight tension in Stratt’s jaw. Eva was trying way too hard to look detached. She was no longer the Eva Stratt that Ilyukhina knew.
｡⋅ ‧₊˚. ˚⟡˖ ࣪
The school library was quiet like never before, save for the scratching of Annie Shapiro’s highlighter. True to her reputation as the smartest girl in the senior class, Martin’s girlfriend was surrounded by a fortress of textbooks, they final exam was so close. DuBois sat right next to her, completely not stressed by the upcoming exams. He casually twirled a pen around his fingers, his eyes full of clear, unbothered adoration whenever he looked at her. They were steady. They were the couple everyone knew would survive long after graduation. Further down the long table sat Yao. He was a complete enigma. He barely spoke, usually staring intently at his laptop screen or typing out lines of code that nobody else understood. He was part of the group, but he carried himself with a quiet, military-like discipline that kept people at a distance.
“You're staring again, Grace” Martin whispered “You know that I heard when you said “omg” when Eva came into the library?” leaning across the table and interrupting Ryland's thoughts.
Ryland blushed and snapped his gaze away from the corner of the library. "I'm not staring and I did not said omg” He did.
“You totally were” Annie laughed, not even looking up from her biology notes. “And your heart rate probably just spiked. I can hear you breathing from here, man please calm down, I can’t focus on my work”
Ryland bit his lip, casting a quick glance back toward the history aisles. Eva was standing there, scanning the shelves. Olesya was right beside her, practically bouncing on her heels, talking a mile a minute. They were total opposites—Ilyukhina was loud, vibrant, and expressive, while Eva was a wall of pure granite. Yet, they were inseparable since kindergarten. As if sensing his eyes, Stratt turned her head. Her cold, analytical gaze met Ryland's across the library. There was no smile. No friendly wave. Just a heavy, unreadable stare that made Ryland’s stomach do a nervous flip. Beside her, Olesya caught the interaction. She nudged Eva playfully, whispering something that made Eva sharply turn her back to the table, her jaw visibly tightening in annoyance.
“Hey” Martin said, his voice dropping into a rare, serious tone as he noticed Ryland's pale face. “Everything good, man? You've been acting weird around the guys lately, especially around Stratt. You can tell me anything, you know that right?”
Ryland swallowed hard, looking at his best friend. The urge to tell Martin about the strange, suffocating tension between him and Eva was there. But how could he? He didn't even understand it himself, he literally knew her for about few weeks now. How anyone can fall in love that fast? Eva barely tolerated his existence, yet every time they were in the same room, the air felt thick enough to cut with a knife and he hated it so much, but Ryland loved to be around her.
“Yeah, Martin” Ryland lied, forcing a faint smile. “Just stressed about finals. Everything is fine.” Nothing was fine when Eva was around him.
Across the room, Eva finally stepped out from the aisle, her hands shoved deep into her jacket pockets, she ignored the entire table except Ryland, she looked at him for a second. Stratt didn’t know why but she wanted to stare at him for forever.