All Chapters of Let's be Together: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

Two days. Two uneventful, suspiciously calm days. No weird stunts from Ryle, no cryptic messages, nothing. Maybe he really was just spewing bullshit in the heat of the moment. Still, the quiet feels...wrong. Like the calm before the storm, and I can’t help but stay on edge.Mariam groans beside me, dragging her feet as we head to PE. “Why do we even need this class? I hate running. I hate sweating. I hate Kepler.”It’s been two days since she finally resurfaced, looking sheepish as she explained her absence—her grandma’s funeral in Florida. I felt like shit for all the angry texts I’d fired her way, so I’ve been extra nice to her since. Not that she’s noticed; Mariam’s too busy lamenting the hellscape that is PE.Fredrick Kepler, our middle-aged PE teacher, is already yelling his lungs out by the time we step onto the court. “Straight line, people! I said STRAIGHT LINE!” His voice bounces off the gym walls like some kind of cruel joke, and I stifle a laugh. This guy’s got way too muc

The City Hospital is chaos personified.Doctors in lab coats rush past, clipboards in hand, barking orders. Nurses zigzag between patients on stretchers, their shoes squeaking against the tiled floors. The sterile smell of disinfectant clings to the air, sharp and unrelenting, mixed with the faint metallic tang of antiseptics. It’s a smell that screams hospital, and it’s unsettling as hell.Millie and I bolt for the elevator, weaving through the crowd with one goal in mind: the first floor. That’s where her dad is. I grip her hand tightly, feeling the tremor in her fingers. She’s shaking like a leaf in a storm, and it guts me to see her like this. The elevator dings, and we step inside, the doors sliding shut with a mechanical groan. The silence is heavy, save for the hum of the elevator climbing floors. I steal a glance at Millie. Her eyes are fixed on the display above, but I can tell her mind’s spiraling.“It’s gonna be okay,” I whisper, though my own heart hammers in my chest.Sh

I remember that scene from Mean Girls—when Regina George gained weight, and the whole school laughed at her like she was the punchline to a joke everyone was in on but her. The difference? She was popular. She had power, even at her lowest. Me? I’m no Regina George. I wasn’t popular before, and now I am… thanks to someone.Not because of anything good. Not because I won a game, aced a test, or even did something worth attention. No. I’m popular for kissing Millie, for daring to be vulnerable in the wrong place at the wrong time. The entire school knows now, and they’ve turned me into a spectacle—an unwilling star of the latest scandal. But there’s no power in this kind of fame. Only shame. Only fear.The moment I step onto the Halloway High campus, it feels like I’ve walked into a nightmare. Every eye turns to me, every whisper sharp and cutting, slicing through my skin like paper cuts. I hear the snickers before I even make it halfway down the hall, and it’s like they echo off the w

The hollow ache in my chest hasn’t eased since this morning. It gnaws at me, making every breath feel heavier. Juhyuk didn’t talk to me at school. When I approached him between classes, heart in my throat, he barely spared me a glance, cold and detached. His words were clipped. “I have other matters,” he’d said, avoiding my gaze like I was nothing more than a stranger. Like I wasn’t the same friend he’d laughed with just days ago.I tried texting, calling—nothing. But Jugyoung… she answered. She wasn’t mad, at least not in the same way. She approached me during lunch, her face a mix of concern and awkward guilt. “I had something,” she said, taking her tray of food, “I couldn’t pick up your calls. There’s so much I want to ask, Grace, but I have to go with Charlotte right now.”Her words stung. She didn’t even ask how I was doing. She just had to go. I watched her leave, feeling like I was standing on the edge of a crumbling cliff, completely alone. It hit me then, standing in the midd

Millie stands over me, her presence filling the space like it always does. Her breathing is heavier than usual, and she stares down at me, hands on her hips. “What the hell are you doing sitting here alone?” she demands, hovering like a mother hen, but her voice is tight. Not soft. Not sweet.I wave her off like swatting a fly. “Go away.”She doesn’t move. Instead, she grabs my arm, her grip firm, yanking me up without waiting for permission. “Get up,” she says, her tone sharper than I’m used to, the patience gone.I glare at her, jerking my arm back. “Leave me the fuck alone, Millie.”“No,” she shoots back, jaw clenched. “I’m not leaving you out here like this.”I glare, anger bubbling. “Why do you always have to be so damn controlling?”Her jaw tightens, the tension rolling off her. “Because your mom’s gonna worry if you don’t go home,” she snaps, her voice strained.I laugh—a bitter, hollow sound. “Yeah, sure. Is that all? Or are you just here because it makes you feel better?”Sil