Chapter 2 The Face-Off
~Author's POV~
"You think a slap is going to stop me? Try harder."
Gabriella whispered those words to herself as she picked up her broken bike from the ground. Her cheek still burned. People were still staring. But she didn't care anymore.
She wasn't going to cry. Not here. Not in front of all these rich kids who already thought she was nothing.
She pushed her bike forward, the wheel wobbling because of the crash, and walked away from the crowd without looking back. Her hands were shaking, but her face stayed calm. She had learned a long time ago that crying in public only gave people more reasons to laugh at you.
By the time she got to the diner, her shift had already started ten minutes late.
"You're late again," her boss, Mr. Dale said immediately as she walked through the back door. He didn't even look up from the receipts in his hand.
"I know. I'm sorry. It won't happen again," Gabriella said quickly, already tying her apron around her waist.
"That's what you said last week."
"I mean it this time."
Mr. Dale finally looked up and saw the red mark on her cheek. His eyebrows pulled together. "What happened to your face?"
"Nothing," Gabriella said. "I fell off my bike."
She didn't want to explain. She didn't want anyone's pity. All she wanted was to finish her shift, get her pay, and go home to her father. He was the only person who mattered right now, and rent wasn't going to pay itself.
She grabbed a notepad and walked onto the floor.
For the next hour, she served coffee, cleared tables, and smiled at customers even when her cheek still throbbed.
Nobody at the diner knew who Vanessa Monroe was. Nobody here cared about the Carter family or who owned the biggest company in New York. Here, she was just a girl doing her job, and for the first time since the crash, she felt like she could breathe.
Then the bell above the door rang.
And her whole body went still.
"Whoa," a voice said from the entrance. "This place is actually decent."
Gabriella turned around slowly, and her stomach dropped.
Ethan Carter walked in like he owned the building, two of his hockey friends right behind him, laughing loudly about something that happened at practice. One of them, a tall boy with messy hair, was still wearing his team jacket.
"I'm starving," the messy-haired boy said, dropping into a booth. "Mason, scoot over, you're taking up the whole seat."
"I'm a big guy, Liam. Deal with it," Mason said, grinning as he slid in anyway.
Ethan sat across from them, his eyes scanning the diner like he was looking for something. Or someone.
He found her fast.
Gabriella saw the exact moment he spotted her. His easy smile dropped for half a second, replaced by something unreadable. Surprise, maybe. Or guilt. She wasn't sure, and she didn't care to figure it out.
She thought about hiding in the kitchen. For one second, she actually considered it.
But then she remembered Vanessa's face. The laughter. The slap.
No. She wasn't hiding from anybody.
Gabriella straightened her apron, grabbed her notepad, and walked straight toward their table like nothing had happened that morning.
"Welcome to Dale's Diner," she said, her voice flat and professional. "What can I get you?"
Liam's mouth dropped open. "Wait. Aren't you the girl from this morning? The one who…"
"Liam," Mason said quickly, kicking him under the table.
"What? I'm just saying, that slap was insane. My phone is still buzzing from the video."
Gabriella's pen didn't even pause on her notepad. "Drinks first, or do you need a minute?"
Ethan stared at her like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. No fear. No embarrassment. She was acting like he was just another customer.
"You're seriously going to act like nothing happened?" he asked.
"I'm working," Gabriella said simply, still not looking up from her notepad. "Are you going to order, or are you just here to waste my time?"
Mason let out a short laugh and quickly covered his mouth like he wasn't supposed to find that funny.
Ethan's jaw tightened. "I'll have a burger. No onions."
"Same," Liam said, still staring at Gabriella like she had two heads. "Honestly, that thing you said to Vanessa? About her bike having more personality? That was kind of legendary."
"Liam," Ethan said sharply.
"What? I'm complimenting her!"
Gabriella finally looked up, but only at Liam. "Thank you. I'll have your food out soon."
Then she turned and walked away without another word.
Ethan watched her go, his eyes following her all the way to the kitchen window. Something about the way she walked, shoulders back, chin up, like the whole world hadn't just watched her get humiliated, bothered him more than he wanted to admit.
"Dude," Mason said, leaning across the table. "You're staring."
"I'm not staring."
"You're staring," Liam agreed. "Like, full creepy staring."
"Shut up," Ethan muttered, finally looking away.
But a few minutes later, when Gabriella came back with their food, he found himself staring again. She set the plates down without a single extra word, no apology in her eyes, no nervousness in her hands. Just calm, steady focus, like he was nothing special.
Nobody had ever treated him like that before.
"You're not even a little scared of me," Ethan said suddenly, before he could stop himself.
Gabriella paused, the empty tray still in her hands. "Should I be?"
"Most people are."
"I'm not most people."
"Clearly," he muttered, almost smiling, but he caught himself before it fully showed.
For a second, something passed between them. Something neither one of them understood yet. Mason and Liam exchanged a look across the table, both raising their eyebrows at the same time.
Gabriella cleared her throat and stepped back. "Enjoy your food."
She walked away before he could say anything else, but she could feel his eyes on her back the entire way to the counter.
Her heart was beating faster than it should have been, and that annoyed her more than anything else that had happened that day.
She didn't have time for boys like Ethan. She had a father to take care of, bills to help pay, and a family name to fix. There was no room in her life for a rich boy with a nice face and a worse attitude.
By the time her shift ended, the sun was already going down. Her feet hurt, her back hurt. But she had made decent tips, enough to help with this week's groceries.
She walked outside, untying her apron, and pulled out her phone to check the time.
That's when she saw it.
A notification from Saint Joseph High School, sitting right at the top of her screen.
She froze.
Her thumb hovered over the screen for a second before she finally tapped it open, her heart already sinking before she even read the words.
"Scholarship under immediate review for student misconduct and property damage. Report to the Principal's office tomorrow at 8 AM."
