Chapter 2 THE REBIRTH

TASHA'S POV

"Don't act like we know each other. Because we don't. And no matter how hard you try, Tasha, I would never date or love you."

I gasped, eyes snapping open.

The ceiling above me wasn't Roman's. Fluorescent light instead of chandelier glass. My hands shot to my face, my chest, my legs, thinner, smoother, wrong in a way that made my pulse spike before my mind caught up to why.

"Ohh, and sister," Elsa's voice came again, closer now, singsong and cruel underneath the sweetness, "remember you need to sign me in for class today while I go for dance practice. If you don't, I'd get so mad. Might have to hurt you out of anger. Hehe."

I sat up too fast, the room tilting. Blue-and-white checkered fabric. A hallway full of chattering students in uniform.

Golden Stars High School.

My school.

I looked down at my own hands, trembling, unlined, nothing like the hands that had clawed uselessly at wire two nights or was it years…. ago.

"Didn't you hear me?" Elsa snapped. "Hey. You bitch."

I turned. My mouth opened. Nothing came out. I didn't trust my own voice enough to test it yet.

I pushed past her instead, grabbing the first stranger I found, a girl with a bouncing ponytail, books clutched to her chest, blinking at me in confusion.

"What's the date," I said, too fast, too loud. "What year is it."

"It's... Friday. January 11th. 2015."

The floor dropped out from under me.

I found the mirror bolted beside the lockers and stared. My reflection stared back, whole, unscarred, seventeen again, the ruin Elsa had painted across my cheek simply gone, like it had never happened at all.

I touched my own face and my hand shook.

January 11th. I remembered this exact morning. The day we picked seat partners. The day the first domino fell,  the one that ended with Roman's belt around my wrists and Elsa's hand wrapping wire around my ribs.

I wasn't going to let it fall the same way twice.

"Are you deaf?" Elsa's voice sliced through, shrill, close now.

I turned to face her slowly, feeling something cold and steady settle into place behind my ribs. "Maybe you're the one who's blind," I said, soft, almost pleasant. "If you can't see I'm ignoring you. Keep your voice down, unless you want the whole hallway to know your sweet-girl act is a costume."

Her face drained white. The confidence I remembered,  the confidence that would one day wrap a bomb around my chest, flickered and died in front of half a dozen witnesses.

I smiled, brushed past her shoulder, and let myself feel it. That small, sharp spark of power I'd never once had in my first life.

Roman stood near the window, arms crossed, same cocky stillness, same face that used to make my stomach flip before it learned to make my stomach turn. I held his gaze until the silence stretched uncomfortably.

"Mr. Man," I said, even, unhurried. "I'll honor your wish. You and I don't know each other."

I walked into class without waiting for his answer, my shoes clicking against tiles that hadn't existed in my world for years.

The teacher looked up from the board. "Tasha. Where did you go?"

"Restroom." I didn't elaborate. Elsa and Roman strolled in a minute later, late as always, and as always… nobody questioned them.

I sat, and let myself feel, just for a second, the absurdity of who I used to be. A girl chasing a boy who'd one day hire four men to break her. Begging for crumbs from a snake she'd been feeding with her own hands.

My stomach turned at the memory. Good. Let it turn. That version of me was already dead.

"Alright, class," the teacher said. "Time for Tasha to pick her seat partner for the term."

This was it. I already knew.

My eyes found the back row. Jeremy. Head down on folded arms, hoodie up, a mask covering the lower half of his face, radiating the specific don't-approach-me energy that had kept an entire school at arm's length from him for years. The same boy who'd shattered a window with his own body trying to save mine. The same boy who'd told me he loved me with ten seconds left on a bomb timer.

My chest ached. I smiled anyway.

I walked past every open seat in the room, past the stares, past the murmurs already starting.

"Is she crazy?"

"Does she have a death wish?"

"She's sitting with him?"

I stopped beside Jeremy's desk.

"Here, teacher. I'll sit here."

The room went dead silent, then erupted into whispers all at once, jeremy, the boy everyone called untouchable, the one no one dared sit beside.

The teacher blinked, then shrugged. "If that's your choice, Miss Tasha."

I moved my things over while the noise rose around me, ignoring every syllable of it.

Jeremy slowly lifted his head, his eyes blank as they met mine, then he scoffed and turned away, laying his head back down. 

He thought I was playing games, trying to start another rivalry like before.

But honestly not anymore…I mean I was sick in my head probably. 

I leaned closer and gently turned his face toward me. His body stiffened. 

“What the hell are you doing?” he whispered, voice low.

“Your new seatmate…hello”

My heart was pounding as I reached up and tugged at the mask covering half his face, pulling it off.

Gasps exploded through the classroom.

For the first time, everyone saw him, really saw him. 

His sharp jawline, the sculpted symmetry of his face, the quiet danger in his eyes. 

He was handsome….the kind of handsomeness that silences rooms. 

Murmurs broke out, louder now, girls whispering to each other.

“He’s so hot,” 

“Oh my God, he’s so fucking handsome,”

Roman’s jaw tightened from across the room, his pride cracking, and Elsa’s fake smile faltered. 

One of the girls slowly walked toward us, her heels clicking, her tone sweet but venomous. 

“Sorry for ignoring you all this while, Jerry,” she said, her voice dripping with flirtation. She held out her phone like an offering.

“Can I have your social media handle? Maybe we can vibe, and you could be my man.”

He said nothing, so was his expression.

But I could feel Elsa’s glare burning from behind, and Roman’s rage simmering like fire.

I cleared my throat and looked up at the girl. 

“No, he doesn’t want your social media handle,” I said, voice steady.

The girl turned sharply, her eyes narrowing. “I wasn’t talking to you, bitch,” she spat. “If I were you, I’d fuck off before someone puts you back in your place. Stop stealing other people’s men.”

I smiled slowly, tilting my head. “Oh really?”

And before she could blink, I grabbed Jeremy by the collar and pulled him closer, my lips crashing into his. The whole room gasped.

The world blurred, the whispers, the shock, the chaos and all I could hear was my own heartbeat pounding in my ears as I kissed him, not out of impulse, but out of defiance, out of fire, out of the second chance fate had thrown my way.

This time, I wasn’t the victim.

I would definitely cut through skulls.