Chapter 5 The Awkward First Date
The next morning came too fast.
A producer banged on their bedroom door at eight sharp. “Campus date in thirty minutes! Coffee walk. Look like you actually like each other or the votes are going to tank.”
Nova was already dressed when Kael stepped out of the bathroom. She didn’t look at him. She just grabbed her jacket and headed for the front door like she was walking to her own execution.
They rode in silence in the back of a black van with two cameras mounted inside.
Nova kept her eyes on the window, watching the city slide past in blurred reflections.
Every few seconds, her phone buzzed in her lap, notifications she refused to open.
She already knew what they said.
Hero.
Victim.
Monster.
The worst part wasn’t the comments.
It was how easy it had been to believe them.
The second they stepped onto campus, another two crew members fell in behind them, lenses rolling.
The coffee shop was only a five-minute walk from the main quad, but it felt like ten miles.
Nova kept her arms crossed the whole way. Kael walked beside her, hands in his pockets, trying to look relaxed for the cameras even though his shoulders were stiff as concrete.
They ordered their drinks at the counter — black coffee for him, some sweet iced thing for her — and stepped back outside to the walkway lined with benches and trees. The crew kept a respectful distance, but the red lights never stopped blinking.
Nova could feel them even when she wasn’t looking — the cameras, the lenses, the weight of being watched.
Not just recorded.
Judged. Interpreted. Decided.
For the first two minutes they just walked. Awkward. Silent. The kind of quiet that screamed.
Then Nova spoke, voice low enough that only he could hear.
“You really expect me to believe you were just being a good guy that night?”
Kael glanced sideways at her. Her jaw was tight, eyes fixed straight ahead.
“I wasn’t trying to be a hero,” he said quietly. “She needed help. That’s it.”
The words sounded thin even to him.
Incomplete.
Because they were.
Nova let out a sharp breath. “That’s it? My best friend ends up in the hospital, you get caught on camera carrying her like a ragdoll, and all you can say is ‘that’s it’?”
She stopped walking. He stopped too.
People were staring. Phones were already coming out.
Nova stepped closer, voice dropping even lower, but the anger was clear and cutting.
"I watched the video. multiple times. There's footage of you two in the kitchen and she kept turning away from you. She looked like she wanted to leave." She said it quietly, not cruelly. Just factually. Like evidence. "And then somehow you're the one who ends up carrying her out. And instead of explaining anything, you just… shut down. Like none of it matters.”
Kael’s face didn’t change, but something flickered behind his eyes — pain, quick and raw, gone in a blink. His hands flexed at his sides like he wanted to say more, but the words never came.
“Just say it,” Nova said, quieter now. Not for the cameras. Not for anyone else. “Just say something real for once.”
For a second…just a second, he almost did.
His mouth opened.
He could end it here.
One sentence. One truth.
But truth wasn’t the problem.
Who it would hurt… was.
His gaze flicked past her shoulder, toward one of the cameras.
And whatever was there…
shut him down again.
He stayed silent.
Nova searched his face, waiting. When nothing came, she shook her head, disgusted. “You know what? Keep your secrets. Just don’t expect me to pretend this is anything but disgusting.”
She turned and started walking again, faster this time. Kael caught up in two strides, falling in beside her like the perfect fake boyfriend the show wanted.
The silence between them now felt heavier. Dangerous.
Back at the Spotlight House an hour later, the big wall screen in the living room was already updating.
The house was louder than usual when they walked in, laughter, music, voices layered on top of each other but it all dipped, just slightly, when people noticed them.
Current Approval Rating: 9%
A red banner flashed underneath:
Most Toxic Couple – Penalty Warning Issued
One of the other contestants — the blond guy from last night — whistled low as they walked in. “Rough first date, Voss?”
Nova didn’t even look at him. She headed straight for their room.
Kael followed.
The second the door shut behind them, Nova spun around.
“I can’t do this,” she said, voice tight. “I can’t walk around campus pretending everything’s fine when my best friend is still recovering and you won’t even…”
She froze.
Her eyes landed on something on the bookshelf near her bed. A small black device, no bigger than a matchbox, wedged between two books. Matte black casing. No production logo. No crew tape. No serial number sticker like the ones on every other camera in the house, she'd noticed those in the hallway, each one labeled with bright yellow tape that read SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTIONS.
This one had nothing.
Just a tiny red light, blinking steadily.
Not blinking like the others.
Slower.
Intentional.
Like it wasn’t part of the show.
Like it was watching for a different reason.
Nova picked it up slowly. Turned it over in her hand. Her throat tightened.
"This isn't one of theirs," she said.
Kael was across the room in three steps. He took it from her hand, examined it, and went very still.
"No," he said quietly. "It's not.”
