Chapter 3

"You think ratting us out will make him stay? That's about all the tricks a good student has."

Tracy reached out, grabbed my backpack strap, and yanked me forward.

"I don't have the time for your drama. Also, let go," I said, keeping my voice perfectly flat.

"You think Lennox will believe your bullshit, or mine?" Tracy sneered, leaning in closer. "Just watch. I'll make you see with your own eyes that he can't survive without me."

Tracy's blind arrogance was nauseating.

But Lennox was exactly that kind of fool for love. To him, anyone else's provocation was just a catalyst to prove his "true romance."

That night, at the abandoned quarry.

New videos kept popping up in the group chat. The footage showed a blazing bonfire and the deafening roar of dirt bike engines.

Tracy was leaning against a car window, holding a beer can and loudly mocking Lennox in front of everyone, calling him a "good little boy who only listens to his mommy, daddy, and Harper."

Desperate to prove himself, Lennox yelled to the crowd that he was going to attempt the quarry's most dangerous cliff blind jump.

By the time his father and I tracked the location from the group chat and arrived, Lennox was already straddling the dirt bike.

His father roared, ordering him to get the hell off the bike.

Lennox turned his head and immediately locked eyes with me standing next to his dad. He instantly assumed I was the one who brought his father there to ruin his perfect love. Pure hatred flared in his eyes.

Instead of killing the engine, he slammed the gas pedal all the way down.

The dirt bike shot off the edge of the cliff like a rabid animal. But the second it went airborne, the bike lost its balance entirely, tumbling and violently crashing into the bottom of the rocky ravine.

Hundreds of pounds of metal landed dead weight on Lennox's right arm. Jagged white bone pierced straight through his flesh, and blood rapidly soaked into the gravel.

His father fell to his knees in the pool of blood, his hands shaking so violently he didn't even dare to touch him. The town's invincible golden boy had just smashed himself into a bloody pulp right in front of everyone.

The ambulance tore down the dark roads.

Lennox lay on the stretcher, drenched in cold sweat and slipping in and out of consciousness. Yet, he kept mumbling Tracy's name over and over again, slurring, "Only she gets me."

When we reached the hospital's emergency room, the paramedics threw open the back doors to transfer him.

Just as the gurney was being pulled out, he suddenly snapped his eyes open for a moment of terrifying clarity. He glared dead at me and forced a sentence through his gritted teeth:

"You will never tear us apart."

I stood in the emergency corridor, watching him get wheeled through the double doors, my emotions complicated.

The diagnosis came out quickly.

The orthopedic surgeon delivered the grim verdict: "Severe comminuted fracture of the right arm with extensive nerve damage. Even if the follow-up surgeries are successful, his football career is essentially over."

Lennox's father broke down on the spot, collapsing into a chair and violently tearing at his own hair. His mother cried in sheer despair, unable to even stand upright on her own.

She threw herself at me, her face covered in tears, and grabbed my hands. "Harper, please, I'm begging you, go talk some sense into him. Tell him to leave that Tracy girl and stop this nonsense. He used to listen to you the most!"

I wanted to refuse, but looking at the haggard, devastated woman in front of me, I finally nodded.

I pushed open the door to his room and walked in.

Lennox was propped up against the headboard. When he saw me walk in, his face initially darkened, but it quickly shifted into a smug, victorious smirk.

"So they sent you to play peacemaker?"

"Yeah." I couldn't be bothered to deny it.

"Who the hell do you think you are, coming in here to lecture me?" he scoffed coldly. "You think I fell by accident? I calculated the exact trajectory of that jump. This is what I chose! I wanted Tracy to see that I'd throw away my whole life and my own destiny for her!"

I stayed silent.

Taking my silence as confirmation, he raised his voice and started accusing me: "Don't think I don't know what's going through your head. You've had a crush on me since we were kids, right? Seeing me with Tracy makes you crazy with jealousy! You think if you ruin things between me and her, I'll finally look your way? Keep dreaming!"

So, that was what he actually thought.

"So, you personally smashed your own right arm entirely just to prove to her that she's more important than the NCAA, your bright future, and your family?"

"Damn right!" Lennox lifted his chin high, his tone dripping with sheer arrogance and pride. "She's the only real thing in my life."

Staring at his ridiculously proud, stupid attitude, whatever lingering trace of sympathy I had for my childhood friend evaporated completely.

"Lennox," I stared at him with ice in my eyes. "If you want to use your own destiny as a gambling chip and smash it to pieces, that's your business. But stop flattering yourself. I have zero interest in you whatsoever, and I've never snitched on you to anyone."

The smugness on his face instantly froze.

"I don't care who you destroy your future for." I drew the line, clean and sharp. "From now on, we act like we don't know each other. You chose this path, so face the consequences yourself."

I turned around and walked out of the hospital room, without looking back at him even once.