Chapter Three
The heavy Crack
Julian's voice saying my name again—it all receded into this sharp, suffocating atmosphere.
I lifted my eyes slowly.
Julian was still in front of me. The woman—tall, glossy-haired, painfully beautiful—stood a step behind him.
I can't lie. She's actually a beauty to behold.
The kind of beauty that doesn't need to be tried. The kind that knows men look twice and doesn't pretend not to notice.
She stood there confused, knitting her brows as she rested against the stool close to her like she belonged there. Like that spot had always been hers.
"Ava," Julian called again, softer this time. "Wait."
I didn't know which version of me he was talking to.
The girl who'd just watched him kiss someone else like it mattered.
Or the girl who'd been in love with him for half her life and never learned how to stop.
My phone buzzed again.
Yellow dress.
Left hallway.
Guest room door.
You dropped your cup.
My stomach dropped.
He'd seen everything.
My fingers went numb. I took a step back, then another, until my shoulder hit the wall. The fairy lights blurred into streaks of gold.
"You brought someone here," I said, my voice thin and wrong. "To Lena's place."
To my greatest surprise, he didn't see it as a big deal.
"Yeah, I brought my girl,"
he said without any remorse.
Just like that.
My girl.
I couldn't hold it at this point. I felt like slapping him.
I felt like screaming.
I felt like throwing something—anything—just to hear it break the way my chest was breaking.
But I held myself together after realizing he still saw me as a little girl who just entered uni.
The same little girl who used to trail after him with starry eyes and unspoken hopes.
"Sorry if I disrupted anything,"
I managed to say.
Julian reached for my arm after walking closer to me.
For half a second, I thought he wanted to apologize.
At least pretend to care.
But he held my hand firmer than I expected.
"Don't make a scene," he said under his breath, like I was embarrassing him instead of bleeding out in front of him.
I froze.
"What?" I whispered.
"You're drunk," he went on, eyes flicking briefly down my dress, then back up to my face in a way that felt… dismissive. "You're reading too much into this."
My chest hollowed.
"So now I'm dramatic," I said softly. "That's what you think of me?"
He sighed like I was exhausting him.
Like I was wasting his time.
Like I'd ruined his good time by existing too loudly.
"Ava, you're a kid. You don't understand how this works."
You should have walked away instead of staying back to stare.
"A kid."
The word landed like a slap.
Behind him, the woman stepped closer, her arm sliding around his waist with deliberate possession.
Her nails pressed into his shirt like she was staking a claim.
"Is she always like this?" she asked him, not even looking at me. "Because I really don't have time for insecure little girls."
Something inside me shattered clean through.
Julian didn't correct her.
Didn't move her hand.
Didn't defend me.
"Ava, go sit down," he said. "You're making this weird."
My vision blurred.
"I've loved you since I was sixteen," I said, my voice barely holding together. "And this is how you talk to me?"
He looked uncomfortable.
That probably sounded like a confession he never saw coming.
I couldn't read his mind but he looked shocked.
"Please leave,"
he said after staring for like half a minute.
I expected better after being able to finally speak my mind.
I expected something. Anything.
My heart shattered.
The woman smirked.
I stepped back like I'd been shoved.
That was when a calm, unfamiliar voice cut through the tension.
"Funny," he said. "From where I'm standing, she looks a lot more real than you do."
We all turned.
Jude stood at the end of the hallway like he'd been summoned by my heartbreak.
Tall.
Composed.
Dark jacket.
Sharp eyes that went straight to Julian with something cold and measuring.
Julian frowned. "Who the hell do you think you are?"
Jude didn't answer him.
He walked straight to me.
"Come with me," he said gently. "You don't belong here."
The woman laughed. "Oh my God, is this your backup boyfriend?"
Jude finally looked at her.
Just once.
She'd been smiling all along hearing that Julian was for her.
Whatever she saw in his eyes made her mouth snap shut.
Julian stepped forward. "She's not going anywhere with you."
Jude tilted his head. "She already is."
He held his hand out to me.
I didn't even hesitate.
The moment my fingers touched his, something stirred inside me.
Something reckless.
Something desperate.
Something that felt like relief.
I let him lead me out.
The night air hit my face like freedom.
I didn't realize how hot the apartment had been until I was outside gulping cold air like I'd been underwater too long.
My legs felt weak.
My hands were shaking.
My heart was still pounding like it wanted to escape my chest.
I was crying and laughing at the same time by the time we got into his car.
"I'm drunk," I said, slurring. "I make terrible decisions when I'm drunk."
He glanced at me, mouth curving slightly. "Good. So do I."
I didn't know why that made me laugh harder.
We didn't talk much after that.
We didn't need to.
The city blurred past the windows.
Streetlights smeared into long golden lines.
My head spun.
My heart hurts too much to think.
I kept replaying Julian's voice in my head.
A kid.
Go sit down.
You're making this weird.
My phone buzzed in my lap.
Julian.
I turned it face-down without opening it.
"Good choice," Jude said quietly.
"How do you even know my name?" I asked suddenly.
He glanced at me. "Because you look like someone whose name deserves to be remembered."
That shouldn't have worked on me.
But it did.
When we got to his place, the silence between us felt thick.
Charged.
Like something was waiting to happen and we both knew it.
His apartment was dim, only one lamp in the living room.
I dropped my purse on the table.
My heels by the door.
My chest felt tight again.
Not with pain this time.
With something nervous and buzzing.
I turned to him.
"Why are you really here?" I asked. "Not just tonight. In my life."
He stepped closer. Not touching.
Just close enough that I could feel his heat.
"Because you looked lonely," he said. "And because he doesn't deserve you."
Something in me cracked open.
"I don't want to think," I said. "Not about him. Not about anything."
"Then don't," he said softly.
I kissed him first.
Hard.
Messy.
Like I was trying to erase someone else's mouth from my memory.
He froze for half a second—then kissed me back like he's been waiting his whole life for the moment.