"It’s me," Leo agreed, apparently immune to tone.

The girl with the twin tails, who Jordan still didn’t know the name of, looked between Leo and Alexis with wide eyes that tracked the social temperature of the interaction like a weather instrument.

Chloe was looking at Jordan.

Jordan was looking at a point approximately eight inches to the left of Chloe’s head. Very interested in the window frame. Fascinating architecture. Really good glass.

His phone buzzed.

He did not check it.

Leo was already pulling out the chair across from Alexis like he’d been invited. Jordan sat down because standing there alone would be worse. He ended up across from Chloe, who had set her phone face-down on the table.

Jordan continued studying the window frame.

Leo launched into conversation the way Leo always launched into conversation, which was to say he talked as if the other person had already agreed they wanted to hear what he was saying. Something about the winter break. Something about a trip to Cabo his family took that he kept steering back to dollar amounts.

Alexis responded in short sentences. The twin-tail girl, who was apparently named Kumiko based on what Alexis said once, listened with genuine interest and smiled at everything.

Jordan sat there.

Okay, Chloe knows I live next door. She asked me to pretend I don’t know her on campus. I’m on campus. I am currently sitting four feet from her face. This is the opposite of pretending. This is actively violating the one ground rule she set. She has murder eyes right now. I can feel the murder eyes without looking directly at them. Looking directly at the murder eyes would be bad. Keep looking at the window. Great window. Really doing its job. Keeping the outside outside.

Leo elbowed him.

Jordan’s head snapped forward. "What?"

Leo laughed. It wasn’t mean but it wasn’t fully kind either. "Sorry. My boy here is probably still thinking about his ex."

Alexis straightened up. "Oh?" Her head tilted toward Jordan. "Who’s your ex?"

Jordan opened his mouth.

"Eliza Hartwell," Leo said.

The name landed on the table like something dropped from height.

Alexis stared at Jordan for one second.

"Pfft~"

She pressed her fingers to her mouth. Her blue eyes went wide and bright and she looked at Jordan with the specific delight of someone who has just connected a dot they’d been waiting to connect.

"Wait." She lowered her hand. "You’re the simp she was talking about?"

Oh no.

"Ahhahaha!" The laugh broke out again. "Oh my god. She literally told me about this. She said—" Another laugh. She shook her head. Composed herself for approximately half a second. "She called you the Prada bag guy."

Leo made a face that was trying to be sympathetic but was also absolutely losing the battle.

"Bro," Leo said. Then he started laughing too.

Jordan sat very still.

The Prada bag guy.

Eliza had told Alexis Van Der Berg about him. Had described him. Had given him a nickname that reduced two months of his life and twenty-eight hundred dollars to a punchline she passed around to her friends at expensive cafes.

The Prada bag guy.

Leo was still going. Something about how he’d warned Jordan. Something about how you can’t buy your way into somebody’s heart, man. Still laughing while he said it.

Jordan heard it all as one flat wall of noise.

"Stop."

The word was quiet. It came from across the table.

Alexis stopped laughing. She looked at Chloe with genuine surprise.

Chloe had both hands flat on the table. Her face was composed but her jaw was set.

"That’s not funny," she said.

Alexis blinked. "Chloe—"

"It’s really not."

Kumiko, to Jordan’s right, had already stopped smiling. She was nodding slowly, her hands folded in her lap, her voice softer but steady.

"She’s right. It’s not nice to make fun of someone who put their heart on the line and got broken."

Jordan heard this from somewhere far away. The words were kind and he registered that they were kind but they weren’t reaching him. Everything at the table had turned into ambient signal. Noise with shape but no content. He was aware of mouths moving. Aware of Alexis saying something in a tone that was a little defensive. Aware of Leo adjusting his posture.

None of it mattered.

The Prada bag guy.

He’d cried in a parking lot on Christmas Day. He’d spent his winter break on his bedroom floor. He’d looked at himself in his bathroom mirror three days ago and seriously, genuinely considered dropping out of Pacific Crest and going home to work at his dad’s convenience stores because at least there he understood the transaction. Money in, product out. Simple. Clean.

And Eliza had been laughing about him at brunch.

Jordan pushed his chair back.

"I gotta go," he said.

He stood up. Grabbed his backpack off the floor where he’d set it down.

"Jordan—" Leo started.

Jordan was already walking.

The stairs were eight feet away. He hit the first step and kept moving. His hand caught the railing on the turn. The ground floor opened up below him and he took the rest of the stairs without slowing.

Leo’s voice came from the top of the stairs. "Yo, Jordan, hold up—"

Jordan pushed through the front door of the student union.

Outside. Sun. The quad stretched out ahead of him with students crossing in every direction. He turned left without deciding to and walked along the building’s exterior wall, away from the main pathway. His shoulder caught someone’s bag and he said sorry automatically, kept moving.

He needed to get to his car.

His phone buzzed four times in his pocket.

He did not check it.

The parking structure entrance was ahead. He took the ramp to the third level on foot. His footsteps hit the concrete with that hollow echo parking garages have. Third level. Spot near the stairwell.

His Civic sat where he’d left it.

Jordan unlocked it, got in, and closed the door.

The garage was quiet around him. A car alarm somewhere on the second level cycled through its pattern and stopped.

He sat with both hands on the steering wheel and the engine off.

The Prada bag guy.

He’d been a joke. Not just to Cameron, not just to Eliza, but to their whole group. To Alexis Van Der Berg. Probably to everyone who had ever sat at whatever table Eliza used when she wanted to feel better about herself.

Jordan tipped his head back against the headrest.

His phone buzzed again.

He pulled it out this time.

💝 CASHBACK SYSTEM 💝

Chloe Kim

Chemistry: 21%

Last interaction: 4 minutes ago

New message from: Leo

bro come back im sorry

New message from: Leo

she was being a b*tch dont let her get to you

New message from: Leo

also who was the other girl she was HOT

Jordan locked the phone and set it on the passenger seat.

He looked at the gray concrete wall in front of his car. A painted number three. A yellow arrow pointing toward the exit.

The exit was a good idea.

He started the car.

===

〘Traore’s Thoughts〙

Hey guys, I decided to make a Power Stone Goal for this novel.

Every 200 Power Stones this week = +1 Extra Chapter. (MAX 14 ChapterS)

We can have the normal 2 Daily Chapters + 2 Extra Chapters Every Day, is all up to you ;)