Chapter 20

• JESSIE
• The holiday was finally coming to an end, and with it, the warmth and comfort I had grown so used to. I would be going back to college in just a few days, and the thought weighed heavily on me. It wasn’t just the return to endless assignments and late-night study sessions that had me dreading my departure—it was leaving them.
• Cal, Olivia, and I had built something unexpected. Something deeper than I had anticipated when all of this began. What started as a fling had transformed into something else entirely. Something I couldn’t quite define, but it felt real, too real. And that was the problem.