Chapter 2: Three Months
I gasped — sharp and panicked — as something yanked me back from the edge.
I hadn’t even felt the arms until they tightened around me, strong and urgent, pulling me away from the railing.
“Hey, hey… you’re okay. You’re safe.”
The voice was low, steady. Calming, somehow. The arms didn’t let go, not right away. I struggled, instinctively, but my knees buckled before I could break free. My breath caught in my throat, and then everything I’d been holding in just… exploded.
I collapsed into him.
I sobbed. Ugly, gasping sobs that made my whole body shake. I didn’t care that it was a stranger. I didn’t care if he thought I was crazy. Everything — Travis, Angela, my mom, the pressure of always being good enough — poured out of me all at once.
He didn’t say much. Just held me. One hand rubbed slow, gentle circles on my back, steady and grounding. And somehow… that helped.
Eventually, the sobs faded. My chest still hurt, and my throat burned, but the storm had passed — for now.
I pulled away slowly, wiping my face with my sleeve. My eyes stung, but I forced myself to look up.
The captain of East Haven High’s football team standing before me in his glory. Dark, messy hair. Intense eyes. The kind of face that belonged on a football poster — not here, not like this.
Jake Roberts.
The Jake Roberts.
Captain of East Haven High’s football team. The guy every parent warned their daughters about. The guy with the smirk and the swagger and the stories. A walking warning label with cleats.
And somehow… he was the one holding me together.
“You good?” he asked softly, not letting go just yet.
“I— I think so,” I whispered.
He nodded, jaw tight. “You scared the hell out of me.”
“You scared me,” I snapped, voice cracking. “You just grabbed me out of nowhere!”
“Better grabbed than fallen,” he muttered, eyes flicking toward the edge.
We stood there for a moment in silence. I sniffled and took a step back, crossing my arms. I could still feel his hands on me — not in a bad way. In a weird, grounding way.
He didn’t move. Just watched me. Quiet. Calm. Like he wasn’t judging me.
“What are you even doing here?” I asked.
“Walking,” he said.
“At night?”
He shrugged. “Better than being home.”
Something in his voice made me pause. Like there was more he wasn’t saying. I looked down, rubbing my arm.
“You go to East Haven, right?”
Jake smirked. “So you have heard of me.”
“You’re hard to miss,” I mumbled.
He tilted his head a little, his expression more curious than cocky. “You’re Lily Waters, right? From Central.”
I blinked. “You… know me?”
He nodded. “You dated that wide receiver. Travis something.”
My chest tightened. “Yeah. Not anymore.”
“I figured.”
I looked at him then. Really looked. For someone with a reputation for breaking rules and hearts, he didn’t seem cocky. Or flirty. Or reckless. He seemed… worried. Like he actually cared.
“You don’t seem like what people say,” I said before I could stop myself.
He just leaned against the railing, arms crossed. “People say a lot of things.”
I hesitated, then leaned next to him — not too close. Just close enough to share the silence.
“I don’t even know what I was doing,” I whispered. “Everything just… broke.”
He glanced at me. “You ever feel like your life’s not really yours? Like it was already planned without you?”
I stared at him. Then nodded. “Yeah. Every day.”
He looked at me for a long time, and there was something in his eyes I couldn’t quite figure out.
Then he said, “I have a proposition.”
I raised an eyebrow. “A what?”
“You’ve got three months of summer left,” Jake said, like he was making it up as he went. “Let me help you change your life.”
I laughed — short, dry, a little bitter. “What, you gonna sprinkle fairy dust on me or something?”
He actually smiled. “Not quite.”
I folded my arms. “Why would you even care?”
He didn’t answer right away. He stared out at the water, eyes darker now.
“Maybe I just hate watching people give up.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
He glanced back at me. “Look. No pressure. You can say no. But if you want to shake things up — even just to get out of your own head — I’m offering.”
I shook my head, laughing again. “You’re insane.”
“Maybe,” he said. “But so are you, for almost jumping.”
That shut me up.
I sighed and brushed my hair out of my face. “This is so weird.”
“Life usually is.”
I looked at him one last time. This stranger who wasn’t acting like one. This rival with too-kind eyes. The guy who just offered me something I didn’t even realize I needed.
A way out.
I didn’t say yes.
But I didn’t say no either.
