The rumours started on a Thursday.
By lunch, half the campus was whispering.
By evening, everyone was staring.
Tiana knew something was wrong the moment she walked into the cafeteria and heard two girls at the next table talking.
"That's him."
"No way."
"I'm serious. My cousin works in the admin office. His parents own half the companies that sponsor this school."
Tiana frowned.
"Who?"
The girls looked up.
Then one of them pointed.
Dare.
He had just walked in.
And suddenly, everybody was looking at him differently.
Not like the quiet, funny boy who wore old hoodies and sat on the football field with her after class.
But like somebody else.
Somebody important.
Somebody untouchable.
By the end of the day, the story had become bigger.
His parents were rich.
Ridiculously rich.
The university existed because of them.
There was even another rumour
that his family had already chosen a girl for him.
The daughter of some business partner. Pretty. Rich. Perfect.
The kind of girl families like that married.
Tiana tried not to care.
She really did.
But later that evening, when she walked past the main building and saw a black car parked outside
when she saw Dare standing there with a tall man in a suit and a beautiful woman beside him
when she saw another girl standing there too, smiling at his mother
something inside her sank.
Dare saw her immediately.
"Tiana "
But she turned and walked away.
By the next morning, he had not answered any of her messages.
By afternoon, she saw him leaving the dean's office with his father.
He looked stressed.
Distant.
He did not even notice her.
That hurt worse.
"You did not know?" Nadia asked quietly later.
Tiana shook her head.
"No."
"And he never told you?"
"No."
The word came out smaller than she wanted.
Because suddenly all she could think was maybe that was the point.
Maybe girls like her were never meant to belong in stories like his.
That night, Stephen went to Dare's dorm.
He did not knock.
He shoved the door open.
Dare looked up from where he was sitting on the edge of his bed.
"You need to explain what is going on."
"I can't right now."
Stephen laughed bitterly.
"You cannot?" he snapped. "Tiana has been crying all day."
Dare stood up immediately.
"Do not talk like you know what this is."
"Then tell me!"
For the first time, Dare looked angry.
"My parents want me to marry somebody else," he said. "They are threatening to transfer me if I do not stop seeing her."
Stephen went silent.
"They think Tiana is beneath me," Dare said quietly. "They think she is a distraction. And I did not tell her because I was trying to fix it before she found out."
"But instead, you hurt her."
Dare looked away.
Stephen stepped closer.
"The last thing I wanted was for somebody to hurt Tiana again."
"I know."
"No," Stephen said. "You do not."
And before he could stop himself—
he punched him.
Dare stumbled back.
The room went silent
Then Stephen looked at him, breathing hard.
"Fix it."
And then he walked out.