Chapter 250: Penny
Max nudges my side with his elbow as we pass the vending machines, the sound of students echoing off the tile floors. His arm is still looped over my shoulders like it belongs there.
“Okay,” he says. “Be honest. You ever think about just… disappearing into the mountains and becoming a cryptid instead of finishing the school year?”
I snort. “Every Monday morning.”
“Good,” he says. “Then my influence is working.”
We round the corner near the second–floor stairwell–and the moment we do, I feel it.
That shift.
Like someone just cracked a window in the middle of winter and the cold came rushing in.
They’re standing near the trophy case: Tyler. Rebecca. Zoe.
And instantly, my body remembers things my brain has outgrown.
Tyler’s leaning against the lockers, posture easy, one hand holding his phone. Rebecca’s reapplying lip gloss in the reflection of the glass. Zoe’s chewing gum like it owes her rent.
They see us.
Tyler straightens up when his eyes land on me.
And he says, “Penny–hey.”
It’s soft. Hesitant..
But he says it like we’re still… something.
Max doesn’t miss a beat.
He steps in front of me slightly, his arm firm across my shoulders now instead of casual.
His voice is low. Sharp.
“Don’t say a fucking word.”
The air in the hallway stills. A few heads turn.
Tyler blinks. “What’s your problem, man?“.
“You,” Max says flatly. “You’re my problem.”
1/5
Chapter 250: Penny
Rebecca lets out a soft, fake gasp. “Wow. Someone’s feeling territorial.”
Zoe smirks. “You know I think Penny has become everyone’s favorite little pet, isn’t that right guys?”
Rebecca steps forward, just slightly. “Or maybe she is just their fun bag. Isn’t that what people are saying? That you let army man screw you behind locked doors? Does she let you hit it too, Max?”
Max’s grip on me tightens. I feel him freeze beside me, his whole body going taut.
And me?
I don’t freeze.
I don’t blush.
I don’t shrink.
I laugh.
I laugh.
Loud and sharp and sudden.
A bark of disbelief that feels like it was pulled straight from my ribcage.
Everyone stops.
Even Max blinks at me like he wasn’t expecting it.
Rebecca tilts her head. “The hell’s funny?”
I grin. “You. All of you.”
Then I turn to Max and say, “Let’s go.”
He looks like he wants to stay. Like he wants to snap someone’s neck in a hallway with zero hesitation. But he looks at me again, sees the way I’m smiling–actually smiling–and he gives in.
He falls into step beside me, but as we pass Tyler, he shoots him a glare sharp enough to draw blood.
“You know what’s wild?” Max says, once we’re far enough down the hall that we’re not in immediate throat–punching range. “I was fully ready to throw hands.”
“You were vibrating with rage,” I say, still smiling.
“Zoe said you were a pet. And Rebecca…”
“Yeah,” I say. “Which is why I laughed.”
2/5
Chapter 250: Penny
He frowns. “That was a menace laugh. What was that?”
I shrug, “I just can’t believe it, that’s all. That those girls used to be the scariest part of my life. And that Tyler was… well he was everything.”
He raises an eyebrow.
I nod. “Rebecca, Zoe. Tyler. I used to go home and obsess over their approval. Every word, every rumor, every glance–I’d overanalyze it for days. Tyler was the sun. And they orbited around him. Which meant I did, too.”
“And now?”
I glance at him. “Now it all just feels… distant. Like I’m looking at a museum exhibit. ‘College Mean Girls, Early 21st Century.“”
Max throws his head back and laughs, full and loud.
Then he grabs my waist and twirls me in the middle of the hallway like we’re in a musical number.
“You’re incredible, and I love this new version of you,” he says when he sets me down.
“I’m evolving,” I say, mock–serious. “Pokémon style.”
“Good,” Max says. “You’re evolving into someone who doesn’t take shit and has excellent taste in friends.”
We keep walking.
Behind us, voices rise again.
Zoe’s is sharp. Angry.
“What the hell is your problem, Tyler? Why would you even try to talk to her?”
“I just-” Tyler sounds tired. “I just want to be her friend. That’s it.”
“You’re obsessed with her,” Zoe spits. “God, you’re pathetic.”
“Zoe-”
“No! I’m serious. You screwed up, she’s moved on, and you’re still chasing her?”
Max and I glance at each other.
We don’t say anything.
But we both giggle under our breath and keep walking.
3/5
Chapter 250: Penny
It feels good.
No–great.
Not in a flashy, fireworks kind of way. It’s quieter than that. Quieter, but deeper. Like the kind of good that settles in your chest and makes you breathe easier without even realizing it.
It feels freeing.
To walk past them–Rebecca, Zoe, Tyler–and not feel that familiar rush of panic. To not brace myself for a whispered insult, a smirk, a knife disguised as a compliment. To not constantly analyze their expressions like I’m solving a code for survival. That part of me, the part that lived off their validation, that bent myself into shapes just to keep their approval? She’s gone.
It feels good because I didn’t even notice it happen. It just… faded.
And Tyler–God, Tyler used to have gravity. The kind that pulled me into orbit no matter how many times I tried to break free. I was always trying to be enough for him, always walking this invisible line between “too much” and “not enough,” just hoping I wouldn’t fall off.
But now?
Now he doesn’t have that power. He says my name and I feel nothing. Not hate. Not hurt. Just… nothing. And that nothing feels incredible.
I don’t know if he’s learned anything from what happened. I don’t think he really gets it–what he did,
what it cost me. But I know he’s felt it.
His parents grounded him for weeks. He lost that golden–boy shine he’d spent years polishing. He and his brother barely talk anymore. And his reputation at school? Yeah. It cracked.
People don’t look at him the same. They don’t hang on his every word. They don’t rush to follow his lead. He’s not the center of the room anymore–he’s just another guy trying to claw back a spotlight that moved
on without him.
And maybe that’s justice.
Maybe that’s enough.
Or maybe it’s just the beginning of him learning what it feels like to be on the outside.
Either way?
It’s not my responsibility anymore.
I don’t carry his guilt. I don’t carry his name like a wound. I don’t carry any of them.
I carry myself now.
4/5
Falling for my boyfriend’s Navy brother
