Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 101

Jessa

My phone started buzzing before the sun was even up.

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At first, I thought it was my alarm. But then it didn’t stop – it kept rattling across my nightstand like it was possessed.

I groaned, rolled over, and squinted at the bright screen.

Notifications. Dozens of them.

Messages. Mentions. Group chats.

And every one of them had my name in it.

“Holy crap did you see what happened at the party?”

“Daniel got punched!”

“Jackson lost it!”

“Noah Carter actually hit Daniel

–

for Jessa Lombardi???”

My stomach dropped so fast I thought I might be sick.

I sat up in bed, my blanket twisted around me like a net. For a moment, I just stared at the screen, trying to process the words. Then I tossed the phone aside and buried my face in my hands.

—

It didn’t matter how many times I blinked. The images from last night came back anyway the noise, the laughter, Daniel’s disgusting voice, and then Noah fists flying, rage in his eyes, chaos exploding around us.

—

Mariah had dragged me out before things got worse. She didn’t say much on the drive home, which told me everything. If Mariah was quiet, then things were bad.

Now, in the gray light of morning, my room felt too still. Like the whole world was waiting for me to open my phone and see the wreckage.

I forced myself to look.

Videos.

There were videos.

My thumb hovered over one – a shaky clip someone had posted to Snap. The caption:

“Noah Carter snaps – throws punch defending Jessa Lombardi!!”

The camera caught it all – Daniel’s smug face, the blur of movement, the sound of shouting, and me, frozen

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Chapter 101

in the background like some clueless bystander in my own nightmare.

The comments made it worse.

“Didn’t know Carter was into the chubby girls.”

“Well, Ridgeville’s got drama this year.”

“Guess the QB’s sister needed a hero.”

I shut off my phone and pushed it away, my pulse hammering in my ears.

So that was it

—

my life had become a public circus overnight.

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Dragging myself out of bed, I pulled on sweats and headed downstairs. The kitchen smelled faintly of coffee, but Mom was already gone – her shift at the hospital started early. Jackson’s car wasn’t in the driveway either.

Figures.

I poured cereal into a bowl I wasn’t going to eat and stared at it until the milk turned soggy. My head was pounding with too many thoughts – humiliation, guilt, anger.

And beneath all of it, the tiniest flicker of something I didn’t want to name. Because Noah had defended me. He’d stood up when no one else ever did.

But at what cost?

The sound of a car pulling up out front made me freeze. A moment later, the door opened, and Jackson Lombardi walked in. His hoodie was wrinkled, his hair a mess, eyes bloodshot like he hadn’t slept.

“Hey,” I said cautiously.

He froze mid–step when he saw me, his jaw tightening. “You okay?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Are you?”

He gave a short, humorless laugh. “Define ‘okay.””

I bit the inside of my cheek. “I saw the videos.”

“Yeah,” he muttered, dropping his keys on the counter. “So did half the school.”

There was silence for a beat – heavy, awkward.

“You shouldn’t have gone after Daniel,” I said finally. “Or Noah.”

He looked up, surprised by the edge in my tone. “You think I was supposed to just stand there and let that jerk talk about you like that?”

“No,” I snapped, “I think maybe it could’ve been handled without turning it into a fight people are replaying online like a highlight reel!”

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Chapter 101

Jackson let out a bitter sigh and rubbed the back of his neck,

“You know what, Jess? I’m not exactly handling much of anything right these days”

That stopped me cold.

He wasn’t yelling. He wasn’t defensive. He just sounded… tired,

He looked up, eyes shadowed with guilt. “I cared about being popular. About keeping my spot on the team, about people thinking I was funny or chill or whatever, I didn’t want to be the guy standing up for his weird sister because then I’d be the punchline too.

“I know.” He stepped closer, his tone fierce now. “But it stops now. I don’t care who it is. Daniel, anyone. I’m done letting, people treat you like a joke”

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