Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 135

Noah

Waking up felt like getting tackled by a linebacker.

Not physically I’d slept, I’d stretched, I’d eaten but mentally? It felt like my brain had been dragged across gravel.

Today mattered.

Today I was going to ask Jessa Lombardi to Homecoming.

And somehow, that was scarier than a fourth–and–goal play with the game on the line.

I pushed through the doors of Ridgeville High with Jackson beside me. He looked annoyingly calm for someone who’d witnessed me pacing my room like a lunatic last night.

He spun his locker open and smirked. “Big day.”

“Don’t.”

He snorted. “Man’s got nerves.”

“I do not.”

I yanked my locker open- too hard. The metal clanged like it was offended.

Jackson stared. “You just ripped your locker open like it owes you money.”

“It’s defective.”

“Sure,” he said, laughing. “Okay.”

I didn’t answer because I saw her.

– –

Jessa.

Red sweater today. Hair soft around her face. Books hugged to her chest like armor she didn’t quite need anymore.

Not hiding.

And damn, she looked good. Real. Open. Catching light like she didn’t know she could.

Mariah talked beside her, dramatic as always, but Jessa? She was somewhere else. Somewhere shy. Somewhere

nervous.

She caught me staring and flushed. My pulse tripped over itself.

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Chapter 135

Jackson elbowed me. “You gonna stand here drooling or actually do som

“Go away.”

He grinned and strolled off. “Good luck, Casanova.”

Traitor.

+25 BONUS

I reached them and managed, “Hey.”

Jessa tucked hair behind her ear. “Hey.”

–

I inhaled momentum, courage, whatever bravery felt like

Mariah threw her hands in the air.

– and started, “Can I-”

“Oh my god, Noah, every day you ask if you can walk her to class. Just do it. This isn’t a 90s teen movie. The hallway isn’t a battlefield. Move your feet.”

“Mariah!” Jessa hissed, mortified, cheeks pink.

“What?” Mariah shrugged. “Someone’s gotta stop this painfully slow rom–com pacing.”

I coughed. “…Right. So I’ll, uh, walk you.”

Jessa shook her head but smiled, soft and real. “Okay.”

We started walking.

Charged silence. Like the air between us remembered last night, too.

“So…” I tried.

“So,” she echoed.

We were hopeless.

“I wanted to ask you something,” I forced out. “About Homecoming.”

–

Her breath hitched — tiny, but I felt it.

“Yeah?”

“I want you to go with me.”

No buildup. No finesse. Straight blitz.

She stared surprised, but not shocked. More like she was trying to see if she’d misheard.

+25 BONUS

“Yes.”

“I want to go with you. I just… hope you don’t change your mind.”

something terrified and alive.

Jackson leaned against my locker when I got back.

“Well?”

“She said yes.”

“So why do you look like you swallowed a grenade?”

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Chapter 135

“Shut up.

He shrugged. “Just don’t screw it up. I’m not third–wheeling my own

“I won’t.”

We exchanged a solid nod- truce, understanding, warning all in one.

Then he walked off.

I leaned against the lockers, letting out a long breath.

Daniel’s voice crawled up my memory like poison:

Looks matter. Reputation matters. She’ll drag you down. This’ll ruin your shot.

He wasn’t totally wrong.

The world judges. Scouts judge. Image matters.

But the rest? Toxic. Cowardly.

I could live scared or I could live real.

–

And liking Jessa wasn’t the risk.

Losing her because of fear was.

I straightened, heartbeat steady.

Yeah the world could deal with it.

–

Because I wasn’t backing off.

Not from her.