Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 271

Chapter 271

Jackson

The thing about having a twin is you know when something isn’t right.

Not the obvious stuff.

Not when someone’s upset or crying or angry.

I’m talking about the quiet changes.

The ones nobody else notices.

And for the last few days, Jessa had been off.

Not dramatic off.

Just… distant.

She’d been zoning out at dinner.

Spending more time in her room.

Staring at homework like it personally offended her.

And every time I asked if something was wrong, she brushed it off.

Which meant something was wrong.

Because Jessa might be a lot of things, but she’s not mysterious.

She’s usually the one who blurts things out before she even finishes thinking them through.

So when she started holding things in?

Yeah.

That got my attention.

I walked into the house that afternoon and tossed my keys onto the counter.

“Jess?”

No answer.

I kicked off my shoes and headed down the hallway.

Her bedroom door was closed.

Which wasn’t unusual.

But something about the silence in the house made my stomach tighten a little.

I knocked once.

“You alive in there?”

Her voice came through the door.

“Yeah.”

I pushed it open and leaned against the frame.

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She was sitting on her bed with her laptop open again, papers scattered around her like she’d been doing homework or pretending to.

She glanced up.

“What?”

I crossed my arms.

“Okay. We’re doing this.”

“Doing what?”

“This thing where you pretend everything’s fine.”

She groaned softly.

“Jackson…”

“Jess.”

“I’m doing homework.”

“No you’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

“You’ve been acting weird all week.”

She dropped her pen onto the bed.

“Can we not do this right now?”

“No.”

Her eyes narrowed.

“Why?”

“Because something’s wrong.”

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“You’ve been quieter than usual, you keep disappearing into your room, and you look like you’re about to bite someone’s head off every time I ask a question.”

She exhaled hard.

“I’m fine.”

“Jess.”

She glared at me.

“Why do you assume something is wrong with me?”

“Because I know you.”

“Maybe I’m just tired.”

“Or maybe someone at school is running their mouth again.”

Her head snapped up.

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1 graded away from the doorframe and stepped in the room

“Don’t act surprised,” I said. “It wouldn’t exactly be the first time.”

Her eyes flatbed

“I’m not being teased.”

“I said I’m not.”

1 stopped.

Recene that wasn’t defendive,

That was angry

The kind of angry that had been building for a while.

She stood up from the bed.

“For once,” she said sharply, “I’m not the center of everyone’s stupid jokes.”

That threw me off

“Then what is it?”

She paced once across the room, running her hands through her hair

“You’re assuming this is about Ridgeville,”

“What else would it be about?”

She spun around.

“That’s the problem!”

Her voice was louder now.

Frustrated

“It’s always about Ridgeville. Everything is about this stupid town and what people here think.”

11rowned.

“Jess-”

“I’m tired of it!”

The words burst out of her like she’d been holding them in for months.

“I’m tired of the gossip. I’m tired of people acting like they know everything about me. I’m tired of being Jackson Lombardi’s

twin ”

That one bit harder than the others.

She saw it on my face immediately.

“That’s not what I meant,” she said quickly.

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“Yeah it is.”

“No–Jackson-

“You hate being compared to me.”

“I hate being defined by it,” she corrected.

Her voice softened slightly.

“I love you. You know that.”

I nodded once.

“Then what’s this about?”

She hesitated.

Looked down at the floor.

Then back up at me.

“I don’t want to stay here.”

My stomach tightened.

“In Ridgeville.”

The room felt suddenly smaller.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean exactly what I said.”

She walked back to her bed and grabbed something off the mattress.

A piece of paper.

She held it out to me.

I took it.

And read the top line.

Congratulations.

I blinked.

“You got accepted?”

She nodded.

“To a school out of state.”

I looked back up at her.

“You didn’t tell anyone?”

“Mom knows.”

“And Noah?”

She shook her head.

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“No.”

“Why not?”

Her shoulders slumped slightly.

“Because I don’t even know if I can go.”

I frowned.

“What do you mean?”

She sat down on the edge of the bed.

“Out–of–state tuition is insane.”

“Scholarships?”

“I’m trying,” she said quietly.

“But my grades aren’t high enough for most of the big academic ones.”

That surprised me.

Jess wasn’t a bad student.

But she wasn’t the kind who stacked perfect grades either.

Not when she’d spent half of high school dealing with idiots and rumors.

“So what happens?” I asked.

“I apply for everything I can,” she said. “Financial aid. Smaller scholarships. Anything.”

“And if it works?”

She looked up at me.