Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 287

Chapter 287

Noah

I knew something had changed before she even said anything.

Not in a bad way.

Not like the last time, where she was quiet and distant and somewhere I couldn’t reach.

This was… different.

Calmer.

Like she had already fought whatever battle had been going on in her head–and now she was just carrying the result.

I spotted her at her locker, shifting her books into her bag. She looked up when she saw me, and for a second she smiled.

A real one.

But there was something behind it.

Something softer.

Heavier.

I walked over, leaning against the locker beside hers.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

I watched her for a second.

“You okay?”

She nodded.

“Yeah.”

Then, after a beat–

“…I need to tell you something.”

There it was.

I straightened a little,

“Okay,”

She closed her locker and turned to face me fully,

And I could tell this mattered.

Not in a dramatic, everything–is–falling–apart way.

Just… important.

“I got the final numbers back,” she said.

“Oregon?”

She nodded.

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Chapter 287

My stomach tightened slightly.

“And?”

She took a breath.

“I can’t go.”

It wasn’t said like a question.

It wasn’t said like she was asking me to fix it.

It was just… a fact.

I studied her face.

Waiting.

Because I knew there was more under that sentence.

“There’s no way to make it work financially,” she added. “Even with aid. It’s just… too much.”

I nodded slowly.

“Okay.”

She blinked.

“That’s it?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted. “Something?”

I thought about it for a second.

Then I said the only thing that felt right.

“That sucks.”

She let out a small breath.

“Yeah.”

Silence settled between us.

But it wasn’t uncomfortable.

It wasn’t empty,

It was just… real.

“I really wanted it,” she said quietly.

“I know.”

“And I knew it probably wouldn’t happen, but…” She shook her head slightly. “It still hurts.”

“Of course it does.”

She looked at me like she wasn’t expecting me to understand that part.

Like she thought I might tell her to just move on.

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Chapter 287

But that wasn’t how this worked.

“You don’t have to pretend you’re okay with it right away,” I said.

“I’m not pretending,” she said. “I just… I already had my moment about it.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” she said. “There may have been a dramatic staring–at–the–laptop situation.”

“I’m shocked.”

“Followed by pacing.”

“Even more shocking.”

She huffed a small laugh.

“And then I kind of realized something.”

“What?”

She shifted her bag higher on her shoulder.

“Oregon wasn’t really the point.”

I tilted my head slightly.

“No?”

“No.”

She met my eyes.

“The point was getting out.”

That landed.

Because yeah.

I got that.

More than she probably realized,

“And I can still do that,” she continued. “Just… not three thousand miles away.”

“State school?”

She nodded.

“An hour away. I can afford it. I can get aid. I can still leave.”

I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding.

“That sounds like a pretty solid plan.”

“It does, right?“.

“Yeah.”

She studied:

my

face.

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Chapter 267

“You’re not disappointed?”

I shook my head.

“Jess.”

“What?”

“I was never attached to Oregon.”

She blinked.

“I was attached to you having a shot at something better.”

Her expression softened.

“You still do.”

“Exactly.”

Something in her shoulders loosened at that.

And I realized something in that moment.

She hadn’t just been worried about the school.

She’d been worried about how I’d react.

About whether this would change something between us.

“I thought you might feel like…” she hesitated, then pushed through, “…like I failed or something.”

I frowned.

“What?”

“I don’t know,” she said quickly. “It sounds stupid now.”

“It doesn’t sound stupid,” I said. “It just sounds wrong.”

She let out a small breath.

“Yeah.”

I stepped a little closer.

“You got into a school across the country.”

“I can’t go.”

“That doesn’t erase the part where you got in.”

She looked at me.

Really looked this time.

And I could see it.

That shift.

The moment where she let that sink in.

“I guess,” she said softly.

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Chapter 287

“No guess,” I said. “That’s a fact.”

A small smile pulled at her mouth.

“You’re very firm about this.”

“I am.”

“Why?”

“Because you don’t get to downplay something like that.”