Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 289

677

Chapter 288

And maybe that didn’t have to be scary.

Maybe it could just be… the next step.

P

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Chapter 289

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Chapter 289

Noah

I didn’t think it would hit me like this.

Not the game.

Not graduation coming up.

Not even the fact that everything we’ve known for the last four years is about to end.

It was something stupid.

A piece of paper.

I sat at my desk, staring at the acceptance packet again like it was going to say something different the tenth time I read it.

Same school.

Same offer.

Same future.

The one I’d been working toward for years.

Division I.

Scholarship.

Everything lined up exactly how it was supposed to.

Jackson was already in.

I was in.

We’d talked about it like it was a guarantee–like we’d just keep going the way we always had.

Same field.

Same team.

Same life.

Just… bigger.

And for the first time since that dream started-

It didn’t feel simple anymore.

Because now there was a variable that didn’t fit into that plan.

Jessa.

I leaned back in my chair, dragging a hand through my hair.

She wasn’t going to Oregon.

I knew that.

We’d already had that conversation.

She was staying in–state.

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Chapter 289

Different school.

Different direction.

And I told myself that didn’t matter.

People date long distance all the time.

People figure it out.

It’s not a big deal.

Except…

It kind of is.

My phone buzzed on the desk.

Jackson..

I stared at it for a second, then answered.

“Yeah?”

“You alive?” he asked.

“Barely,” I muttered.

He snorted. “Dramatic.”

“Shut up.”

There was a pause.

Then-

“You thinking about it too?”

I exhaled slowly.

“Yeah.”

“Same,” he said.

That was all it took.

Because I knew exactly what it was,

Everything.

“What are you gonna do?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“With Mariah. With… all of this.”

He was quiet for a second.

“Same thing I’ve been doing,” he said. “Figure it out as it happens.”

“That’s not a plan.”

“It’s the only one we’ve got.”

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Chapter 289

I let that sit.

Because he wasn’t wrong.

“You worried?” I asked.

Jackson let out a breath.

“Yeah,” he admitted. “Not about football. About everything else.”

“Yeah.”

Another pause.

Then he added-

“You and Jessa are solid though.”

I leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees.

“Yeah.”

But even as I said it-

There was something there..

Not doubt.

Just…

Reality.

“Then what’s the problem?” Jackson asked.

I stared at the floor,

“There’s no problem.”

“Bull.”

I huffed a quiet laugh..

“She’s going one way,” I said. “I’m going another.”

“That’s life.”

“I know.”

“Doesn’t mean it ends anything.”

I rubbed my face.

“Doesn’t mean it doesn’t either,”

Jackson was quiet again.

Then-

“You gonna talk to her?”

“Yeah.”

“When?”

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Chapter 289

I stood up, grabbing my keys without even thinking about it.

“Now.”

He chuckled.

“There it is.”

“Shut up.”

“Don’t screw it up.”

I hung up before he could say anything else.

Jessa was sitting on her front steps when I pulled up.

Like she’d been waiting.

She looked up as I got out of the truck, tucking her hands into her sleeves against the cold.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

I walked over, stopping a few feet in front of her.

For a second, neither of us said anything.

Then I just went for it.

“We need to talk.‘

She raised an eyebrow slightly..

“That sounds ominous.”

“It’s not,” I said. “I just… don’t want to overthink this anymore.”

She stood up slowly.

“Okay…”

I shoved my hands in my pockets.

“You’re going to your school.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to mine.”

“Yeah.”

We both knew that already.

That wasn’t new.

But saying it out loud?

Made it real.

“And we’ve kind of been pretending that doesn’t change anything,” I added.

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Chapter 289

She crossed her arms lightly, watching me.

“It changes things,” she said.

“Exactly.”

A beat.

Then-

“But it doesn’t have to end things.”

That landed between us.

She didn’t answer right away.

Just looked at me like she was trying to figure out where I was going with this.

“I don’t want to do the whole ‘we’ll figure it out later‘ thing,” I said. “Because later turns into never.”

“So what are you saying?” she asked quietly.

I took a breath.

“I’m saying… we choose it.”

Her brows pulled together slightly.