Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 65

The second I stepped into the school parking lot Monday morning, my stomach felt like it was twisted into

knots.

It wasn’t nerves about class or even football practice- it was her.

Jessa Lombardi.

The entire weekend had been one long, frustrating blur. Jackson was barely speaking to me after our blow–up on Saturday, and every time I thought about what Daniel had said to Jessa at the game, my blood boiled all over again. But right behind the anger was something even worse – guilt. Because no matter how I sliced it, she was hurting, and part of that was on me.

I shoved my hands into the pockets of my hoodie and headed inside. The hallway was already buzzing with noise, students clustering around lockers, laughing, talking, making plans for the week.

I wasn’t in the mood for any of it.

1 spotted Daniel up ahead, leaning casually against a row of lockers, his usual cocky smirk plastered across his face as he bragged to a couple of guys about a play from Friday night.

Typical Daniel. Acting like he was God’s gift to football when he’d barely done anything to help us win.

And yet, people always ate it up.

I clenched my jaw. And they say I like to show off? Daniel is ten times worse than me.

I was halfway to my locker when I heard laughter ripple through the hallway, sharp and loud. I didn’t think much of it until I caught a glimpse of Mariah heading my way, looking like she was on a mission.

That could only mean trouble.

Jackson wasn’t far behind her, standing with a couple of our teammates. He spotted me and nodded, but his expression stayed tense. Things between us were still icy, and I hated it.

I turned my focus back to my locker, pretending to be interested in digging through my books, when I caught sight of Jessa.

My breath caught.

She was walking down the hallway with Mariah, and for a second, it felt like the whole place slowed down. She wasn’t just wearing her usual jeans and hoodie. She looked… different. Confident. Her hair had this perfect loose wave, and there was a light in her eyes I hadn’t seen before -like she’d decided she was done hiding.

And she didn’t look at me. Not once.

My chest tightened.

18:31 Mon, Oct 13

Chapter 65

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Part of me wanted to go to her, to explain, to make her understand that I hadn’t been part of Daniel’s cruel little stunt. That the kiss at the pep rally had been real- I had been real.

But the other part of me, the stubborn, defensive part, told me to shut it down.

So I did what I do best: I acted like nothing was wrong.

I leaned back against my locker and threw on my usual grin, cracking a joke to one of the guys who was passing by. If Jessa noticed me at all, she’d think I was my same old self, not the guy who’d spent two days replaying every second of Friday night in his head.

Daniel held up his hands like he was innocent, but the smirk never left his face.

I forced myself to walk away before I did something stupid, like knock that smirk right off him.

As I moved through the hallway, I caught one last glimpse of Jessa with Mariah. She was laughing at something Mariah said, but it wasn’t carefree laughter

And in that moment, I realized two things:

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it was too sharp, too forced.

18:31 Mon, Oct 13

Chapter 65

One, Jessa Lombardi was completely done with me.

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And two, no matter how badly I wanted to fix things, I wasn’t sure she’d ever let me try.

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