Invisible To Her Bully (Jessa and Noah) novel Chapter 71

Chapter 71

Jessa

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The scratch of my pencil was the only sound in my room as I hunched over my history homework. Words blurred on the page. My brain had been in a fog ever since lunch, ever since seeing Noah snap at Daniel, ever since realizing that the tight knot in my chest wasn’t going away.

The sound of the front door downstairs snapped me out of my thoughts. Then came the heavy thud of cleats on the hardwood floor. Jackson was home from practice. Normally, he’d raid the fridge, then disappear to his room, but tonight his footsteps came upstairs. A knock rattled my bedroom door.

“Jess?” His voice was low but firm. “You in there?”

“Yeah.” I called back, instantly on edge.

The door opened, and Jackson stepped in. Still in his practice gear, hair damp with sweat, his duffel bag slung off his shoulder. He didn’t look like the joking, cocky quarterback everyone saw at school. He looked tired.

Serious.

“Can we talk?” he asked, dropping the bag onto the floor and sitting on the edge of my bed.

I twisted in my chair to face him. “About what?”

His jaw flexed, eyes narrowing like he was bracing for a hit. “About you and Noah. What’s the truth there? Because from where I’m standing, you’re both acting weird as hell.”

I blinked at him. He really had the nerve to come into my room and throw that question at me? My stomach twisted, part shock, part fury.

“Why do you even care?” I shot back. “Since when do you notice anything I do?”

Jackson straightened, shoulders tense. “Don’t start with that.”

“No, seriously.” I stood, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. “You’ve spent years pretending I don’t exist unless it makes you look good. When Daniel and your idiot friends made fun of me, where were you? Oh, right–standing there laughing. But now, because it’s Noah, suddenly you’re Captain Concerned Brother?”

His face hardened, guilt flickering across his features before he masked it. “It’s not like that.”

18:32 Mon, Oct 13

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