The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 424

Piper's enthusiasm was aggressive and entirely unapologetic.

Somehow, she had acquired Sloane's exact class schedule. Every day at noon, she spawned outside the Business building holding two coffees or a box of fresh pastries, grinning like a golden retriever that had been waiting by the door all day.

She would hook her arm through Sloane's and drag her across campus to the dining hall, chattering nonstop about whatever chaotic drama happened in her classes that morning.

Sometimes, Sloane felt like Piper didn't actually want lunch—she just wanted an audience. For a girl from a wealthy family who claimed to have social anxiety, Piper could easily talk for thirty minutes straight without pausing for breath.

Josh's attention, on the other hand, was entirely different.

Every evening, regardless of his own teaching schedule, he appeared outside the Business building.

Sometimes he held a freshly printed academic journal; sometimes he carried a bag of fruit; sometimes his hands were completely empty. He would just lean against the sycamore tree by the bike racks, staring at his phone. The second Sloane walked out the door, he would pocket his phone and casually stroll over.

"Hey. Let me walk you home."

The walk from campus to Emerald Grove took exactly twenty minutes.

It was a well-lit main road lined with convenience stores and fruit stands. It wasn't dangerous or isolated in the slightest.

Sloane had tried turning him down multiple times. "I can walk by myself." "You don't need to do this every day." "You live in faculty housing, this isn't even on your way!"

But Josh always gave the exact same response: a soft, agreeable nod... followed by him showing up under the exact same sycamore tree the very next day.

With silent, gentle, infuriating stubbornness, he had turned 'walking Sloane home' into an absolute, non-negotiable daily routine.

The rain had eased up, turning into a fine, freezing mist that drifted sideways under the glowing streetlamps. She popped open her umbrella and started the slow walk back. Campus was dead quiet. The wind blew through the sycamore trees, casting shifting, chaotic shadows across the wet pavement.

She stepped off campus and turned into the covered alleyway leading to Emerald Grove, snapping her umbrella shut.

And then, she felt it.

Not a sound. A vibration. A heavy, aggressive trembling echoing up through the pavement, like something massive was barreling toward her at an unnatural speed.

Before she could even turn around, twin beams of blinding white light flooded the narrow alley, turning the dark night into stark, terrifying daylight.

A massive blue truck came roaring around the corner.