Asher’s POV
Rain pours down in sheets.
It soaks through my jacket within seconds. Plasters my hair to my forehead. Runs down my face like the tears I refuse to shed.
I don't care. Don't know where I'm walking. Don't have a destination. Just need to move. Need to escape the suffocating weight crushing my chest.
The coach's words echo in my skull. Off the roster entirely. The anonymous texts burn in my pocket. Tick tock, Captain. The articles, the photos, the spiral I can't stop.
Everything is falling apart. Everything I built. Everything I sacrificed for. And I have no one to blame but myself.
My feet carry me through empty streets. Past closed shops and darkened windows. Through puddles that soak my shoes.
Lost. Hollowed out. Scared in ways I can't admit even to myself.
The rain intensifies. Thunder rumbles somewhere distant. The sky weeps the tears I won't allow myself.
I look up—and freeze.
Blaze stands a few meters away.
Just standing there. In the rain. Getting soaked like me. Watching me with those brown eyes that have always seen too much.
Like he knew I'd be here. Like he came purely for me.
Emotions crash through me in violent waves. Each one hitting before the last one recedes.
Joy at the sight of him. Despite everything, my heart still leaps when he's near.
Warmth spreading through the cold. His presence is like a flame I've been stumbling toward in the dark.
Pain. Sharp and immediate. Remembering his parents' post. Sophie's hand on his arm. Girlfriend.
Anger at him for moving on. For finding someone easier to love. For giving his family what they wanted instead of fighting for us.
Jealousy. Vicious and consuming. Poisoning every other emotion until I can't tell where one ends and another begins.
Everything tangled. Impossible to separate. I steel myself. Straighten my spine. Keep walking like he's not there.
"I saw the article."
His voice cuts through the rain. Through all my defenses.
I don't stop. "I don't doubt it. The whole world saw it."
"Ash."
"Don't." I pick up my pace. "Whatever you came to say, I don't want to hear it."
He catches up in three strides. His hand wraps around my wrist. Stopping me like I still matter.
"This won't work." His grip is firm. Unyielding. "You can't keep destroying yourself like this."
I try to pull free. He doesn't let go.
"Why do you care?" The words come out raw. Broken. "Go back to Sophie. Go back to your perfect reconciled family. Leave me alone."
"Because you're not a stranger to me." His eyes bore into mine. Rain streaming down his face. "You never were. You never will be."
"Could've fooled me."
"Don't refuse help when you need it, Ash." His voice drops. Softens despite the storm raging around us. "That's not strength. That's a weakness."
Something snaps inside me.
All the pain. All the fear. All the jealousy I've been choking on since I saw that Instagram post. It erupts.
"Weakness?" I wrench my hand free. Step back. Create distance between us. "You want to talk about weakness?"
"Asher…"
"You went crawling back to your parents who disowned you! Who told you that you weren't their son because you dared to be honest about who you are!"
"That's not—"
"And all it took was a pretty girl on your arm!" My voice rises. Breaks. "All it took was pretending to be straight and suddenly they love you again!"
Blaze flinches. The words land exactly where I aimed them.
"You don't understand," he says quietly.
"I understand perfectly!" Rain runs into my eyes. I don't bother wiping it away. "You gave up. Took the easy path. Let them believe Sophie is your girlfriend because that's what they wanted."
"And you?" His voice hardens. "You're one to talk about taking easy paths? Hiding in closets your whole life? Using others when you're lonely? Letting Jackson—"
"Don't." The name cuts through me. "Don't you dare bring him into this."
"Why not? You brought Sophie into it!"
We're screaming now. Standing in the middle of an empty street, rain pouring down, shouting years of pain at each other.
"At least I never pretended!" My chest heaves. "At least I never let my parents think I was something I'm not just to get their approval back!"
"No, you just hide from everyone! Lie to everyone! Push away anyone who tries to get close!"
"Because it's not safe!"
"It's never going to be safe, Ash!" Blaze steps closer. Into my space. "That's the fucking point! You have to choose—safety or happiness!"
"And you chose safety!" The accusation tears out of me. "You chose your family over us! Over everything we—"
"I chose myself!"
Silence. Broken only by the rain hammering down around us.
Blaze's chest heaves. His eyes are wild. Wounded. Full of everything we've never been able to say.
"Nothing's been decided yet," he says finally. Voice quieter now. "About Sophie. About any of it. People twist facts."
The hesitation in his words. The qualification. The lack of denial. It shatters something inside me.
He's not denying it. Not saying Sophie means nothing. Not choosing me.
Just making excuses. Buying time. Keeping his options open. I'm not worth a clear answer. Not worth fighting for. Not worth—
Blaze grabs my hand. Pulls me into the alley beside us. Out of the street. Into shadows where no one can see…
And kisses me. Hard. Desperate. His mouth claiming mine like he's drowning and I'm the only air.
I kiss him back without thinking. Instinct overriding everything else. My hands fisting in his soaked jacket. His fingers tangling in my wet hair. The rain, the thunder, none of it matters while I was in his grasp.
Calm washes over me instantly. His touch silencing every screaming thought. His presence quieting the chaos that's consumed me for weeks.
For one moment, everything feels fixable. Repairable. Like we could find our way back to each other if we just tried hard enough.
His tongue slides against mine. I moan into his mouth. Pull him closer. Try to crawl inside this moment and never leave.
Then he pulls away. Slowly. Reluctantly. Forehead resting against mine.
His eyes are sad when they meet mine. Filled with something final. Something that looks terrifyingly like goodbye.
"That was goodbye, Ash."
The words don't register at first. Don't compute.
"What?"
"I'm done." His voice is quiet. Steady. Broken beneath the surface. "I'm done chasing the past. Chasing someone who won't let me catch him."
"Blaze…"
"I need to focus on what makes me happy." He steps back. Creates distance I don't want. "Whatever that looks like. Whoever that's with."
He turns. Starts walking. Away from the alley. Away from the kiss. Away from me.
"Blaze!" His name tears from my throat.
He doesn't stop. Doesn't even look back. Just keeps walking until the rain swallows him whole.
And I stand alone in the alley. Soaked. Shattered. Drowning in the wreckage of everything I've destroyed.
I did this. Pushed him until he finally broke. Until he couldn't keep loving someone who won't let himself be loved.
The rain keeps falling and the thunder keeps rolling. The world keeps spinning like nothing happened.
But something did happen. Something irreversible.
I slide down the alley wall. Sit in the puddles gathering on the concrete. Let the rain hide what might be tears.
He's gone. Really gone this time.
And I have no idea how to survive it.