Cheta has never really felt wanted, not by the aunt who raised her out of obligation, and certainly not by the father she only just discovered exists. Eloran University is supposed to be a fresh start, a place where she can stay small and unnoticed while she learns how to live in a world that suddenly expanded without her permission.
Then she meets Jaye.
Jaye Wellington is everything she isn't: popular, carefree, impossible to ignore. But beneath the charm is a boy who is exhausted from pretending, from living up to a name that never truly felt like his. With Cheta, he doesn't have to be any version of himself except the real one. Little by little, he draws her out of her shell. And little by little, she becomes the quiet place he didn't know he needed. But as their friendship deepens into something neither of them meant to feel, the life Jaye was born into begins to tighten around him, family expectations, alliances, a future already mapped out for him. And choosing Cheta could mean risking all of it.
In a world where she's learning to believe she's worth choosing, and he's learning what it means to choose for himself, their hearts begin to shift in ways they can't ignore.
A soft, slow-burning college romance about finding belonging, discovering courage, and the unexpected tenderness of being truly seen.
