Page 539 of Bad Prince
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Stella
Once campus got over its initial cardiac event overS&Tbecoming official, life did what it always does.
It kept moving.
Not quietly.
Not kindly.
Not even all that slowly.
But the first wave of hysteria did die down.
People got bored in the way only overfed, over-scheduled, hyperconnected college students can. Another athlete got caught liking the wrong girl’s bikini photo. A fraternity lost social privileges for something involving fireworks and a golf cart. Midterms hit. Deadlines piled up. Coaches barked. Bodies broke. New gossip replaced old gossip like weather.
The edits were still out there.
The hashtags too.
The photos from Newport still made their rounds every few days when some account re-posted them for engagement.
But the initial frenzy softened.
Now it lived more in glances and half-smiles and the way people’s eyebrows lifted when Tristan and I crossed campus together, rather than in outright swarm behavior.
Good.
I didn’t need strangers narrating my life for me. And if the campus still wasn’t fully over it, Coach Alvarez certainly was.
But I never stopped playing like I still had something to prove.
By Thursday afternoon my whole body felt like one long bruise wrapped in tape.
My calves were tight enough to sing. My low back ached. My shoulder had that deep post-practice throb that makes opening a water bottle feel personal. Even my fingers hurt in that strange, athlete-specific way where every joint remembers every rep.
We finished a brutal late practice with extra serve-target work and transition defense until the whole gym smelled like sweat and volleyball rubber and people trying not to throw up.
Coach blew the whistle.
“Done.”
No one moved for a second.
Then girls folded in half, collapsed onto floor mats, dragged hands over faces, muttered prayers to various gods and sports medicine.
I dropped onto the bench and pulled my ponytail loose with shaking hands.
My phone buzzed in my bag.
One text.
Meet me out back. Don’t let anyone see you limp.
I stared at the screen.
Then I smiled.
