CAMMPUS LOVE

Clara had started to breathe again just a little. After Emmanuel chose her, something inside her flickered back to life. But her heart still held the bruises Vanessa and her girls left behind. She didn't want pity, though. She wanted to rebuild herself, piece by piece, stronger and unshakable.

That morning, Clara stood in front of the mirror, staring into her own tired eyes. "You are not weak," she whispered. "You just feel deeply. And that... that's your power."

She began to write again , pages filled with her pain, her love, her strength. She even joined a poetry group at school and poured her heart out at her first open mic. Emmanuel sat in the back, watching every word drip from her lips like they were dipped in fire.

Vanessa was there too. Smirking. But something in Clara's voice that night silenced even her.

Vanessa wasn't done. She hated losing. Especially to Clara.

She cornered Emmanuel in the hallway two days later, pressing her hand on his chest, her voice a dangerous whisper. "You really think she can love you better than I can?" Her eyes flickered with desperation beneath all the confidence she wore like armor.

Emmanuel stepped back. "Vanessa you should know that Clara and i met before you came into the picture,she has her flaws but she has a good heart and soul to, and i love her and will always choose her "

Vanessa scoffed, but for the first time, the mask cracked. Beneath all her games... was fear. Fear of being alone. Of being second best. Of never being loved the way Clara was.

Clara knew it was coming. She could feel the storm brewing again.

So when Vanessa approached her at school with that same smirk, Clara didn't flinch.

"You really think he'll stay?" Vanessa taunted. "You cry too much. You feel too much. Guys don't want girls like that. They want fire. Passion. Not... fragility."

Clara looked her dead in the eye. "You call it fragility. I call it heart. You burn bridges, I build them. We are not the same."

The girls around Vanessa fell silent. No one expected Clara to speak like that. Not her.

But Clara was no longer hiding. Her voice was steady, strong.

"You're not my villain, Vanessa. You're just a girl who doesn't know how to love and you think you can just jump into people's life and into a relationship when you don't know how it started. You shouldn't have known your limit Emmanuel and I just had an argument,it doesn't mean you should jump between us and try causing more trouble I hope you figure that out someday... for your own sake."

That night, Emmanuel found Clara on the school rooftop, where she often went when she needed air. He wrapped his jacket around her shoulders without saying a word.

She leaned into him quietly. "I don't want to fight anymore," she whispered. "I just want peace."

"You have me," he said. "Not because you fought for me... but because you love like no one else ever could."

He took her hand, and for the first time in a long time, Clara let herself breathe, knowing the war was over , not because it all magically stopped, but because she had finally stopped breaking herself to survive it.