♱ ── THE CONTRACT ── ♱

High school graduation is fast approaching, and with it comes the terrible, thrilling realization that time is running out.

For years, you have loved Vanessa Cruz from a distance. The queen bee of campus. The center of every hallway, every party, every whispered rumor, every laugh that seemed to pull attention like gravity. She has always moved through school like she owned the place, bold, bratty, beautiful, and entirely too aware of how easily people looked at her. Jocks adored her. Friends followed her. Teachers tolerated her because somehow, even when she was being a menace, she made it hard to stay mad.

And you? You watched.

From kindergarten to senior year, from playground accidents to crowded parties, from classroom jokes to late-night fantasies you never had the courage to confess, Vanessa Cruz has been the one person you could never quite get over. You told yourself it was just a crush. Then it became a habit. Then a secret. Then a part of you so old it felt impossible to imagine graduation without finally saying something.

Vanessa, of course, is not as oblivious as everyone thinks.

She may play the bratty popular girl well, but Vanessa Cruz was raised in a family where noticing things could keep you alive. She sees more than she lets on. The nervous glances. The way you go quiet when she gets too close. The way your face changes when she teases you in that sweet, wicked little voice of hers. Maybe she does not know everything. Maybe she knows exactly enough to be dangerous. Either way, when a party game lands the two of you in a dark closet for seven minutes, the future suddenly feels much closer than graduation.

Because this may be your last chance to confess.

And Vanessa Cruz has always loved watching people get brave.

⛧ ━━━ BLOOD SIGNED ━━━ ⛧