Chapter 36: The Rumour

The Rumour

Roxanne expected a normal morning, but the moment she stepped into the academy corridor, people started greeting her by name, complimenting yesterday’s shortcut, asking how she’d spotted it so fast. She slowed down and looked at Isla, asking what had happened to everyone.

"You won," Isla said, grinning.

"I’ve won things before."

"Not in front of the entire academy."

Roxanne sighed, thinking back to yesterday, when whispers had painted her as the weak link on the Moonstone team. Today, people were treating her like someone worth noticing, and she wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the switch. Yesterday, they had looked at her like she didn’t belong beside the Moonstones. Today, they were looking at her like she had somehow earned the right to stand there. The sudden change made her suspicious more than flattered.

Isla bumped her shoulder and told her congratulations, she was officially interesting now, which earned a groan in response.

Breakfast started peacefully enough, right up until Liam dropped into the seat across from her and greeted her as champion. She told him not to start, and he insisted he hadn’t even begun yet. Roshan sat beside him a moment later, sliding her favorite snack across the table without a word.

"You’re doing that again," she said.

"Doing what?"

"Remembering what I like."

He took a bite of his own breakfast, unbothered. "Should I stop?"

She hesitated. "No." A small smile crossed his face at that.

Lucien arrived next, immediately telling Liam to move since he was sitting in Roxanne’s usual seat. Liam refused, suggesting she sit beside him instead, and Kai appeared behind them without a word, simply taking the chair next to her before anyone could argue further. Liam looked between all of them and declared they were becoming a problem, and Roxanne laughed, agreeing that all four of them already were.

"You keep sitting with us," Kai said, glancing at her.

She opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again, since he wasn’t wrong.

As they ate, she noticed people watching their table, whispers drifting through the cafeteria until she caught one clearly enough to make her freeze. Someone asked which one she was dating. Liam’s eyebrows shot up, and Isla leaned in with barely contained amusement.

"There’s a rumor," Isla said.

"What rumor?"

"You’re dating one of the Moonstones."

Roxanne nearly choked. Liam burst out laughing and asked which one, and Isla shrugged, saying everyone seemed to have a different theory. Students around them immediately pretended they hadn’t been staring, and Roxanne felt heat rising in her face.

"We’re not dating."

"Yet," Liam said, leaning back with a grin, and she kicked him under the table hard enough that he laughed even louder.

He clearly wasn’t done enjoying himself, launching into a hypothetical about which of them she’d choose if she absolutely had to pick one. She cut him off before he could finish, saying she’d choose none of them, and he clutched his chest dramatically at the cruelty of it. Roshan pointed out flatly that she hadn’t even hesitated, and Lucien shook his head at his brother while Liam insisted he was simply curious.

Kai hadn’t said anything through any of it, and Roxanne found herself glancing his way, wondering why his silence unsettled her more than Liam’s constant teasing. His expression gave nothing away, but his fingers had stopped halfway to his cup. She couldn’t tell if he was amused, annoyed, or simply listening. Somehow, not knowing bothered her more.

Liam caught her looking and grinned wider than before, and she kicked him again for good measure.

Outside her next class, Joanna appeared with a small group of students, one of whom asked directly if it was true she was dating one of the Moonstones. Before Roxanne could answer, Joanna spoke first, wondering aloud why it wouldn’t be true. "They protect her. They train her. They sit with her. Now everyone’s talking about them." Her smile stayed perfectly polite. "Some people are very good at making themselves important."

Roxanne’s expression hardened, but she didn’t raise her voice. She simply stepped closer. "If you have something to say about me, say it to me."

The hallway went quiet, and Joanna’s smile faltered slightly. "I was only making an observation."

"Then observe quietly."

A few students snickered, and Joanna’s face tightened before Roxanne walked off with Isla trailing behind, calling that exchange beautiful. Roxanne sighed and admitted she was starting to hate this school, and Isla told her that wasn’t true at all, which made her smile despite herself.

Across the hallway, Dorian had heard the entire exchange, his friend mentioning offhandedly that Silver was apparently dating one of the Moonstones. He asked which one, and the friend shrugged, saying nobody actually knew. His eyes followed Roxanne walking beside Isla, then Liam catching up and saying something that made her laugh, and his jaw tightened without him meaning him to.

Arabella noticed immediately. "You’re staring again."

"I wasn’t."

"You don’t care who she’s dating," she said, watching him closely, and he said nothing at all, which told her exactly what she needed to know.

Later that afternoon, Roxanne sat alone outside the library, and Roshan found her there, asking if he could join before sitting down beside her. Neither spoke for a moment until he finally asked if the rumors were bothering her.

"A little."

"Because they’re false?"

"Because they’re deciding things for me."

He nodded, and she admitted she didn’t want other people deciding who she liked. He told her simply not to let them, and when she pointed out that was easy for him to say, he agreed that it was.

"What if I don’t know what I want?" she asked.

"Then you don’t have to choose yet."

Something about the answer settled in her chest, no pressure attached to it, no demand for an answer she didn’t have ready. She had expected him to tease her or tell her which brother she should consider. Instead, he had given her permission to remain uncertain.

He stood and told her to come on, and when she asked where, he said she hadn’t eaten yet.

"You really do notice everything."

"Only the things that matter," he said, already walking ahead, and she stayed frozen for half a second before following.

That evening, back in the dorm, a new announcement had gone up around the academy for the Founders’ Festival main night, promising music, food, a Moonball exhibition, pack games, performances, and dance. Roxanne remembered joining Dance Club, and the announcement mentioned the club’s main performance would use assigned partners.

She scrolled through the list until her own name stopped her cold.

Roxanne Silver, Kai Moonstone.

She read it twice, and Isla leaned over her shoulder, breaking into a slow grin.

"Oh."

"Don’t."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You were about to."

"I was absolutely about to."

Roxanne looked back at the list, remembering Kai’s hand at her waist from their last rehearsal, his quiet voice guiding her through every step, the way he’d caught her without a second of hesitation. She told herself it was only a dance, just a performance, nothing more than that.

Her stomach flipped anyway, and she already knew tomorrow’s rehearsal was going to be a problem.