The thing about Rina was—she didn't do waiting.
While Zoe and Dahlia were out here trading soft words and shared existential dread over lukewarm coffee, Rina was already halfway across campus, throwing open doors like she was auditioning for the lead role in a disaster movie.
She found them in the coffee shop, sitting across from each other like a scene from some kind of sad indie film.
And Rina?Rina was not an indie film.She was a summer blockbuster with explosions.
"Well, this looks cozy," she said, voice like gasoline to an open flame.
Both Zoe and Dahlia flinched, but neither spoke first. Rina didn't care. She dragged a chair over with the screech of metal on tile and plopped herself right into the emotional wreckage with a grin sharp enough to cut glass.
"Did I miss the poetry slam?" she continued. "Or is this just the world's most awkward support group for 'Girls Who Love the Same Disaster Boy'?"
"Rina," Zoe muttered, clearly already halfway to a headache.
But Rina wasn't here to be reasonable. She was here because someone needed to stop pretending this was some tragic, wistful story and admit it for what it was:
A mess.Their mess.And she was going to light the whole thing on fire before anyone else got to strike the match.
"You wanna know what's funny?" Rina leaned in, voice dropping just enough to be dangerous. "All of you keep talking about who's known him the longest, who's written the prettiest words, who's done the most feeling—but guess who actually did something about it first?"
Zoe stiffened. Dahlia's mouth pressed into a thin, embarrassed line.
"Yeah," Rina smirked. "Me."
"Congratulations," Dahlia said softly, "on kissing someone too confused to even kiss you back."
That one hit harder than expected. For a second, the chaos flickered behind Rina's eyes—but she shoved the feeling down where it couldn't reach her.
"Confused or not," Rina snapped, "at least I don't hide behind metaphors or years of what ifs. At least I risked something."
Zoe finally stood, fists clenched, voice trembling but not breaking. "You think risking is always about action? Sometimes feeling something is the scariest part."
"Aw," Rina said with venomous sweetness. "How brave of you. Standing there being emotionally vulnerable while the rest of us are out here bleeding for it."
The whole shop had gone quiet now. Phones were out. Livestreams running. TikToks already forming in people's drafts. Someone in the corner whispered, "Oh my God, this is better than TV."
But Zoe, to her credit, didn't back down.
"Do you even want him?" she asked."Or do you just want to win?"
Silence.
Even Dahlia looked up now, eyes sharp under all that soft-girl energy.
For the first time, Rina didn't have a quick comeback. She wanted to say both, but suddenly that felt like too much honesty in one breath.
"I don't lose," Rina said finally, voice quieter but laced with something raw.
Maybe that was the problem.Maybe this wasn't about Eliot anymore.Maybe it never was.
And as the three of them sat there—one soft, one steady, one sharp—the viral machine outside the coffee shop kept spinning, eating their heartbreak like popcorn.
But inside?
Inside, something real was breaking open.
Not for followers.Not for views.For them.
Messy. Loud. And finally, finally true.