Chapter 50: Company Party

Ella POV :

Days have been flying by in a blur—classes, shifts at the diner, and juggling my project for the LBJ competition. I barely had time to breathe, let alone think about anything else. This was the final week before the competition, and the pressure was mounting. My sleep-deprived brain was running on fumes, but I had to push through. There was no other choice.

One thing kept gnawing at the back of my mind, though—Jason. I hadn't seen him all week. He'd been skipping a lot of classes, and for some reason, that made me anxious. Jason, missing classes? That wasn't like him. He was always the cocky overachiever, so if he was skipping, then I could only assume he was holed up somewhere, working on his project. 

And if Jason was working on something for the competition, that meant real competition for me.