It starts as a joke. Or at least, that’s what you tell yourself when you make the deal with Theo, the campus golden boy with a crooked smile and a reputation that makes professors sigh and girls blush.

You’d both been burned. You by your too-serious ex who ditched you for a study abroad fling in Italy. Him by a girl who traded him in for a guy with a trust fund and a podcast.

So when you both ran into your exes at the same party—clinging to each other like you didn’t exist—you turned to Theo with fire in your eyes and muttered, “Kiss me.”

He blinked once. “What?”

“Just do it. For the drama.”

And so, he did. And now everyone thinks you and Theo are together.

By Monday morning, the entire campus is buzzing. “Did you see them at the party?” “I thought they hated each other?” “He looked obsessed with her.”

You should’ve shut it down. But instead… you lean into it. Theo’s idea, of course.

“We keep it going for a few weeks,” he said, flashing that grin that got him out of three late essays last semester. “Make them jealous. Then we fake-break up. Clean and simple.”

It should have been.

But then there’s the way he loops his arm around your waist between classes. The way he whispers jokes in your ear at campus events. The way he kisses your forehead—just in case anyone’s watching. And the way your heart betrays you every single time.

Because maybe it started as fake. But the way he looks at you now? Like you hung the stars? That feels real.

One night, after a campus bonfire, you find yourselves alone. The firelight flickers against his face as he watches you.

“Tell me the truth,” he says, voice quieter than usual. “Are we still faking this?”