Off Limits On Purpose
672 Views · Ongoing · Mercy Charles
Star Davis stopped letting people in at fourteen, the year her father left without a fight or an explanation — just a quiet withdrawal that taught her exactly what happened when you trusted someone with the real version of yourself.
So she built rules. Four of them. Written in the front of a notebook she carries everywhere.
Alex Carter was never supposed to get past the first one.
But he did. Slowly, without asking permission, in libraries and coffee carts and late nights that ran longer than either of them planned. He got past all of them. And somewhere in the middle of a semester Star didn't expect, she stopped guarding herself so carefully around him.
What she doesn't know is that he has a secret. A bet made in September, a deadline in December, and teammates who were watching from the beginning.
What he didn't expect is that it would stop mattering — and that by the time he understood why, it might already be too late.
She gave him everything she never gives anyone.
He just hasn't told her what it cost.
So she built rules. Four of them. Written in the front of a notebook she carries everywhere.
Alex Carter was never supposed to get past the first one.
But he did. Slowly, without asking permission, in libraries and coffee carts and late nights that ran longer than either of them planned. He got past all of them. And somewhere in the middle of a semester Star didn't expect, she stopped guarding herself so carefully around him.
What she doesn't know is that he has a secret. A bet made in September, a deadline in December, and teammates who were watching from the beginning.
What he didn't expect is that it would stop mattering — and that by the time he understood why, it might already be too late.
She gave him everything she never gives anyone.
He just hasn't told her what it cost.
