Chapter 237: 237 | The Jordan You Knew is Gone
The room erupted into motion as students stood and rearranged themselves to sit with their partners. Chloe gave Jordan’s knee another squeeze before rising to join Hana across the U.
Jordan stayed in his seat.
Eliza was going to have to come to him.
She did.
She walked over with careful steps, her designer bag clutched against her side like armor. She stopped in front of Jordan’s desk and stood there for a moment, clearly waiting for him to say something.
He didn’t.
"Hi," she said finally.
"Hey."
"So. We’re partners."
"Looks like it."
Eliza shifted her weight from one foot to the other. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, and she wasn’t quite meeting his eyes.
"Can I sit?"
Jordan gestured to the empty seat beside him. "Free country."
She sat. Arranged her bag. Pulled out a notebook. Did all the small, unnecessary motions of someone trying to delay an inevitable conversation.
Jordan waited.
"You look different," she said.
"Do I."
"Yeah. You..." She finally looked at him properly. Her eyes traveled across his face, his shoulders, the way he was sitting. "You got taller?"
"Same height. Better posture."
"And you..." She trailed off, clearly struggling to articulate whatever observation she was trying to make.
Jordan decided to take pity on her. Not because she deserved it, but because they had a project to complete and sitting in awkward silence for fifty minutes wouldn’t accomplish that.
"I changed some things," he said. "Diet. Exercise. General approach to life."
"After..."
"After Christmas. Yeah."
The word hung between them. Christmas. The day Jordan had stood in a hotel parking lot and watched his entire worldview collapse into rubble.
Eliza’s face crumpled slightly.
"Jordan, I..."
"Don’t."
She stopped.
"We’re not doing this." Jordan’s voice was calm. Flat. The voice of someone who had already processed their emotions and moved on. "We’re not having a heart-to-heart about what happened between us. We’re not relitigating the past. We’re partners for a debate project. That’s it."
Eliza’s jaw tightened. "I was going to apologize."
"I don’t need your apology."
"But I want to give it."
"And I want a lot of things I’m not going to get. Welcome to life." Jordan pulled out his own notebook and opened it to a fresh page. "Economic inequality and social mobility. Which side do you want to argue?"
Eliza stared at him.
He could feel the weight of that stare. The confusion and frustration and something else, something that might have been respect or might have been irritation or might have been a combination of both.
"Who are you?" she asked quietly.
"I’m Jordan McKnight. We’ve met."
"No, I mean..." She shook her head. "The Jordan I knew would have let me apologize. He would have said it was okay even if it wasn’t. He would have bent over backward to make me feel better about the situation."
"The Jordan you knew spent forty-five hundred dollars on a girl who never kissed him." Jordan met her eyes directly. "That Jordan’s gone."
Eliza flinched.
Good.
"Now." Jordan tapped his pen against the blank page. "Which side?"
A long moment passed. Eliza’s expression shifted through several emotions before settling into something that looked almost like acceptance.
"I’ll argue that the American Dream is still achievable," she said. "You can argue it’s a myth."
"Works for me."
They spent the next forty minutes actually working. Discussing thesis statements and evidence and counterarguments. Dividing up research responsibilities. Scheduling a time to meet and prepare.
It was surreal.
Sitting next to the girl who’d broken him, talking about income inequality like they were just two students working on a project. Like the past three months hadn’t happened. Like Christmas Day was just another day on the calendar.
But Jordan was good at compartmentalization now.
He was good at a lot of things he hadn’t been good at before.
The System had helped with that. The quests, the traits, the constant quantification of his progress. It gave him structure. Purpose. A framework for understanding the chaos of human interaction.
And yeah, it was weird. It was deeply, profoundly weird to have a supernatural app on his phone that tracked his relationships like a dating sim and gave him points for being charming.
But it worked.
He was proof that it worked.
Across the room, Chloe and Hana were deep in conversation. Hana had set aside her sketchbook and was listening to something Chloe was saying with focused attention. Occasionally she would nod, or offer a quiet comment that made Chloe smile.
Cameron and Tanner were having a more animated discussion. Cameron was doing most of the talking, his hands moving expansively as he made whatever point he was trying to make. Tanner sat back in his chair, arms crossed, watching Cameron with the patient expression of someone waiting for a child to tire themselves out.
Professor Delgado circulated through the room, stopping at various pairs to offer feedback and suggestions. When she reached Jordan and Eliza, she paused.
"Mr. McKnight. Ms. Hartwell." Her whiskey eyes moved between them, reading something in the space that separated their chairs. "How’s the partnership going?"
"Productive," Jordan said.
"Mmm." Delgado’s gaze lingered on him for a moment longer than necessary. "I’ve noticed you’re participating more in class lately. It’s nice to see."
"I’m a changed man."
"Clearly." A small smile curved her red lips. "Don’t forget, thesis statements by Friday. I’m expecting big things from both of you."
She moved on to the next pair.
Eliza watched her go, then turned back to Jordan.
"She likes you."
"She’s my professor."
"Professors can like students."
"Not in the way you’re implying."
Eliza made a skeptical noise but didn’t pursue it.
At 1:50 PM exactly, Delgado called time. Students began packing up, conversations continuing as they gathered their things and headed for the door.
Jordan stood. Collected his notebook. Prepared to leave.
"Jordan."
He paused. Looked back at Eliza, who was still seated, her bag clutched against her chest.
"What?"
"I really am sorry." Her voice was quiet. Sincere. "For everything."
Jordan considered his response for exactly three seconds.
"I know," he said.
Then he walked out of the classroom.
Chloe was waiting in the hallway, leaning against the wall with her phone in her hand. She fell into step beside him as they headed for the building exit.
"How was it?"
"Fine."
"Just fine?"
"She apologized. I told her I didn’t need it. We did the assignment. That’s it."
Chloe was quiet for a moment.
"Are you okay?"
Jordan thought about it.
He thought about Eliza’s face when he’d told her the old Jordan was gone. The confusion and hurt and something that might have been loss. He thought about how he would have felt three months ago, being partnered with her. How it would have destroyed him. How he would have spent the entire class period desperately trying to earn back an affection that had never really existed.
He thought about how he felt now.
Nothing.
Not anger. Not sadness. Not even satisfaction.
Just nothing.
"Yeah," he said. "I’m okay."
His phone buzzed. A System notification.
DAILY QUEST: Path to Becoming Adonis
Social: 3/3 conversations complete ✓
Alexis Van Der Berg ✓
Ava Moreno ✓
Eliza Hartwell ✓
Reward: 3 Quest Tickets
Total Tickets: 100 🎫
GOLD GACHA UNLOCKED!
Jordan smiled.
"Actually," he said. "I’m better than okay."
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