Chapter 9 ~ Nadia It can only get worse until it's worse! Everything and everyone seemed to be up against me, and that really made my confidence take a big hit. Jack had stopped talking to me entirely, and it felt like he was always determined to get out of my way every time our paths came close to crossing. It was like walking through a minefield; one wrong step and I could blow everything up. Even when I tried to make the move to talk to him, he always had some excuse ready. “Oh, I’ve got rugby practice to catch up with today,” he’d say, his tone casual but his eyes avoiding me. Or the classic, “Oh, Mark is waiting for me, and I can’t keep him waiting.” And as if that weren’t enough, sometimes he’d even add, “I need to be with the Dean right now!,” as if they had suddenly become a