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Emily's smile immediately faded away and Luca could feel the shift in atmosphere. the way the others suddenly found their food fascinating, the way conversations at nearby tables seemed to pause.

"I should go," Luca said quietly, starting to stand.

"No." Ryan's hand shot out to catch his wrist, and the contact sent sparks racing up Luca's arm. "Stay."

Their eyes met, and for a moment the cafeteria faded away. It was just them, just this moment, just the implications of two years of separation and all the words they'd never said that filled the air between them.

Then Emily cleared her throat loudly, and the spell broke.

"Actually," she said, voice dripping with false sweetness, "I think I need some air. Ryan, walk with me?"

It wasn't a request. Her fingers wrapped around Ryan's arm with the casual ownership of someone used to getting what she wanted, and Ryan let her pull him to his feet.

"I'll catch up with you later," he said to Luca, but his eyes were apologetic, conflicted.

Luca watched them walk away, Emily's hand possessive on Ryan's arm, and felt something twist painfully in his chest. Of course. Of course Ryan had a girlfriend. Of course she was beautiful and confident and everything Luca wasn't.

"Dude," Elvis said quietly, sliding into the seat Ryan had vacated. "You need to be careful."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean Ryan Thompson isn't someone you want to get tangled up with. His family..." Elvis shook his head. "They're powerful, but they're also dangerous. And Emily Chen? She's been obsessed with him since freshman year. You don't want to get on her bad side."

Luca pushed his untouched food around his plate. "It doesn't matter. We're just... we used to be friends. That's all."

But even as he said it, he could feel the lie burning on his tongue. Because friends didn't look at each other the way he and Ryan had been looking at each other all morning. Friends didn't have moments where the world disappeared around them. Friends didn't have histories written in almost-kisses and midnight phone calls and the kind of longing that lived in your chest like a second heartbeat.

The rest of lunch passed in a blur, and when the bell rang, Luca was grateful to escape to the relative anonymity of his afternoon classes. But he couldn't shake the image of Emily's possessive grip on Ryan's arm, couldn't stop wondering what they were talking about as they walked away.

By the time the final bell rang, exhaustion had filled his bones. He'd gotten lost twice, accidentally walked into a maintenance closet thinking it was a bathroom, and endured more curious stares than he could count. All he wanted was to go back to his tiny apartment and help his mother with her physical therapy exercises and pretend that seeing Ryan again hadn't turned his world upside down all over again.

He was digging through his locker when a shadow fell across the door.

"How was your first day?"

Luca's heart jumped, but he didn't turn around. He could feel Ryan behind him, could smell that expensive cologne and the clean scent of his shampoo.

"Fine," he said, continuing to shuffle through his textbooks.

"Luca."

Something in Ryan's voice made him pause. It was softer now, without the performance he'd been putting on all day. More like the boy he remembered.

Slowly, Luca turned around.

Ryan was closer than he'd expected, close enough that Luca had to tilt his head back to meet his eyes. The hallway had mostly cleared out, leaving them in a pocket of relative privacy.

"I'm sorry," Ryan said quietly. "About lunch. About Emily. She can be..."

"Territorial?" Luca blurted out before he got to finish the sentence.

Ryan's mouth quivered in what might have been a smile. "I was going to say protective."

"Right." Luca closed his locker with more force than necessary. "Because heaven knows you need protection from the likes of me."

"That's not—" Ryan ran a hand through his hair, frustration slid into his voice. "God, you always did this."

"Did what?"

"Assumed the worst. Put words in my mouth." Ryan stepped closer, and Luca's breath caught. "You think I asked you to sit with us to embarrass you? You think I defended you because I felt sorry for you?"

"Didn't you?"

"No." The word came out fierce, almost angry. "I asked you to sit with us because I wanted you there. I defended you because Emily was being a bitch, and I was tired of watching her tear people down to make herself feel better."

Luca stared at him, searching his face for any sign of deception. But Ryan's eyes were filled with sincerity, with something that looked almost like desperation.

"Why?" Luca whispered.

"Why what?"

"Why do you care? It's been two years, Ryan. Two years of nothing. No calls, no texts, no emails. And now you're acting like..." He trailed off, unable to put words to the way Ryan was looking at him.

"Like what?"

"Like you missed me."

The words paused between them, vulnerable, and Luca immediately wanted to take them back. But it was too late, they were out there, exposing too much, revealing the desperate hope he'd been trying to bury.

Ryan's face went through a series of expressions. surprise, pain, something that might have been longing. When he spoke, his voice was barely above a whisper.

"I did miss you. Every single day."

Luca's heart stuttered. "Then why—"

"Mr. Thompson."

They sprang apart like they'd been caught doing something wrong. A teacher Luca didn't recognize was approaching, her heels clicking against the marble floor.

"Ms. Rodriguez," Ryan said, his voice instantly shifting back to that perfect tone. "How can I help you?"

"Your father asked me to remind you about the fundraising committee meeting. Four o'clock in the conference room."

"Of course. Thank you."

The teacher smiled and continued down the hallway, leaving them alone again. But the moment was broken, the fragile bubble of intimacy burst.

"I should go," Ryan said, not meeting Luca's eyes.

"Ryan, wait." Luca reached out without thinking, his fingers wrapping around Ryan's wrist. "What you said... Did you mean it?"

For a heartbeat, Ryan's composure shifted again. His eyes dropped to where Luca's fingers circled his wrist, and his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

"I have to go," he said, but he didn't pull away.

"The fundraising meeting can wait five minutes."

"It's not about the meeting." Ryan finally looked at him, and the pain in his eyes was so raw it took Luca's breath away. "It's about everything else."

Before Luca could ask what he meant, Ryan was pulling free and walking away, leaving Luca alone in the empty hallway with more questions than answers and the lingering scent of expensive cologne.

That night, Luca lay in his tiny bed staring at the ceiling of the small apartment he shared with his mom. The walls were thin enough that he could hear Mrs. Rodriguez next door watching her soap operas, and could hear the couple upstairs arguing about money again.

But all he could think about was Ryan.

The way he'd looked at him across the courtyard that morning, like seeing Luca was the best and worst thing that could have happened to him. The way his voice had roughened when he said I missed you. The way he'd stepped closer in that empty hallway, close enough that Luca could see the flecks of darker blue in his eyes.

And Emily. Beautiful, confident Emily with her possessive grip and her perfect smile and her casual claim on the boy Luca had never stopped loving.

Because that's what this was, wasn't it? This ache in his chest, this desperate need to be close to Ryan, this feeling like he could barely breathe when they were in the same room together. It was love.

It had been love in eighth grade when they were just kids figuring out what attraction meant, and it was love now, deeper and more complicated and definitely more painful.

Luca rolled over and buried his face in his pillow, trying to muffle the frustrated sound that escaped his throat. Two years ago, they'd been on the edge of something beautiful and terrifying. Two years ago, the world was full of possibilities.

Now Ryan had a girlfriend and a perfect life and a father who sat on school boards and made decisions about scholarships. Now Luca was just the charity case who'd wandered back into his orbit, disrupting his carefully ordered existence.

But that moment in the hallway... the honesty in Ryan's voice when he'd said he missed him…

Maybe some things were worth fighting for. Maybe some people were worth the risk, even if loving them felt like setting yourself on fire and hoping someone would be there to put out the flames.

Luca closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but his dreams were full of blue eyes and almost-kisses and the phantom touch of fingers on his wrist that burned like a brand.

Tomorrow, he decided. Tomorrow he was going to corner Ryan Thompson and get some real answers.

Tomorrow, he was going to find out what Ryan had been trying to tell him before they were interrupted.

Even if it destroyed him.

Even if the truth was worse than the silence.

Because two years of wandering had nearly killed him, and he wasn't strong enough to do it again.