LOGINJade's POV I saw him again on Thursday. Not in the coffee shop this time. In the lecture hall, which was where I had suspected I knew him from before. we had both attended that lecture for over twelve weeks without ever having an actual conversation. Public Administration was a big module. Big enough that you could sit in the same room as someone for an entire semester and not know their name. You could know just their face and the general area of the room where they usually sat and nothing else whatsoever. He came in late. Not significantly late. Four minutes, maybe five. The lecturer had started but was still on the first slide which was always the agenda slide that nobody actually needed. The agenda was on the module page and everyone had already seen it. Ethan came in and scanned the room and took a seat on the end of the row two ahead of mine. I watched him settle. He pulled out a notebook rather than a laptop. That was worth noticing because most people in that module ha
Liam's POVI was so glad our project was done and submitted before my fall out with Avery. It would have been a nightmare having to work with her after the incident.The project grade came back on Monday.I saw it in my inbox when I woke up. Grade Release: Urban Planning and Community Development Group Project. I opened it at six forty-five, before coffee, before my brain was properly functional.Distinction.I closed the email and went to make coffee.Later I was in the library at the table near the window when Zoey came in. She did not come to my table immediately. She went to the shelf along the right wall, got a book, brought it back to the table two across from mine, and started reading.I was aware she was there.She had not made her presence into something I was required to respond to, which I had noticed about her appearances in the last week and a half. Just there. Not pushing but not avoiding.There was a Zoey I had been bracing for after everything with Avery. The one who a
Jade's POVSince I was taking a break from Avery, I was feeling a bit lonely and bored. I needed to do more things on my own.So on thursday afternoon, I was at the coffee shop on the south side of campus.I had been going there since my first year because it stayed open until late and had the corner table with the outlet near the wall and the barista who remembered I took oat milk without being asked.I was at the corner table with my laptop open and my notes spread beside it, trying to finish a paragraph that would not move, when the door opened.I did not look up.The door opened and closed fifteen times an hour. I did not have the attention span to look up every time.But the laugh made me.Not some fake laugh. Not the kind someone turns up for a room to hear. The kind that was surprised out of him rather than done for anyone.He was standing near the counter with someone I did not recognise — a guy from what looked like the science block based on the lanyard. The science block gu
Liam's POVI first noticed her on Tuesday.Not the way you noticed a stranger. The way you noticed someone you already knew when they turned up somewhere unexpected. She was at one of the long tables near the window when I came in, laptop open, head down. I went to a different section, got out my work, and started.I did not think about it for the rest of the session.On Wednesday she was in the corridor outside one of my lectures. She was leaving a seminar from the room next door when I came out. We passed within about six feet of each other. She had her phone in her hand, looked up briefly when she heard people coming out, our eyes met for about two seconds, and then she looked back at her phone and kept walking.I kept walking too.On Thursday she was in the library again.This time she was in my section. Not next to me. Two tables over and three seats down. Far enough that it was not a deliberate approach. Close enough that if I looked up I could see her.I told myself the campus
Jade's POV I went next door on Saturday. Not Thursday when I first saw it. Not Friday when I spent the day wondering whether I actually knew who was living next door to me. I spent Friday ignoring her calls because I needed to face her myself and not talk about anything on the phone. So I went on Saturday. Two days after I saw the footage that changed everything I thought I knew about the person next door. I knocked on her door at eleven. She opened it immediately. Like she had been somewhere near the door, ready to open it, for two days. She looked at me. I looked at her. "Can I come in?" I asked. "Yes," she said. She stepped back and I walked past her into the hallway and she closed the door behind us. We went to the kitchen. Thirteen years of difficult conversations meant we always ended up at a kitchen table. I took a chair. She settled across from me. Neither of us said anything. Then I asked, "Is it you?"It was not really a question. The footage had already ans
LAST WEEK THURSDAYJADE'S REACTION TO THE VIDEO RELEASED OF AVERY FROM LAST WEEKJade's POVMy phone buzzed at seven forty on Thursday morning and I picked it up from the nightstand without opening my eyes properly.It was a message from a girl on my course. Three words and a link.'Have you seen?'I opened the link while still half asleep.I watched it twice before I fully understood what I was watching.Then I pushed upright in bed and watched it again.The stage. The dancer. The mask falling forward in slow motion, frame by frame, the way someone had edited it to make the fall seem deliberate rather than accidental. The face. Fully lit. Three to five seconds before the hand came up.I knew that face."What the fuck?!"I said it out loud and it did not feel like enough so I said it again. I threw back the covers and stood up and then dropped back down because my legs were not sure what the correct response was. I opened the video a fourth time. Then I put the phone face down on the
Avery's POVThe diner was his suggestion and it turned out to be exactly right.It was one of those places that had not changed in twenty years and was not planning to. Red booths, laminated menus, a woman behind the counter who called everyone honey without looking up. I slid into the booth across
Liam's POVI hated being late. But some idiot ran a red light and caused an accident, which delayed everyone. I turned onto our street a little after seven PM and I could see Avery and Jade on the doorstep before I had even pulled all the way to the curb.They were standing close together, Avery in
Liam's POVShe finally said yes to going out with me and I drove home thinking about it.Not in a complicated way. In the way you thought about something that had gone better than expected and you were trying to work out what to do with the gap between what you had planned and what had actually hap
Liam's POVI got to the café early on purpose. I was always early for our meetings anyways, but I put some extra effort into today's meeting. I needed to do some things that could make her say yes to going out with me the next time I asked.I ordered her coffee because I had noticed her order two s







