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Chapter Sixty-eight: Rewatching the Demo

Author: Xerox
last update Last Updated: 2025-07-19 15:45:29

POV: Ave

Ave didn’t mean to watch it.

It started as just another task — a checklist item buried under logistics. She was supposed to be archiving files: backing up pitch decks, organizing drive folders, and transferring the final version of their midterm demo to the shared system before the end-of-semester freeze.

Simple. Clinical. Mechanical.

But when she clicked the file titled “V1 Demo — Midterm Review,” the video popped open faster than she could close it.

She should’ve shut it immediately.

She didn’t.

Instead, Ave hovered there, finger paused over the space bar as the shaky footage began to play.

The timestamp in the corner read 00:00:01.

The screen glowed.

And suddenly—there they were.

Her and Blake. Side by side.

Months ago. Back when they barely tolerated each other. When everything between them was snark, bite, and unwilling fascination.

Back when she thought she hated him.

The camera was set too low — probably propped on a stack of textbooks by a sleepy TA. It caught their p
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