SavannahIt was finally dusk and the sky was still dark when Noah and I crept through the overgrown fence line of the industrial plant, our breaths misting in the cold air. The warehouse loomed ahead like a dangerous beacon, and the closer we got towards it, the more I was faced with the fact that one wrong move could blow everything.We had decided to sneak in and find Leo as fast as possible. With the kind of manpower the dealers had, there was no way we could defeat them with just my small crew.I had three of my girls shadowing us, though Noah had argued against it the whole way here. They weren’t supposed to follow us in; they were to stay behind, out of sight, just in case things went wrong. Think of it as an insurance policy. Still, their presence made me feel less alone.“Stay close,” Noah whispered, his hand brushing mine briefly as we made our way towards the building, before he signaled me to crouch behind a stack of old crates.Through a crack in the metal siding, I saw tw
SavannahI thought the air around the pond would clear my head, but it didn’t. Instead, Noah’s words kept circling in my chest. He was right. I’d said it too many times and believed it was true.We couldn’t save Leo unless every card was on the table. And now that I’d spilled mine, the silence between us had a new weight.“Come on,” Noah finally said, shoving his hands into his hoodie pocket. “We can’t figure this out sitting here freezing by a pond. Let’s go back to my dorm. We’ll plan better inside.”I hesitated and my gut twisted at the thought of being cooped up with him in his tiny dorm room. No, I couldn’t imagine myself back there. I’d made so many memories there, memories I didn’t want to relive by going back there. But he wasn’t wrong. Sitting here wasn’t going to rescue Leo.“Fine,” I muttered against all my better judgment, stood up, and brushed off my jeans. “But don’t think I’m letting you boss me around.”He gave me one of his half-smirks and quirked. “Wouldn’t dream of
SavannahNoah’s question hung heavy in the space between us, and for a while, I didn’t know if I should answer. Until now, I hadn’t told anyone else my big secret. That this wasn’t just about saving Noah or Leo, it was about making a statement to my dad, myself, and everyone else who thought I didn’t have what it takes to survive in it.That evening, the pond shimmered in the fading light as the ripples caught shades of pink and orange from the sinking sun. For a moment, it almost felt too peaceful for the kind of weight sitting on my chest. I tried to focus on the sound of water lapping against the stones, but Noah’s eyes were on me the whole time, and it was getting harder to ignore his look. It was the kind that told me I wasn’t walking away from this without saying something real.“Savannah,” he said softly, breaking the silence. “If we have any shot at saving Leo, we need to be honest with each other. That means every card on the table and no holding back.”I shifted on the bench
NoahThe garden didn’t feel peaceful anymore. It was too still, too quiet, like the air itself was waiting for me to react. Savannah’s words were still floating around in my head.“Leo’s been kidnapped,” she’d said.My mind scrambled, like maybe she was exaggerating, maybe he just ran off for a while. But the look in her eyes told me it was real. I didn’t know how to react. For a moment, I just stood there, but then I blinked at her, and my chest tightened. “You’re not serious.”She didn’t even flinch. “I wouldn’t be here if I weren’t.”And that’s when my stomach dropped. I tried to breathe, but the air felt heavy. I sat there in silence, feeling the weight of it. And the longer it sat, the heavier it got. Until the thought I’d been dodging slammed straight into me.“This is my fault.” The words slipped out before I even realized I’d said them.“If I hadn’t dipped, if I hadn’t walked away when things started spiraling… maybe none of this would’ve happened.”Her eyes narrowed and beca
NoahI sat there quietly, still staring at the pond, and trying to keep my thoughts from eating me alive, but Savannah’s voice had this way of cutting through the noise. She wasn’t even saying much, but just being there was enough to remind me of stuff I’d shoved deep down.She leaned back and tucked her hands tucked in her hoodie pocket, then smirked a little. “Crazy how this place still looks the same, huh? Like nothing’s changed.”I glanced around at the garden. From the pond, to the trees that bent low like they were eavesdropping, even the old stone bench. Yeah, it hadn’t changed. But we had. “Yeah,” I said, my voice low. “Remember when we’d ditch class and come here?”Savannah chuckled softly. “Don’t say ‘ditch’ like we were troublemakers. We were… stressed students seeking natural therapy.”I laughed despite myself. “Natural therapy? Girl, you used to bring a whole bag of Hot Cheetos and a Sprite. That was your idea of self-care.”She grinned at that, and her eyes lit up for a
NoahWhen I heard those words from Camille, I didn’t know how to feel or act. I just knew one thing, and that was that I had to leave that place immediately. I didn’t even know where my feet were taking me. I just had to get out. Out of that room, away from the sound of Camille’s crying, out of my own head before I did something stupid like punch a wall and end up looking like those dudes online who brag about “emotional damage” but can’t even hold a pen after.So I walked and kept walking with no real direction in mind. I walked through the hallways, past people who probably gave me side-eyes, and down into the courtyard where the noise of the school kind of blurred. My chest felt tight, like every word Camille said was still stuck in my lungs.The baby wasn’t mine. Just saying it in my head still sounded like a bad Netflix drama. I was the fool. The guy raising another man’s child in his imagination, stressing over diapers I hadn’t even bought yet.The more I tried not to think abou