LOGINBrooklyn's POV"The dinner." I stared at him. "You need me at the dinner.""Not at it." He glanced down the corridor both ways. A few students were moving at the far end but nobody close. He looked back at me and then did something I had not seen him do before — he stepped in and lowered his voice so that only I could hear it.His mouth was close to my ear. Close enough that I felt the warmth of it."I have a meeting tonight," he said quietly. "Seven o'clock. Same time as the dinner. My dad doesn't know about it and he won't approve it." A pause. "I need you to cover for me. Tell him I'm not feeling well or that something came up. Whatever you can make believable. Just get me out of that dining room without him asking questions."He stayed where he was for a second longer than necessary.Then he straightened up and took a step back, watching my face for a reaction.I looked at him.He looked at me.I put both hands flat on his chest and pushed.Not hard. Just enough to move him back a
Brooklyn's POV"I'm actually in the middle of something," I said, gesturing back toward the classroom door. "Can this wait until — "His hand closed around my wrist.Not roughly. Just firmly enough that stopping was the only reasonable option. A few people near the door were already looking. Someone inside the classroom had turned completely around in their seat to watch through the small window in the door. I could feel the stares landing on us like something physical."Emerson." I kept my voice low. "People are watching.""Let them." He was already moving, pulling me with him down the corridor without breaking stride.I could have pulled away. I thought about it. But the grip wasn't hurting me and something about the urgency in how he was moving made me hold the argument back. I matched his pace instead and let him lead us around the corner and further down the empty hallway until the classroom was out of sight and the sound of the lesson behind us faded into nothing.He let go.I t
Brooklyn's POVI should have gone to bed.Instead I was still standing in the hallway outside my bedroom door, telling myself I was just waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark, while Patrick's voice carried faintly back to me from around the corner where he had stopped to say one more thing to Emerson."She's exactly the kind of girl you should be spending time with." His voice was low but the hallway carried sound well. "Intelligent, well-mannered, comes from a good family. Her father and I go back a long way, Emerson. This dinner is important."Emerson said nothing."I'm not asking you to make any decisions. I'm asking you to show up and be present." A pause. "Can you do that?""I said I'd be there.""I know what you said. I'm asking if you can actually be present. Not just in the room. Present."Another silence. Longer this time."Yes," Emerson said flatly."Good." The sound of Patrick moving. "Get some sleep. Tomorrow needs to go well."Footsteps came back in my direction and I
Brooklyn's POV"You don't have to do that, you know."I turned to look at him. "Do what?""Daisy." Emerson leaned against the wall and crossed his arms, keeping his voice low enough not to carry through her door. "You don't have to be everywhere she is. You don't have to insert yourself into every moment.""Insert myself?" I kept my voice equally low but the edge in it was immediate. "She was alone in the dark crying with both hands over her ears. What exactly was I supposed to do? Walk past?""I'm just saying you don't need to force it.""I'm not forcing anything.""You've been with her every evening this week.""Because she comes to find me." I held his gaze. "Every single time, Emerson, she comes to me. I don't go looking for it. She knocks on my door, she sits next to me at the table, she slips drawings under my door in the morning." I paused. "I'm not forcing my way into her life. She's letting me in."Something shifted in his expression. Just slightly. He looked away from me tow
Brooklyn's POV"Thank you," I said quietly.But he was already gone.I stood there alone in the kitchen staring at the doorway he had just walked through. Then I picked up the glass and drank the whole thing in one go. Every drop. Cold and clean all the way down.I set the empty glass in the sink, wiped my face properly with the back of my hand, and went back to the kitchen table where Daisy's workbook was still open.I sat down, picked up my pen, and kept going like nothing had happened.---The rain started an hour later.It didn't ease in gently. It arrived all at once — heavy, loud, and relentless against every window in the house. The kind of rain that made the whole building feel smaller. I was in my room going through my notes when the first crack of thunder rolled through the sky so hard I felt it in my chest.I put my pen down.I sat still for a moment and listened to the rain hammer the windows. Then I got up.Daisy's room was at the end of the hall. I knocked once softly be
Brooklyn's POV"Daisy, that's wrong." I tapped the page gently. "Try it again."She looked at the math problem, erased her answer slowly, and started over. I sat beside her at the kitchen table and watched her work, one hand wrapped around my mug, the evening quiet around us.That was how the last two days had gone. Quiet. Steady. Uncomplicated.Emerson had not spoken to me once since the hallway outside Daisy's room. Not at home, not at school, not even an accidental glance in the corridor. He moved through spaces I occupied like I was furniture. At school he sat across the classroom and looked through me. At home he came in, went upstairs, and stayed there. Our deal was holding perfectly and it felt exactly like what it was — two people doing a very convincing job of pretending the other one did not exist.I told myself it was fine. It was what we had agreed to.I focused on Daisy instead and found it was not difficult at all. She was easy to be around in the way that only very quie
Brooklyn's pov "Here is the deal." Emerson leaned against the hallway wall, arms crossed, voice low enough that Daisy couldn't hear from the dining room. He looked completely relaxed, like he negotiated truces every morning before breakfast. "I stay out of your way," he said, "so you're free to
Brooklyn's pov "Time to feast."I heard Emerson say — cleats still on, grass-stained from soccer practice, heading straight for the kitchen like the fridge owed him something.I stayed on the couch and waited.The silence that followed was deeply satisfying."What the — " A pause. Then louder. "Why
Brooklyn's pov "I'm really sorry, Mr. Weston. I can't work for you."The words came out before I could stop them. Patrick turned from the hallway and looked at me slowly, the way someone does when they're deciding how serious you are."Brooklyn." His voice was calm. "You are contracted through th
Brooklyn's pov"Teacher f***er."I heard it the second I walked through the doors of Westfield Academy. Nobody said it to my face. They never did. Just loud enough for me to catch it, quiet enough for them to deny it.I kept walking.Two weeks. That's how long this rumour had been following me arou







