Mag-log inI woke up to quiet movement.Not loud enough to startle me, but enough to pull me out of sleep slowly, like my mind was trying to catch up before my body did. For a moment, I did not move. I just lay there, staring at nothing in particular, trying to place where I was.Then I felt it.Warmth, Close Breath.Bella.She was still there, curled slightly into my side like she had not moved much through the night. Her breathing was soft and steady, her hand loosely resting against my arm like she needed that small point of contact to stay grounded even in sleep.I exhaled slowly, careful not to wake her.For a second, everything felt… normal.Not perfect, not simple, but in a way that did not demand anything from me. No questions. No tension. Just a moment where nothing was pulling at me.I stayed like that for a while.Just listening to her breathe.Then eventually, I shifted slightly, easing myself out from under her without breaking that calm. She stirred a little, her brows pulling toge
We did not realize how late it had gotten until the silence in the apartment started to feel deeper.Not the kind that comes from a quiet evening, but the kind that settles in when the day has taken too much out of you. Bella had stopped talking at some point, her energy finally dipping after everything she had said, everything I had told her.She looked at me, then at the bed.“I am not leaving you alone tonight,” she said simply.I let out a small breath. “I was not planning to ask you to.”She nodded once like that settled it.We stood up almost at the same time and walked toward the bed, neither of us saying anything else. It did not feel awkward. It did not feel strange. It felt nice.We both slipped off our shoes without thinking, small movements that felt automatic, like we had done this a hundred times before even though we had not. Bella moved first, climbing onto the bed and pulling the covers over herself without ceremony.“I am exhausted,” she muttered.“That is obvious,”
We did not stay in the dining area for long.As much as I wanted to hold onto that moment, to sit there and pretend everything was normal again, I knew it would not last. There was too much sitting between us, too many unanswered questions, too much time we had lost.I stood up first.“Come,” I said quietly.Bella did not argue. She followed me immediately, like she already knew we were not done, like she had been waiting for this part more than anything else.We walked back into the room Kai had given me. I closed the door behind us, not bothering to lock it this time. The space felt smaller now, but not in a suffocating way. Just… full.Bella looked around briefly before turning her attention back to me, her expression already shifting from relief to something more serious.“Start talking,” she said.I let out a slow breath and sat on the edge of the bed. For a second, I did not know where to begin. There was too much, and none of it felt easy to explain.But she was Bella.If there
I did not realize how long I stayed in that position until the quiet started to feel different.Just… still.At some point, the exhaustion caught up with me, not enough to sleep, but enough to make everything feel slower. My thoughts were no longer racing, just sitting there, waiting, like they knew I would come back to them eventually.A soft knock came from the other side of the door.I did not move immediately.Then Kai’s voice followed, calm as always.“Elias. You should eat.”I exhaled slowly, pushing myself up from the floor. My body felt heavier than it should, like I had carried more than just myself into this room. I brushed my hand over my face quickly before unlocking the door and stepping out.Kai was already in the hallway, leaning slightly against the wall like he had been waiting but did not want to pressure me.I did not say anything.He did not either.We walked into the dining area in silence, and the table was already set. Simple. Clean. Like everything else about h
The ride was silent the entire way.Kai tried a few times to talk, I could tell from the way he glanced at me and the small shifts in his tone whenever he said my name, but I did not respond. Not because I did not hear him, but because I did not trust my voice to stay steady.So I just watched the road.Watched everything blur past the window like my thoughts, none of it settling into anything I could hold onto properly.Eventually, he stopped trying.That silence should have felt comforting. It did not.It felt like something I was sitting inside with no clear way out.When we arrived, I realized it was not a house like I expected. It was an apartment building, quiet and modern, tucked away from the main noise of the city. Kai got out first, then waited for me without saying anything, like he was giving me the choice to follow or not.I followed.We went up together in silence, the elevator ride even quieter than the car had been. The doors opened into a hallway that felt too clean,
The moment Kai told me to get my things, I did not ask another question.Not because I understood what was happening, but because I could feel the shift in the room, the kind that made staying behind feel like a mistake you only realize too late. Whatever Cyrus had just done, whatever decision had been made, it was already final in a way I could not fight yet.Kai stayed close as I gathered what little I had. It was not much, just the things I had managed to hold onto in a place that never really felt like mine. Every step I took felt unreal, like my body was moving faster than my thoughts could catch up.When I came back out, Kai was waiting near the door.“You ready?” he asked.I nodded once.That should have been the end of it.But it was not.Because as we stepped into the hallway, Vane was already there.Leaning slightly against the wall, as if he had been waiting for that exact moment. His eyes moved to me immediately, not Kai, not the guards behind us, just me.“I will take him
The double date had ended awkwardly, Luca and Elias exchanging stiff goodbyes, Riley trying to keep the energy alive with bad jokes, and me pretending my ribs didn’t hurt every time I laughed. We Ubered back separately: Elias and Luca in one car, Riley in another. Riley talked the whole way about h
The embarrassment from the hallway lingered like smoke in my clothes. I couldn’t shake Kai’s voice—low, cutting, “Careful. You don’t want to find out.” It played on repeat every time I walked past a mirror, every time I caught my reflection and saw the flush on my cheeks. I told myself it was anger
The next morning started slow and soft, the way mornings should when you’ve got nowhere urgent to be.I woke up before my alarm—sunlight cutting through the blinds in sharp golden lines, Luca still asleep on his side of the room. His breathing was steady, one arm flung over his head, sheet tangled
The lecture hall for Econ 201 was already half full when I slipped in at 9:58, sliding into a seat near the middle row so I could see the board but not be too obvious about checking my phone every five minutes. Vane still hadn’t texted back. His last message was from yesterday afternoon: Meeting dr







