جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 40

The gym lights were too bright against my eyes. I was sitting in my usual spot on the bench, my clipboard balanced on my knees, watching our boys warm up for the game. But something felt off. “You ready for this?” Coach Martinez asked, but his voice sounded distant, muffled. I nodded, though I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to be ready for. The scoreboard showed we’d already won—28-26, 25-23, 25-21—but the game was still happening. Players were still moving across the court in a slow motion. Luca went up for a spike, his body arcing through the air. But when he came down, his landing was too hard and I heard that sickening crack again. Something was definitely wrong. “Luca!” I was on my feet, moving toward the court, but my legs felt like they were moving through water. He was on his knees, hunched over, his shoulders shaking. The other players backed away, forming a circle around him. Even from the bench, I could hear his ragged and desperate breathing. “What’s happening?

Naomi appeared in the doorway. “So? How did it go? Did you give it to him?”I turned to look at her, and she must have seen something in my face because her expression fell.“He said no, didn’t he?”“He said… he said he can’t. Because it wouldn’t be fair to you.”“Fair to me?” She dropped her bag. “What does that even mean?”I opened my mouth, but no words came out. How was I supposed to explain that Luca had basically just confessed to having feelings for me? How was I supposed to tell my best friend that the guy she liked was interested in someone else—and that someone else was me?“Lily? What aren’t you telling me?”“Nothing,” I said quickly. “He just… he said he’s not in the right headspace for dating anyone right now.”It was technically true. Close enough to the truth that it didn’t feel like a complete lie.Naomi’s shoulders sagged. “Oh. Okay. I mean, I guess that makes sense. Senior year, graduation coming up, college applications…”“Yeah,” I said weakly. “Exactly.”She forced

“I don’t know,” I said again, because it was easier than the truth.In the darkness, I heard him take a shaky breath.“I never wanted to scare you,” he said quietly. “That night, when I told you… I should have been more careful. I should have—”“You should have what? Lied to me?”“I should have thought about how it would affect you. How it would change things between us.”“Things were already changing.”“Were they?”“You know they were.”Before he could respond, we heard voices in the hallway—muffled but getting closer.“Hello?” someone called. “Is anyone down here?”“We’re here!” I shouted, scrambling to my feet. “In storage room B-12!”“Hang on!” The voice was getting closer. “We’re getting the manual override!”A few minutes later, the door swung open, and a maintenance worker with a flashlight appeared in the doorway.“You two okay?” he asked, shining the light between us.“Fine,” I said, blinking in the sudden brightness. “Just stuck.”“Power’s out in the whole building. Should b

Graduation day. Finally.I smoothed down my cap for what felt like the hundredth time, trying to ignore the butterflies doing aerial stunts in my stomach. The auditorium was packed—parents with cameras, siblings fidgeting in their seats, teachers trying to look dignified while herding us graduates like cattle.“Lily!” I turned to see my Mum and Dad pushing through the crowd, both of them beaming like I’d just won the Nobel Prize.“There’s our graduate,” Dad said, pulling me into a hug that lifted me off my feet. “We’re so proud of you, sweetheart.”“Thanks, Dad.” I hugged him back, breathing in his familiar aftershave. “Where’s your good camera? I know you brought it.”“Already got it.” He patted the camera bag slung over his shoulder. “I’m documenting everything. First day of the rest of your life and all that.”“Don’t be dramatic,” Mom said, but she was tearing up. “I can’t believe my baby is graduating.”“Mom, please don’t cry. You’ll make me cry, and then my makeup will be ruined.

I quickly wiped at my eyes with the back of my hand as I walked back toward the crowd on unsteady legs, trying to pull myself together before anyone noticed. The last thing I needed was questions I couldn’t answer.“Hey.”I spun around. Luca was leaning against the fence separating the parking lot from the football field.“Hey yourself.”“You have disappeared for twenty minutes and now you are back looking like you’ve been crying.” He pushed off the fence and sauntered toward me. “Let me guess—finally realized you’re actually going to miss me?”“In your dreams, Archer.”“Oh, I have much better dreams than that, Lilypad.” His eyes glittered with mischief. “Want me to tell you about them?”Heat flooded my cheeks. “You’re disgusting.”“And you’re deflecting.” He stopped in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes. “So what’s with the waterworks? Did you actually get emotional during the ceremony.”“Maybe I did. Is that a crime?”“For you? Yeah, actually.