Lahat ng Kabanata ng More Than Roommates : Kabanata 51 - Kabanata 60

Alex~ I wake before Seth. It takes me a second to realize why my chest feels heavy, why I’m staring at the ceiling instead of closing my eyes again. Then last night crawls back. I hear the sound of his voice in the dark, low and tired, saying words that still sting like splinters. Just a couple more weeks… we’ll get this over with. I roll onto my side. Seth’s shape is turned away from me, curled under his blanket. For a second, I almost reach out, almost shake his shoulder and just ask. But my hand hovers uselessly halfway before I pull it back. Instead, I get up quietly. My feet touch the cold floor, and I move around the room like I’m the intruder. Grabbing clothes from the dresser, closing drawers slowly so they don’t scrape. Part of me almost hopes he stirs, that he turns and says something, anything. But another part of me dreads it. What if he confirms the thing already twisting in my stomach? He doesn’t move till I get to the bathroom. In the bathroom, I brush my te

Seth~I trail after him across campus, but it feels more like chasing the shadow of someone who doesn’t want to be caught. Alex doesn’t look back once, not even when his pace falters at the edge of the quad and he nearly runs into a couple holding hands. He just cuts between them, muttering an apology I can barely hear. His shoulders are locked, his hands jammed in his pockets, and every step screams the same thing: don’t follow me.And I follow anyway.The campus looks like it always does at this hour, kids spilling out of the library, groups clustering on the steps, laughter carrying across the open space, but I barely see any of it. All I see is the space between Alex and me, a distance that feels like it’s grown miles in the last twenty-four hours. I could close it easily. Jog a few steps, grab his arm, force him to listen. But the set of his jaw when he passed me back there is still sharp in my head, and I know if I touch him now, he’ll shake me off. So I keep just far enough bac

Seth~The first thing I hear when I wake up is Alex’s phone buzzing. Over and over, a relentless hum against the nightstand. For a second I think it is just another alarm, something he forgot to turn off after setting five yesterday. But then his hand shoots out, groggy, and the glow of the screen reflects off his face. He freezes.I roll over. “What is it?”He doesn’t answer right away, and that’s enough to make me sit up. The light from the screen paints his expression pale, hollow. I lean closer, and that’s when I see a video.It is shaky, shot from the stands, but the moment is clear. Last night. The corner of the hallway outside the gym. It’s a video of Alex tugging me forward, whispering that he is not scared anymore, his mouth pressing to mine. The clip catches the way my hands bury into his shirt, the way I breathe like I have been waiting for years.And now it is online.“Who—” I start, but the words catch. My chest is tight.Alex turns the screen toward me, and I see the ca

Alex ~By the time I wake up the next morning, I’m still riding the high of last night. The mail from the program hasn’t left my head since I clicked accept, and even though I didn’t sleep much, my chest feels light in a way it hasn’t in weeks.I glance over at Seth’s bed, already planning the way I’ll tell him. But he’s up before me for once, pulling on his hoodie, hood already tugged halfway over his face. Normally he’d throw some dumb comment at me, or stall by lying back down until I got annoyed, but today he just grabs his bag and mutters, “Going out.”I sit up, blinking at him. “Wait Seth. I have something to tell you.”He pauses with his hand on the door but doesn’t look at me. “Later, okay?”And then he’s gone.The words sit heavy on my tongue the rest of the morning. I replay them while I’m brushing my teeth, while I’m sitting through class, while I’m half-heartedly answering Tracey’s texts. I imagine the way it could have gone; his grin breaking across the room, some dumb jo

Alex~The morning of the first panel meeting feels heavier than most, like I’ve been walking toward it for weeks without realizing. The email reminder has been sitting in my inbox I must’ve checked the time on my phone a dozen times before my alarm even went off.Jordan’s supposed to come by so we can head over together. Just thinking about sitting on that stage, in front of strangers who’ll be waiting for us to bleed honesty into microphones, makes my stomach twist. Underneath though, there’s a flicker of something else beneath the nerves, like an anticipation. A chance to say things out loud that I’ve only ever whispered in dark rooms.Jordan shows up at my door in his usual way, he knocks loudly without patience. I’m halfway through tying my shoelaces when I hear him, and Seth, who’s been quiet all morning, glances at me from his bed.“You expecting the Pope?” Seth mutters.I don’t answer, mostly because my stomach’s already a knot. I just shove my feet into my sneakers and open