All Chapters of THE LINE BETWEEN US : Chapter 101 - Chapter 110

The next morning arrived with an almost cruel normalcy.Sunlight spilled through my curtains like it always did, warm and unbothered, painting soft gold lines across my bedroom wall. My alarm went off at the usual time. My phone buzzed with the same notification tones. The world hadn’t cracked open because of what happened the night before. No thunder. No cosmic sign. Just another day.I lay there for a long moment, staring at the ceiling, my heart already doing that slow, nervous flutter it had perfected.Because I remembered.God, I remembered everything.The quiet.His hands.The way his voice sounded when he said my name.Heat crept into my cheeks even though I was alone. I pressed the back of my hand over my mouth like I could smother the memory, like my lips weren’t already betraying me by tingling faintly, as if they still knew the shape of his.Get it together, Autumn.I dragged myself out of bed, went through the motions. Shower. Clothes. Backpack. Every step felt slightly o

I opened the door with my jaw set and a hundred rehearsed sentences burning behind my teeth.I didn’t get to use a single one.“I’m really sorry for ignoring you in the hallway today, Autumn. For real.”The words tumbled out of Damian like he’d been holding them in the entire drive over. He stood there just inside the doorway, hands half-raised like he didn’t know whether to touch me or keep his distance, eyes dark and earnest and exhausted all at once.It knocked the wind out of me more effectively than any argument would’ve.I stared at him for a beat, then shook my head, a sharp, disbelieving motion. “You always do this,” I said, the hurt spilling out before I could soften it. “You act weird, you pull away, and then you come back apologizing like you already know I’ll accept it either way.” My voice wobbled despite my effort to keep it steady. “You made me feel like a fool out there, Damian.”His shoulders dropped. He scrubbed a hand over the back of his neck, pacing a small step

I didn’t wait for him to say anything. I knew he wanted it as much as I did. I leaned in again, straddling him fully this time, letting my knees settle on either side of his hips. His hands wrapped around my waist immediately, careful but insistent, holding me close as though afraid I might disappear if he let go.The contact was electric. Just sitting there, straddling him, feeling the warmth of him pressed into me, my heart hammered in my chest like it wanted to escape. My lips hovered over his, searching, daring, and when I finally closed the distance, it was like every secret and desire I’d held for years spilled out in a single press of our mouths.He stiffened for a second, and I could feel the tension rolling off him in waves, but it didn’t stop him. His lips moved against mine, tentative at first, then hungry, like he was trying to catch up to everything we’d never allowed ourselves before. His hands stayed on my waist, grounding me even as I pressed closer, tilting my body,

I had never moved that fast in my life.One second Damian’s mouth was on mine, familiar and dizzying and right, and the next my entire body snapped into pure survival mode. The sound of his name hung in the air like a gunshot, and instinct took over before thought could even catch up.I slipped out of his hold, ducking low, my bag clutched to my chest as I scrambled behind the nearest row of desks. My knee knocked into a chair leg with a dull clack that sounded impossibly loud in the quiet room, and I froze, breath locked in my throat.Damian didn’t hesitate. I barely had time to register the way his shoulders squared, the easy confidence snapping into place like armor, before the door creaked open.I crouched behind the desk, pressing myself into the narrow space, my heart slamming so hard I was convinced it would give me away. The wood smelled faintly of dust and old chalk, the underside of the desk nicked and carved with years of bored students’ initials. I curled my fingers into m

I had never scrambled away from Damian so fast in my life.One second I was curled into him, safe and stupidly content, my cheek pressed to his chest, his hand in my hair.The next, my body reacted before my brain caught up.I shoved myself off the bed with a sharp gasp, nearly tripping over the edge of the mattress as I stumbled backward. Damian let out a startled “Autumn…” but the door was already wide open and my name was still hanging in the air like an accusation.Taylor stood in the doorway.For a split second, no one moved.His eyes flicked from me, barefoot, flushed, hair a mess,to Damian, half-sitting on my bed, one leg still bent like he hadn’t even had time to stand. The room felt suddenly too small, the air thick and wrong.“Oh,” Taylor said.It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t angry.It was worse than that.He scoffed softly, like he’d just watched a magic trick go wrong, and then he chuckled under his breath. Not amused. Disbelieving.“Well,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck