All Chapters of THE LINE BETWEEN US : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

By the time I made it to my locker, my chest still ached from the walk. Every step down the hall felt heavier than the last, like I was dragging the weight of that silence l.I was too wrapped up in my thoughts to notice him at first.Then I heard my name.“Autumn.”My head snapped up, and for a moment I thought my brain was playing tricks on me. But it wasn’t. Taylor was standing there, leaning casually against the row of lockers like he hadn’t just disappeared on me that morning.For a heartbeat, I couldn’t breathe.His hair was a little messier than usual, his shirt slightly wrinkled, but he was here. Real. Alive.Before I could think, before I could even stop myself, I was moving. My books slipped from my arms as I closed the space between us and threw myself into him.He caught me instantly, arms wrapping around me like he’d been waiting for it. The familiar warmth of him hit me all at once, the faint scent of his shampoo, the clean, earthy smell that always clung to him.I burie

Taylor The streets were dark. Too dark.The orange glow from the streetlights stretched thinly across the road, pooling in faint patches that barely cut through the shadows. My breaths came in ragged gasps, each one sharp and uneven, echoing in the stillness like a punishment. The world felt eerily silent, like even the crickets had decided this night wasn’t worth breaking.“Tara!” I yelled again, my voice cracking halfway through her name.No answer. Just the empty sound of my echo bouncing off the quiet houses.I didn’t care that people might wake up, or that windows might slide open with irritated faces glaring out at me. I didn’t care that my throat already burned from shouting. The only thing that mattered was finding her. My little sister. My light.I ran down another stretch of road, eyes darting left and right, scanning every shadow, every movement. My heart pounded so hard it felt like it was shaking my whole body.“Tara!”Still nothing.The fear crawled higher in my chest w

The sun was beginning to dip by the time we started walking home. The streets were painted in gold and shadow, the air cool and heavy with that faint smell of rain that never quite arrives. Taylor walked beside me, hands tucked into his jacket pockets, his head slightly tilted as he talked about noodles of all things.“I’m serious,” he was saying, his tone half-defensive, half-playful. “You can’t just throw them in boiling water and expect them to taste right. You’ve got to time it…three minutes, not a second more. Any longer, and it’s mush. And the sauce? Has to be thick. Like, clinging-to-the-fork thick.”I glanced at him, the corners of my mouth twitching. “You make noodles sound like a life philosophy.”“It kind of is,” he said with a grin. “Simple things deserve effort too.”I smiled faintly, but my mind wasn’t really in the conversation. Not entirely. His words barely registered because something heavier had settled in my chest, the weight of what he’d told me earlier.The story

The glass was still cool in my hand when I finally found my voice again. I stared at him, unsure what to say, unsure if saying anything would only make things worse. There was something about the way his voice wrapped around the silence, too calm, too familiar, that made my chest tighten in that stupid, infuriating way it always did when he was near. He looked so at ease standing there, hands tucked loosely into his pockets like he belonged in my kitchen, like the months apart hadn’t changed anything. For a second, I wanted to say something mean. Something that would remind him he didn’t get to just walk back into my life like this. But I didn’t. The words got tangled somewhere between my throat and my pride, coming out instead as a low mutter. “It’s just milk. I’m fully capable of getting it myself.” I moved toward the counter, setting my glass down a little too hard, pretending like his presence didn’t throw my heart off rhythm. But then I realized something, he’d gotten close

The clock on the wall ticked softly, a quiet, steady rhythm that filled the spaces between the words we exchanged.I sat across from Damian at his desk, a stack of papers spread between us, the faint scratch of my pen echoing in the still air. He’d been surprisingly focused for the first half hour, no unnecessary comments, no stolen glances, just the sound of turning pages and the occasional murmur of an answer.For a while, it almost felt normal.“Good,” I said, scanning through the solution he’d just written. “You actually got that one right this time.”He smirked faintly, leaning back in his chair. “You sound surprised.”“I am,” I replied, unable to stop the corner of my mouth from twitching upward. “You usually find a way to mess it up halfway through.”His chuckle was low, soft, but it still managed to crawl under my skin. “Guess you’re a good teacher then.”I rolled my eyes and looked back at the paper, forcing myself to focus. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The exams are cl