جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 140

I called Ava that night from my bed, sitting cross-legged with my phone pressed to my ear while the parking lot replayed itself in my head. “Can we go to the children’s library tomorrow?” I asked. “I need something normal.”“You only remember the library exists when you’re having a crisis.” She did not say it accusingly. Ava rarely had to. She could point out the truth without making me feel foolish for trying to hide from it. After a brief pause, she asked, “Did something happen?”“No. Nothing happened.”The lie came easily, more easily than it should have. I waited for the question I knew was coming, but Ava only said, “Okay. I’ll pick you up at nine.”The next morning, I met her at the park beside the library instead of at the entrance. She found me on our usual bench, staring across the grass at a group of children chasing one another around the playground.“You want to go in?” she asked as she sat beside me.“In a minute.” When she glanced at me, I added, “I just need to sit here

I saw Dean’s car before I saw him, parked crookedly outside my dorm the way it always was when he was too distracted to bother fixing it. He had never come here before, not once since the parking lot. Apparently, today was different. I had barely turned off my engine when he started walking toward me. His hands were shoved into his pockets, and he looked as tired as I felt, which irritated me in a way I couldn’t explain. I didn’t want proof that this was hurting him too. It would have been much easier if he had looked fine. “Iris.” “Dean.” “I know you don’t want this.” He said it quickly, as if he had spent the entire drive practicing and was afraid he would lose his nerve if he paused. “Give me ten minutes. I’ll say what I came to say, and after today, I won’t bother you again. I promise.” That was what I had wanted, wasn’t it? For him to stop coming after me. For everything to end before his family could turn me into another problem they needed to solve. So why did hearing him

Ava barely spoke on the walk back to her dorm the next morning. She was still trying to make sense of everything that had happened the night before, and I couldn’t blame her. Before she reached the door, I gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Call me after you talk to him,” I said. “Whatever happens.”“I will.” She managed a small, tired smile. “Thank you. For last night. For not making me feel crazy.”“You’re not crazy. You’re scared. Those are different things.”She nodded and slipped inside. I stood there for another moment, watching the door close, then turned toward the library. My exam notes were packed into my bag, but I had no idea what was in them. My thoughts were still caught between worrying about Ava and the dull ache that had followed me since Dean’s stakeholder announcement had taken over my feed the night before.Campus had already descended into its usual pre-exam panic. Students hurried across the quad with coffee cups clutched in both hands, looking as though they were

Becker Hall emptied slowly after the exam, students spilling into the hallway with the exhausted relief of people who had survived something unpleasant and were determined to pretend they had not. I should have gone back to my dorm, but the thought of sitting alone with my notes and my own thoughts sounded worse than studying, so I ended up in the library instead. I had been at my usual corner table for maybe ten minutes when Mason dropped into the chair across from me. He set a coffee between us as if we had planned to meet, which was bold considering I had not invited him or told him where I was. “Rough one?” he asked, nodding toward the exam booklet sticking out of my bag. “Media law is trying to end me specifically.” “Sounds personal.” “It felt personal.” He laughed, and I looked at him over the top of my notes. It still surprised me sometimes how easy it had become to sit with Mason. There had been a time when being in the same room with him made me feel as though I were wai

I walked out of Becker Hall into a wall of noise. Students spilled down the steps around me, phones held high, voices rising over one another, while someone nearby had already opened a bottle of something that was almost certainly against campus rules. Ava waited at the bottom, and the moment she saw me, she pulled me into a hug.“We’re done,” she murmured against my shoulder.“I know.” I held on for another second before letting her go.She studied my face. “You don’t look happy.”“I am happy.” I meant it, even with the hollow place inside me that graduation hadn’t managed to fill. “I just don’t know what I’m supposed to do with myself now that it’s actually over.”Fielding & Marsh had confirmed my start date the week before. I was due to begin a month after graduation, which gave me enough time to rest and prepare. Junior Communications Specialist. A real title, a real desk, and a real salary I had earned without anyone handing it to me. I should have felt relieved. Instead, as I wa