The cafeteria door closed behind her with a soft click that disappeared beneath the noise of students moving through the corridor.
Aiva slowed to a stop beside the wall and stayed there.
The hallway stretched in both directions beneath rows of fluorescent lights. Groups of students passed with open notebooks tucked beneath their arms, conversations drifting between exam scores and tomorrow's schedules.
A new notice had been pinned to the bulletin board beside the cafeteria entrance. Updated school safety protocols. Increased unusual activity in surrounding areas. She walked past it without reading a single word.
Her hand found the strap of her bag.
Then the other.
Okay. I need to breathe.
She drew in a breath.
I'm breathing.
The another.
Her eyes closed.
That was Amber.
They opened again.
That was Amber Thorne sitting next to Bryce like they were...
Her fingers tightened.
I don't want to think about that.
Students continued walking around her.
Someone laughed near the stairwell.
The sounds reached her and passed through her without stopping.
Did he know I was there?
The question arrived before she finished the previous one.
No.
Her eyes drifted toward the cafeteria door behind her.
No. That's ridiculous.
The look lingered, steady and unshaken, showing no hint of surprise, confusion, or curiosity. It carried only a calm, unwavering awareness, persistent and impossible to ignore.
Maybe he knew.
Her heartbeat sped up.
No.That's insane.
Her thumb rubbed against the canvas strap beneath her fingers.
But Bryce is smart enough to know when something is up... What if this is what it's all about?
Her gaze fixed on the floor.
What if the real reason we broke up... What if he figured out I' was a mage?
The thought wasn't new.
It had been there for weeks.
Quiet.
Persistent.
Always sitting somewhere in the background.
She'd never said it out loud.
Not to Chloe.
Not to Adam.
Not to anyone.
Somewhere beneath all the practical reasons for suppressing her Lumen during the classification test, there had been another reason.
A smaller one.
A more personal one.
If her file said human, maybe something would change.
Maybe whatever distance had opened between them would shrink.
Maybe there had been something he couldn't reconcile.
Maybe knowing less would make things easier.
Her stomach tightened.
But Amber is a werewolf.
The thought landed hard.
Amber has never hidden what she is. That she's not just human. Never pretended. So then what was I fixing?
Her eyes closed again.
The answer came immediately.
Nothing.
The theory collapsed so quickly that she almost felt dizzy.
Because the theory had offered a solution.
A path.
A problem she could point at.
This gave her nothing.
So then why?
Her jaw tightened.
Why?
The question circled back.
Again.
And again.
I need to stop this. It's not healthy.
Her eyes opened.
So then why can't I?
"Aiva?"
The voice cut through the spiral.
She looked up.
Chloe was halfway down the corridor, moving fast enough that the ends of her black bob shifted sharply against her jaw with every step. Her cheeks were flushed. One hand gripped a notebook against her chest while the other opened and closed beside her thigh.
She looked angry.
Not irritated.
Not annoyed.
Angry.
She would have walked straight past.
Aiva stepped into her path before she'd consciously decided to move.
"Chloe."
"What?"
The answer came too quickly.
Her voice was tighter than usual.
"What happened?"
Chloe stopped.
For a second, she looked as if she might keep walking anyway.
Then the words started.
"Oh, nothing. Just the girl who already hates me decided to tell half the class I used magic to cheat on the exam on day one." Her grip tightened around the notebook.
"What did you do?" Aiva asked suspiciously.
"I confronted her."
"Confronted?"
"I might have been a little loud."
"A little?"
"Okay, maybe very loud." Her nostrils flared. "Then she called me a witch..."
The word fell flat. No raised voice, no dramatic emphasis, just four letters. Aiva noticed the slight tightening of Chloe's jaw.
"...In the hallway." Chloe laughed once but there wasn't any humor in it. "In front of everyone."
"What happened after that?"
"What do you think happened? I told her exactly what I thought."
"I'm sure you did." Aiva said, still shocked by how furious Chloe was at the moment.
"I absolutely did."
Her hand shook when she pushed her hair behind one ear.
"Then she started yelling."
"And then?"
"The principal appeared like some kind of supernatural intervention."
Despite herself, Aiva almost smiled.
"Broke the fight and warned us not to do it again before leaving and saying she's going to pretend she didn't see anything." Chloe rolled her eyes, "Called it Christmas amnesty. Can you believe that?"
"Actually, yes."
"'It's finals week, girls. Let's all make better choices.'" Her imitation of the principal was impressively accurate. "The next incident means disciplinary action."
"I figured the other girl would at least get into trouble for it"
"I thought so too but i guess the Christmas amnesty applies to both of us, how wonderful." Chloe crossed her arms.
The shaking hadn't stopped.
The anger hadn't either.
"You know what's making me crazy?"
Aiva waited.
"I could end this."
Her voice dropped.
Not quieter.
Flatter.
"If that girl knew what I could actually do, she'd never bother me ever again."
Her eyes lifted.
"If any of them knew, they wouldn't."
The notebook bent slightly beneath her grip.
"I sit in class pretending to be normal... For their sake." Her lips pressed together, "And that's why they think they can say things like that."
The trembling in her fingers became more obvious.
"I hate this."
Aiva nodded once, "I know."
"No, you don't."
"I think I do."
Chloe looked away.
The silence lasted long enough for the anger to lose some of its momentum.
"You know the worst part?" Aiva asked.
"What?"
"If you used magic on her, what would it actually give you?"
Chloe frowned, "Satisfaction."
"For how long?"
No answer.
Aiva shifted her weight.
"It wouldn't give you respect."
Chloe's eyes narrowed, "It would give me peace."
"No." The answer came gently, "It would give you fear."
Chloe looked at her.
"And those aren't the same thing." Aiva added gently.
The notebook slowly relaxed beneath Chloe's fingers.
"The hardest part about having power isn't using it." Aiva tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's knowing the people who should probably be afraid of you aren't."
Chloe didn't interrupt.
"And choosing not to make them afraid anyway."
"Why?"
"Because the second you use power to force someone into seeing you differently, you've given them exactly what they expected from you."
The corridor fell quiet between them as Chloe's shoulders lowered.
The shaking slowed.
Her anger remained but the heat behind it faded.
Chloe studied her for several seconds.
Then her expression changed.
"Aiva."
"Hm?"
"Why are you crying?"
Her hand flew to her cheek.
Moisture.
Her fingers paused.
She hadn't noticed.
A startled laugh escaped before she could stop it.
"Oh."
Chloe waited.
"Oh, wow."
"Aiva."
"It's nothing." she brushed off.
"It is absolutely not nothing."
She wiped beneath one eye with the heel of her hand.
"I got a little emotional."
Chloe stared at her. "You were like that when i got here, don't pin this on me."
Aiva faked a laugh, "That isn't what this is."
"What happened?"
For a second, she considered avoiding it.
Then she remembered Chloe unloading every ounce of frustration she'd been carrying for the last ten minutes.
Giving nothing back suddenly felt wrong.
So she told her.
About the cafe, Amber and Bryce, the way they were positioned catching her attention. About how she lingered in the doorway longer than she should have, Bryce's gaze following her before she turned to leave. Once the words began to flow, they came easily. Chloe didn't interrupt, didn't make faces, didn't gasp, she just listened.
When Aiva finished, Chloe shifted her notebook to the other arm.
"That sucks."
Aiva laughed, "Thank you."
"I'm serious."
"I know."
"What are you going to do?"
"I... don't know." That wasn't completely true, "I want to talk to him."
"Then talk to him." Chloe said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I was basically standing there spying on him."
"Yeah so?"
Aiva covered her eyes with one hand. "When i say it out loud it sounds terrible."
"I mean It was a little stalker-ish."
"A little?"
"Okay. Very."
Aiva laughed despite herself, "Maybe I should just leave it alone."
"No."
The answer came immediately.
"No?"
"You didn't stand in that hallway for that long because you wanted exercise."
Aiva opened her mouth.
Chloe pointed at her, "Nope. Don't argue."
"I'm not arguing."
"Sure you're not."
Aiva smiled before trying to protest, "The stalking thing was embarrassing."
"It really is."
"Thank you." Aiva said sarcastically
"You can be embarrassed later."
Chloe adjusted the notebook beneath her arm.
"Go talk to him."
And before she could think of another reason not to, Aiva turned and walked back toward the cafeteria.
She moved faster this time.
Not running.
Not hurrying.
Just moving before she had time to reconsider.
She pushed through the doors and looked upward.
The café sat above the cafeteria behind its layers of glass.
Her eyes found the edge seats immediately.
One of them was empty.
The other was empty, too.
No drink.
No jacket.
No Bryce.
She stopped.
The cafeteria continued around her.
Students carried trays between tables.
Someone waved across the room.
A chair scraped against tile.
Her eyes remained fixed on the empty seat.
She was a little too late.
***
The snow had been gone for two days.
The cold hadn't followed it.
Bryce walked along the path leading toward the boys' dormitory with both hands in the pockets of his coat.
The campus lamps had begun switching on one by one, small circles of light appearing along the sidewalks as evening settled over the school grounds. The concrete beneath his shoes was firm and dry. No crunch of snow. Just the steady sound of his footsteps.
His thoughts wandered to tomorrow's physics exam. Passing wasn't the goal. Placement didn't matter much either. What caught his attention was the point gap between first and second place.
He'd already crunched the numbers twice, just to be sure. If he hit the level of performance he expected, that gap would stretch even further. The calculation wasn't something he needed to do, but it was exactly the sort of thing he liked doing.
His phone vibrated.
He stopped walking.
The screen lit his hand.
Dad.
He looked at the name.
The ringing continued.
Students crossed an intersection farther down the path as someone laughed. A door opened near one of the residence halls, but the ringing kept going.
His thumb rested on the side of the phone, nowhere near the green button. He stared at the screen, waiting. The call ended, the display shifted, missed call. Below it, the call history showed three.
He lowered the phone.
For a second, his jaw tightened.
Something moved in his throat.
He slid the phone back into his coat pocket.
The dormitory stood at the end of the path beneath the evening lights.
His eyes remained fixed on it.
"I just can't."
His voice was barely louder than the wind.
He started walking again.
"Not yet."