The final bell rang, and the campus spilled into the courtyard in a blur of chatter and rushing feet. Ava shouldered her bag, feeling lighter than she had that morning, while Mia walked beside her, a lazy grin stretched across her face.
"Finally," Mia said, stretching like she'd been trapped for hours. "If I had to listen to one more lecture about microeconomics, I would've walked out."
"You'd never walk out," Ava teased. "Your brother would kill you."
"True," Mia admitted, and they both laughed as they made their way toward the dorm.
Inside the common lounge, Clara was already waiting on the couch, books spread around her like a fortress. Lena leaned over the armrest, sketchpad balanced on her knees, pencil flying across the page.
"Took you long enough," Clara said without looking up from her notes.
"We weren't late," Ava said, tossing her bag onto a chair. "You're just early. As usual."
Lena looked up, grinning. "I told her you two would be together. She said you'd ditch Mia to flirt with the quiet guy in your history class."
Ava blinked. "What?!"
Mia burst out laughing. "Honestly, I want names. Ava, you holding out on me?"
Clara sighed, but a faint smile tugged at her lips. "Relax. It was just a guess."
Ava dropped onto the couch, shaking her head with an exasperated laugh. The normalcy of it all—the teasing, the comfort of friends who didn't belong to the bloody world of the Morettis—wrapped around her like a blanket.
Mia plopped down beside Lena, stealing her pencil. "So, what's new? Did we miss anything exciting while we were drowning in schoolwork?"
Lena smirked. "Only Clara threatening to bite the next person who asks her for tutoring. Which, for the record, I fully support."
Clara shot her a look but didn't argue, flipping a page in her notes instead.
Ava leaned back, watching them, warmth blooming in her chest. For a little while, at least, it felt like they were just girls again—no shadows, no threats, no mafia ties. Just laughter, books, and inside jokes.
But in the back of her mind, she couldn't ignore the thought: how long could this normalcy really last?