CHAPTER 31: LATE NIGHT
The city always felt different after midnight.
Quieter.
Softer.
As if the world finally stopped trying to be busy.
The roads emptied.
The lights dimmed.
And somehow, thoughts became louder.
Liora discovered this while lying on her bedroom floor at 12:17 a.m.
A history assignment sat open beside her.
Unfinished.
Abandoned.
Probably beyond saving.
Her attention was somewhere else.
Specifically, on the phone resting beside her notebook.
A new message appeared.
Rowan
are you actually studying
Liora laughed.
Liora
absolutely
Rowan
liar
Liora
rude
Rowan
honest
She stared at the screen.
Then glanced toward the history textbook.
Then back to the screen.
Unfortunately, Rowan was correct.
The assignment had not progressed in almost twenty minutes.
Liora
okay maybe a little
Rowan
exactly
Liora
don't expose me
Rowan
too late
The conversation continued.
As it always did.
One topic becoming another.
One story leading to the next.
At some point, they stopped talking about school entirely.
Instead, they started talking about childhood memories.
The random ones.
The pointless ones.
The kind nobody usually shared.
Rowan
i once got lost in a supermarket for an hour
Liora
that's embarrassing
Rowan
i was six
Liora
still embarrassing
Rowan
wow
Liora
i'm judging you
A minute later:
Rowan
your turn
Liora thought for a moment.
Then smiled.
Liora
when i was nine i tried cutting my own hair
The typing bubble appeared instantly.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
Finally:
Rowan
no way
Liora
yes way
Rowan
please tell me there's a photo
Liora
absolutely not
Rowan
coward
Liora laughed so hard she nearly dropped her phone.
The room felt warmer somehow.
Comfortable.
Easy.
The conversation drifted again.
Music.
Favorite places.
The worst teachers they'd ever had.
Random things.
Little things.
Yet none of it felt boring.
That was the strange part.
Normally, conversations faded.
People ran out of things to say.
But somehow that never seemed to happen here.
Outside her window, the city lights glittered beneath the dark sky.
Time continued slipping away unnoticed.
12:48 a.m.
1:03 a.m.
1:21 a.m.
At some point, her phone buzzed with a message from the friend-group chat.
Kai.
Of course.
Kai
IMPORTANT QUESTION
Nobody responded.
A minute later:
Kai
WHY IS EVERYONE ASLEEP
Mira
because it's 1 am
Kai
weak mindset
Jaden
go to sleep
Kai
never
The chat immediately descended into chaos.
Liora smiled while reading.
Then switched back to Rowan's conversation.
Without even thinking about it.
The realization never crossed her mind.
A few months ago, she would have stayed.
Joined the nonsense.
Sent ten messages.
Laughed with everyone.
Tonight, she checked the chat.
Smiled.
Then returned somewhere else.
The shift was small.
Almost invisible.
But it was there.
Across the city, Evren was still awake too.
Not because he wanted to be.
Because a mathematics worksheet had declared war on him.
His desk lamp cast a warm circle of light across the room.
The rest remained dark.
A notification appeared.
Group chat.
Kai again.
Evren opened it.
Immediately regretted it.
Five minutes later, he was somehow involved in an argument about whether cereal counted as soup.
He hated all of them.
A second later, another message arrived.
From Liora.
Not in the group chat.
Private.
Evren blinked.
Then opened it.
A photo.
A page from her history assignment.
One question circled dramatically.
Lio:
ren help
Evren laughed.
A real laugh.
The kind that came easily.
Ren:
that's literally the easiest question
Three dots appeared.
Then:
Lio:
i don't like your attitude
Ren:
skill issue
Lio:
wow
Ren:
want help or not
A few minutes later, the problem was solved.
The conversation lasted less than ten minutes.
Nothing important.
Nothing emotional.
Just another ordinary exchange between two people who had known each other most of their lives.
Yet after the chat ended, Evren found himself smiling slightly.
Because despite everything lately—
some things still hadn't changed.
Meanwhile, Rowan sat by his bedroom window.
The glow from his screen illuminated the room.
The conversation with Liora remained open.
Another message arrived.
Liora
i'm never finishing this assignment
Rowan shook his head.
Smiling despite himself.
Then another message.
Then another.
The conversation continued.
Easy.
Natural.
The way it always seemed to.
For a moment, he simply stared at the screen.
Thinking.
Not about assignments.
Not about school.
About something else.
Something about all of this felt different now.
Different from how it should have.
Different from how it used to.
The thought lingered longer than he liked.
Enough that he locked his phone and stood up.
The room suddenly felt too quiet.
Outside, the city slept.
Inside, Rowan stared out the window.
Thinking.
A few minutes later, his phone lit up again.
Another message from Liora.
He looked at it.
Then smiled before he could stop himself.
And somehow, that bothered him more than it should have.
Across the city, Liora finally completed her assignment.
Barely.
The clock now read 1:47 a.m.
She stretched and crawled into bed.
Exhausted.
Her phone rested beside her pillow.
One final message waited.
Rowan
sleep
Liora
you first
Rowan
impossible
Liora
dramatic
Rowan
goodnight photographer
The nickname again.
She rolled her eyes.
Smiling anyway.
Liora
goodnight
The screen went dark.
The room fell silent.
And for the first time in a long time, the last person she spoke to before sleeping wasn't Ren.
It was Rowan.
A small thing.
An ordinary thing.
The kind of thing nobody would remember.
Except sometimes, lives changed because of small things.