The sound broke the spell.
I stepped back. His hands fell away. The loss of contact felt like stepping out of a warm room into a blizzard.
A girl appeared on the landing below us, slightly out of breath, her bright eyes going wide as she took in the scene. Me, flushed and disheveled. Him, still staring like I'd hit him with a brick instead of my shoulder.
The space between us that practically crackled with whatever had just happened.
"Oh," she said, a grin spreading across her face. "Don't mind me."
The interruption gave me what I needed. I pulled the armor back on—the wit, the deflection, the part of me that knew how to handle situations I couldn't control.
"Cat got your tongue, cowboy?" My voice came out steadier than I expected.
He blinked. Shook his head like he was trying to clear water from his ears.
"What?"
"Your name." I reached up—slowly, deliberately—and adjusted his hat where the collision had knocked it askew. "You asked for mine. It's polite to offer yours first."
His jaw worked. Up close, I could see a small scar on his chin, a faint spray of freckles across his nose. Details I did not need to be noticing.
"James," he managed. "I'm James."
"Lumi." I patted his chest once—firm, dismissive, absolutely nothing like the way my hand wanted to linger—and steppedaround him. "Nice running into you, James. Try not to loiter in stairwells. Safety hazard."
I turned and booked it away from him without looking back. The girl from the landing fell into step beside me, mercifully waiting until we'd pushed through the third floor door before she spoke.
"Okay." She let out a breath. "What the hell was that?"
"Nothing."
"That wasn't nothing. That was—" She waved her hand vaguely. "I don't even know what that was, but the air in that stairwell got very weird very fast."
"Static electricity."
"Sure. Static electricity that made you both forget how to blink." She stuck out her hand. "Ivy Button. And yes, I do grow on you." She snorted at her own joke. "You get used to me."
I shook it briefly. "Lumi."
"Just Lumi?"
"Lumi Orlav."
"Nice to meet you, Lumi Orlav." We walked down the hall together, and I could feel her glancing at me sideways, trying to figure out how much to push. "So. Cowboy hat guy. Friend of yours?"
"Never seen him before in my life."
"Huh." She was quiet for a second. "Could've fooled me."
I didn't have an answer for that.
"I'm in 312," she offered. "Down the hall. If you need anything."
I stopped walking.
String lights. Bright quilt. Snacks everywhere.
"You're my roommate."
