“Home sweet chaos,” Luca declared, kicking off his shoes and immediately tripping over them.
“Watch it,” Sloane said, catching his arm before he face-planted.
“I’m fine,” he insisted, then stumbled forward.
Finn muttered something about noise complaints while Hudson headed straight for the kitchen, calling over his shoulder that he was making toast. Which, judging by the smell of burnt bread ten minutes later, had gone predictably wrong.
Luca was already halfway up the stairs, singing something that definitely wasn’t English, with Sloane following close behind, trying not to laugh. Nina rolled her eyes and shouted, “You’re waking Asa up!” which only made him sing louder.
I leaned against the front hall closet, the adrenaline still buzzing faintly in my chest. The entire night felt surreal—the lights, the laughter, the crowd, the award in Luca’s hands. I’d been proud before, but tonight had been something different. Bigger.
Tino came up beside me now, still in his suit shirt with the top buttons undone but now with his suit jacket on and tie hanging out of his pocket. His hair was a little messy, like he’d run his hands through it one too many times. My hand tingled as I resisted the temptation to run my own hand through it now. I wondered if he knew just how much I loved it when he looked like that.
“You look tired,” he said softly, eyes flicking up and down over me.
I smiled softly. “Do I?”
“A little—but in a good way,” he rushed to add. “Like you conquered something.”
My grin grew. “If surviving in heels for six hours counts as conquering, then yeah. Total victory.”
He grinned, the corner of his mouth tilting up in that way that made something twist in my stomach. “Come on. Let’s get changed before Luca decides we’re doing a group karaoke.”
I groaned. “Oh gosh, don’t joke.”
Our room was dim when we walked in, the only light coming from the lamp on the dresser. My dress felt too tight, my hair heavy with hairspray, the glitter from my makeup clinging to my skin like static. I sighed, kicking off my shoes and stretching my toes against the cool floor.
Tino tossed his jacket over a chair, unbuttoning his cuffs as he said, “You can use the bathroom first. I need a minute to remember how buttons work.”
We had to share the bathroom with Nina and Finn as well, but neither of them were around when I went in. Within minutes, my hair was loose, my makeup wiped off, and I was wrapped in my favorite pajama set—this one was white with bananas all over it and I could only imagine what comments Tino was going to make about it after how he’d acted about my strawberry-patterned ones the night before.
I opened the bathroom door again and started brushing my teeth. I didn’t really expect for Tino to show up right away, but a few seconds later he appeared in the doorway and asked if he could brush his teeth as well. I just nodded, keeping my gaze in the mirror so I couldn’t let my eyes linger on him.
For a while, the only sounds were the tap running and our toothbrushes against enamel. I caught our reflections side by side in the mirror—his broad shoulders slightly hunched as he leaned over the sink, my hair a mess from snow outside, both of us blinking sleepily under the bathroom light.
That was when he spoke.
“It’s weird,” Tino said. He started absent-mindedly and twirled his toothbrush between his fingers like it was a pencil. I watched him out of the corner of my eye, half of my mind still on brushing my teeth.
“What is?” I asked, though the words came out all garbled because my mouth was filled with toothpaste.
“I’ve known you for what, three years?” He said it like a question but didn’t wait for my response before continuing. “But I never really thought about you before.”
“Thanks,” I said flatly.
He laughed. “No, that’s not what I meant. Obviously I thought about you, but not… this version of you. I guess in mind,you’re so tied to Hartwell that I didn’t think about you having a life outside of it. A house and family and… well, a normal life.”
I processed his words as I rinsed my mouth. It was a bit of a strange thing to hear, but at the same time I understood. Boarding school was such a closed environment that it felt like it was our entire lives. Honestly I’d never thought much of Tino outside of school either, but now that he mentioned it, I was curious. What did his house look like? How did he and his siblings interact when they were at home? Did his bedroom still look the same as it had when he was a kid or had he continued to change the decorations in it whenever he was home from school?
I cleared my throat as I tried to shake away the thoughts of what Tino’sbedroommight look like. What was wrong with me?
“Well, this isn’t my actual real life,” I reminded him. “I never lived with the band—Nina moved in with them long after I started at boarding school.”
“But it’s still a variation of your life,” he said. “It’s still you, outside of school. And…” I barely even noticed his hand moving, until it was brushing along the collar of my satin white pajama top. My gaze dropped to look at his hand, then back up to his eyes which were staring softly at me. “I think I like what I see.”
My heart thumped in my chest, pounding hard against my ribs. Why was he staring at me like that? Were his eyes getting darker? He didn’t move his hand, but he didn’t press further either. He just looked at me, waiting—like if I stepped back, he would too.
And I didn’t.
