“Doesn’t matter.” He smirks like he’s caught me cheating at cards. “That girl has presence. She walks into a room, and the air just…tilts her way.”
My throat goes tight. It started with her laugh—sharp enough to cut through a crowd and hit me clean through the heart—but it didn’t stop there. Now it’s everything. The way she fills a space. The way people shift without realizing they’re orienting toward her. It’s pathetic how quickly I’d follow the sound of her voice through this whole damn house. He’s right. People seem to lean her way without noticing they’re doing it, drawn in the quiet way you drift toward warmth on a cold night. And I can’t even pretend I’m not one of them anymore.
Her friends orbit her in their own way, too—one with microbraids elbowing her in the side as she vies for her attention, the one with a blue-tipped bob nearly spilling her drink until she catches her wrist with a quick, practiced ease—their laughter rising in waves. I keep counting the seconds between the moments I can see her again. Every time she slips behind someone, my chest pulls like I’m coming up short on air.
“Spare me the poetry.” Ryan lets out a mock groan. “She’s hot. End of story.”
But it’s not just that. I don’t know her name or anything about her, but I know this moment is going to stick. Whoever I meet after this, whatever I try to chase, she’ll be the one I compare it to.
A new song hits, the speakers thumping, but she’s louder than the beat. Brighter than the lights. The party peels away until it’s just her and the pull she has on me. For the first time all night, I don’t mind being here. If someone dragged me out right now, I’d probably fight them. I didn’t come here for her, but suddenly, she’s the only reason I’m still standing here.
I force myself to look away, pretending to scan the room, but my attention keeps drifting back to her on its own. My eyes are drawn to the way she moves through conversations, how she listens with her whole body, present in a way that pulls people in without trying. They angle toward her without noticing, waiting for whatever reaction she’ll give them. And I’m no better. Every time she slips back into view, something in me shifts toward her instinctively, like she’s the one steady point in a room that won’t stop spinning.
“Earth to Hendrix.” Ryan elbows me. “You planning to just stand here like a creep, or are you actually going to talk to her?”
“I’m not—” I say, though my voice comes out rougher than I mean it.
“You can take a body check from a six-foot tall defenseman and keep skating, but you see one hot girl in hoop earrings, and you're toast.”
“Leave him alone,” Nate says, but there’s amusement in his eyes.
I pretend to focus on the beer pong table across the room, but her voice threads through it all, the one sound my body refuses to tune out.
“No, no, listen,” she says with a small trace of amusement.
I catch only pieces of the story, but the rhythm of her voice hooks me anyway.
“Then he looks at me and says, ‘Are you sure that’s edible?’ Like I didn’t just spend an hour making it.”
“Oh my god, Alycia,” the girl with the blue-dyed bob wheezes, “you attract weirdos. It’s like a gift.”
Alycia.Her name settles heavily in my chest like it’s always belonged.
I move before I realize it, weaving through the crowd, ignoring Ryan’s wolf-whistle behind me.
“Hey, you… come settle this.” Her friend points at me, waving me over.
My stomach drops as heat surges up my neck. For a split second, I think about pretending I didn’t hear, but then I’m caught in her gravity. Alycia’s eyes widen when she realizes Tiffany’s pulled me into the circle. For a moment, she looks like she might protest, but then her friends are already hyping it up.
They start telling a story about coffee beans and TSA agents, but I only hear every other word. My focus is solely on Alycia and the way her mouth moves as she speaks. Her tongue peeks out every so often to wet her bottom lip, and then her gaze flicks to me. It feels like she sees me. Not the last name, not the pressure, just me. And for a heartbeat, I’m caught. It hits me low and hard like she touched something I didn’t know was exposed.
“For the record, coffee beans are worth fighting over,” I say.
“Finally.” Her lip twitches like she’s fighting a grin. “Someone with sense.”
Her approval does something stupid to me—lights up a place I usually keep shut tight. Her friends erupt into more laughter, hooting like I’ve just joined their side.
“It’s been fun, but we’re off to get refills before all the vodka is gone.” The one with the braids hooks her arm through Alycia’s, tugging her back into the whirl and allowing the moment to slip through my fingers like water.
“It was nice meeting you,” Alycia shouts, glancing back once before disappearing, her eyes sweeping the room and locking on mine for a brief second.
I take half a step after her. My body moves like it’s already made the decision my brain is terrified to make. Then Alycia is swallowed by the crowd, and that fleeting feeling of being seen goes with her, leaving me hollow in a way I didn’t expect. It feels wrong, letting the moment end here. Wrong in a way that sits heavy in the center of my chest.
I don’t move; I just stand there, breath caught in my chest and the echo of her laugh still buzzing in my ears. I should chase after her and ask for her number at the very least, but my feet won’t cooperate. All I can do is stare at the doorway where she disappeared and admit the truth that just lodged itself under my skin.
I didn’t know it then, but I’d spend a long time chasing the memory of her because she was the first person who ever made the noise go quiet. And even now, surrounded by a hundred voices, I’m still listening for hers.
Chapter One
