Noah was trying hard to change the conversation and I appreciated it. But it really was not working. We reached the split where Noah would head to our dorm and I’d continue to walk Emily to her building.
“Night, kids. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Emily and I kept walking, but the ease from earlier was completely gone. She was quiet, processing. I could practically hear the gears turning in her head.
“Liam?” she said finally.
“Yeah?”
“Are you sure you’re telling me everything?”
My chest tightened. “What do you mean?”
“About the video. About Alex.” She stopped walking, turned to face me. “I just feel like you should’ve said something earlier... and you didn’t.”
“It just all happened so quickly, and it was just a race. Bad timing, bad decision, but that’s it.”
She studied my face in the dim light from the street lamps. “You promise?”
The lie caught in my throat, but I forced it out. “I promise.”
She nodded slowly, but I could see she didn’t quite believe me. Still, she let it go—for now.
We reached her building and stood outside, the moment stretching between us.
“You want to come up?” she asked.
I did. I wanted to fall into her bed and her warmth and prove to both of us that everything was fine. But I was also exhausted, and that conversation—Emily’s questions, her suspicion, the way she’d looked at me when she asked about Alex—had left me shaken.
“I’ve got early practice,” I said.
“Right. Of course.” She smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Rain check?”
“Definitely.”
She kissed me—soft and sweet, but something was different. A hesitation that wasn’t there before.
“I love you,” she said against my mouth, but this time it sounded like a question.
The words should’ve felt good. They should’ve filled the hollow space in my chest, but they didn’t.
“Love you too,” I said.
She smiled, squeezed my hand once, and headed inside.
I stood there for a moment, watching her disappear, knowing something had shifted tonight. Then I turned and started the walk back to my own dorm.
Emily called it blackmail and maybe she was right. Or maybe whoever sent it just wanted me to know they were watching. That they’d seen something I thought was private.
That they knew. But knew what, exactly? Just that we had the race or that I couldn’t stay away from Alex? What if they knew about the summer?
What would I have to sacrifice to be honest? Emily? My team? My scholarship? Everything my mom had worked for?
All of it... so it was best to keep pretending. Once Noah and I figured out who sent that video and dealt with it, this would all be over.
Hopefully, Emily’s suspicions would fade and my life would go back to normal—whatever that meant.
Chapter 12: Alex
