The room isn’t filled with smoke—until it pours in behind me. I get one good look at the space before the haze thickens, visibility vanishing almost instantly.
I push into the bathroom first, braced for someone to be crouched in the tub. Empty.
Shit. Could it beanother?—
“Help!”
I spin back into the main room and drop low, sweeping past the beds. Nothing. The frames are solid, boxed in with wood paneling—no one could be hiding under there.
“Where are you?!” My voice cracks. Maybe the heat’s getting to me, but I swear I can hear someone?—
“Help!”
I’m on my feet and rushing back into the hall.
“Keoni!”
I whip my head toward the sound. I can’t see anything through the smoke, but I don’t need to—Kali’s voice is unmistakable.
“Structure compromised,” Corey’s voice crackles over the radio. “Exit the?—”
And then it’s like everything that could go wrong, does.
The room where the fire started detonates outward; loud pops, flames bursting through the doorway and flooding into the hall.
The ceiling above me groans, then caves.
I don’t even know if I manage to move. All I feel is the sudden, impossible weightlessness before everything goes black.
No pain. No sensation at all. Just a creeping dread.
And memories. Regrets I wish I hadn’t carved so deeply into my life.
It’s him who floods my mind. The one face I could never—no,wouldnever—want to escape. If this really is my last breath, then he’s the only one I’d want to see.
Ayden.
Age 19
“Keoni, I’m so glad you could make it!” my stepdad says as I step through the front door. He pulls me into a hug—one I return gratefully.
My last final for the semester had been this afternoon, and bythe time it was over, my flight was barely an hour from leaving. I’ve never been the type to cut it close at the airport, so to say I was stressed would be an understatement.
I hated missing Alysa and Ayden’s actual graduation, but at least I could make it to their party. Both of them did incredible; Alysa as Valedictorian, and no surprise, Ayden as Salutatorian. I’m grateful they never treated each other as rivals.
Their speeches were amazing, and thankfully my mom recorded them so I could watch on the plane. Of course, I rewatched Ayden’s several times. He dedicated the entire speech to the symbolism of a lion.
“I can’t help but think of a lion—not just because it’s bold or strong, but because of how it learns to lead. Lions aren’t born kings or queens of the savannah. They start as clumsy cubs, curious and learning from every misstep… just like us four years ago.”
The whole speech had me hooked, but it was his smile that wrecked me.
“You just need to walk like a lion. With purpose, with courage, and with the people who stood by your side. Your family.”
I’m not sure what hit harder—his words, or seeing Mandy waiting with open arms when he stepped off the stage. God, it’s terrible, but it should have been me there. Congratulating him.
Kissing him.
Thank fuck he didn’t do that with her. I might’ve lost it right there in seat 12A. It’s one thing for her to drape herself all over him when he insists they aren’t together, but another to actually push that boundary.
