"I wouldn't ask you to," I said.
And I meant it.
He kissed me—not heated, not desperate. Just warm. Firm. A seal on whatever agreement we'd just made.
"You should go," he said. "Before the hall gets busy."
"Yeah." I didn't move.
"Liam."
"Give me a second."
He smiled. Patient. I looked at him—really looked—and tried to memorize this moment. The light. His face. The feeling of being in his room on in the morning with everything uncertain and everything possible.
"I'll text you," I said.
"You better."
I walked to the door. Unlocked it. Checked the hallway—empty, quiet, the sound of someone's alarm going off behind a closed door somewhere down the hall.
I looked back at Alex. Standing in his room. Arms crossed. Watching me go with an expression that was trying to be casual and failing spectacularly.
"One day at a time," I said.
"One day at a time."
I stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind me.
Stood there for a second. Heart hammering. Stupid grin on my face that I couldn't fight.
I felt different.
Lighter, maybe. Or just—less afraid. Like something that had been wound tight for months had loosened just enough to let me breathe.
One day at a time.
I could do that. Probably. Maybe.
The Riverside campus materialized ahead. Brick and concrete. The familiar sounds of a campus waking up—doors slamming, someone's music through an open window, a car starting in the lot.
I climbed the stairs to my floor and went down the hall.
Noah was at his desk. Laptop open. Coffee in hand. Debate notes spread out in that organized chaos that somehow made sense to his brain.
He looked up when I walked in.
His eyes tracked down my body. Last night's jeans. Last night's hoodie. My hair, which was definitely wrecked.
His eyebrows rose slowly.
"Don't."
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
"I was just going to observe that you're wearing the same clothes you left in… and you didn't sleep here last night."
