We hit the third floor, more players file out, and suddenly it’s just us and the hum of the lift. Her hand brushes mine. Just a graze. A spark zipping straight up my arm.
I look down at her. She looks up.
“Tell me it wasn’t just adrenaline,” I say, quietly this time, like a prayer I shouldn’t say out loud.
Her lips part. Not in confusion. In answer.
“Cal…” she breathes, and I move without thinking and then the lift dings. The doors open and Rose steps back like waking from a spell. She gives me the smallest nod, eyes wide and terrified and wanting.
“Goodnight,” she whispers.
“Night,” I manage, voice not working right.
She leaves. I can’t move until the doors close again.
My room feels like a jail cell when I finally shove inside. The silence screams. I strip down to my shorts and collapse backward onto the mattress, staring up at the ceiling hoping answers might appear if I glare hard enough.
They don’t.
Instead, guilt finally sinks its claws in. I see headlights. Wet tarmac. The shuddering spin of her car. I hear the metallic crunch. Her voice in the hospital.I’m okay. Just shaken.No. She wasn’t. She still isn’t. She limps because of me. She struggles because of me.
And I kissed her. I press the heels of my hands into my eyes. I don’t deserve what I want. I know that. But it doesn’t stop the wanting.
My phone buzzes.
Rose: Are you okay? You rushed off so fast. Sorry I didn’t wait like you asked but Laura dragged me along with her.
I swallow hard. She noticed. She cares. And that does dangerous things to me.
Cal: Yeah. Just crazy in here. It’s okay. You get back to your room alright?
Rose: Yep. Just kind of wide awake now. Exciting night.
Christ. I can’t breathe.
Cal: You were the best part of it.
The second I send it, panic floods me. Too much. Too fast. Idiot.
But then she replies.
Rose: I keep replaying it.
Relief hits so hard my eyes close.
Cal: We should talk. Properly.
That message feels as if I’ve handed her a loaded gun and told her where to aim. My thumb hesitates, but I send it anyway.
Her reply comes like it was already typed.
Rose: Yeah. We should.
I stare at those three words until they burn into me. This isn’t adrenaline for her either. That should calm me. It doesn’t. It turns the world sharp.
Because I can’t stop now. I’m already falling.
And if she ever finds out the truth, the reason she limps, the reason she was alone in that hospital bed, the reason every step hurts, she’ll never look at me the same again.
