Jace:Start a video call. I wanna see her.
Dex:She’s not here.
I lie.
Grace:Then prove it.
Dex:I’m on the toilet. Silencing this chat now.
My phone buzzes again in my hand.
“Arguing with someone?”
I look up. Lexy’s watching me, that smirk playing on her lips, full and distracting, that dimple catching just enough light to pull my attention where it shouldn’t go.
I drag my focus back where it belongs.
“Something like that,” I say.
Her smirk deepens.
I look back down at my phone.
Grace:I think he likes her… Dex and Lexy sitting in a tree…
Dex:Wow. Very mature, Grace.
Grace:Weren’t you silencing the chat?
Summer:K-I-S-S-I-N-G
Penny:How romantic!
My jaw tightens as I lock the phone.
I’m done.
I toss it onto the coffee table.
“Lose the argument?” she asks.
I lean back, stretching my arm along the back of the couch again, closer than before without meaning to be. “Didn’t feel like entertaining it.”
“Mm,” she hums, unconvinced.
Silence settles again, softer this time.
I glance at her. She’s looking at the screen, but the corner of her mouth still curves slightly, like she’s holding onto something she’s not saying.
And I become aware of it again.
The space between us.
How little of it there actually is.
How easily it could disappear.
My hand flexes once against the back of the couch, close enough that if either of us moved even a little, it wouldn’t stay that way.
