I want to believe him so badly, but I know. I know this will never fucking work.
“So what?” I laugh shakily. “We just sneak around like teenagers forever?” I ask, and he smirks.
“Worked pretty well the first time.”
That pulls a real laugh from me, then he kisses my forehead gently.
“Meet me at the spot I took you to tonight next week,” he says.
“Hayden.”
“I’m serious.” His green eyes lock onto mine. “Stolen moments. Lunch breaks. Weekends. Whatever I can get,” he says, making my chest ache so badly. I can barely breathe around it because he says it like scraps of time with me are enough. Like he’d happily survive off crumbs if it meant keeping me. And maybe he would. That’s the terrifying part.
Eventually, the sky outside starts turning soft shades of blue and gray. Morning. Reality. The death of this little fantasy bubble we built for ourselves all weekend.
I sit up slowly, already grieving it. Hayden watches me quietly from the bed. Neither of us says the words out loud. We don’t have to. Tomorrow always comes for us eventually.
“I should go,” I whisper, and his jaw tightens.
“I know.”
God. That hurts worse somehow.
I pull his hoodie over my bare skin while he sits up, running both hands down his face tiredly. Then suddenly, he grabs my wrist before I can move away completely.
“Come here,” he commands, and I climb back into his lap, because apparently my body belongs there now.
He holds me tightly. Quietly. Like he’s trying to memorize the exact shape of me against him before the world rips us apart again. “I love you,” he whispers against my hair. And it sounds broken. Terrified. Real.
Tears immediately slid down my cheeks. “I love you too.”
His breathing shakes slightly. “You know what kills me?” he murmurs softly. “I finally got you back… and I’m still scared every second that somebody’s gonna take you away from me again.”
That completely destroys me.
So, I cup his face carefully, forcing him to look at me. “No matter what happens…” My voice cracks. “You have me, Hayden.”
His eyes close painfully. “Even if the whole world burns?” he whispers.
“Especially then.”
For one terrible, beautiful moment… I think we both almost believe love might actually save us. Then the moment ends, because it always does.
He walks me to the door quietly before sunrise fully breaks across Daggerspoint. Neither of us want to say goodbye. You can feel it hanging there between us.Heavy and devastating.Like goodbye has become its own kind of trauma for us.
I kiss him one last time anyway. Slow. Aching. And when I finally pull away, he rests his forehead against mine, whispering softly.
“Next weekend, Firefly.”
Promises. Nothing but dangerous promises.
But as I walk away from him while the city wakes around us—my heart stays behind in that apartment with the boy who was supposed to be dead.
Hayden
“Ready or Not- Fugees”
One week later…
