Chapter 28
We're Not Talking About It, but It's Happening Anyway.
We never talked about it.
Not the past.
Not the rooftop.
Not the years in between.
But something was shifting.
We were… something again.
But only in the smallest ways.
He waited for me after class once.
Didn't say why.
Just handed me a juice box and walked beside me like it was normal.
I didn't stop him.
Didn't ask why.
Didn't tell anyone.
Another time, it rained.
The sky broke open so fast none of us had umbrellas.
Fatima squealed and ran for cover.
I froze in place, too tired to run, already soaked.
He appeared beside me.
Didn't say a word.
Just pulled his hoodie off and threw it over my head.
"Seriously?" I mumbled.
"You'll get sick."
"You'll get soaked."
He shrugged.
"I'll survive."
He walked away before I could say anything else.
I didn't return the hoodie that night.
I kept it.
I smelled it before I slept.
Hated myself for it.
Did it anyway.
Fatima noticed. Of course she did.
"Why do you look like you've seen a ghost every time he breathes?"
I rolled my eyes.
"Why do you look like a fairy godmother who ships this crap?"
"Because I do. And because you're in love."
"I'm not."
"You were."
"Exactly."
That shut her up.
For now.
I still didn't tell my family.
They didn't know anything.
Not about him.
Not about us.
Not about the story I'd been carrying like a knife behind my smile.
Because if they knew?
They'd ask questions.
And I didn't have answers.
End of Chapter 28.