When Our Stars Collide

Chapter Two: Rain That Lingers part 3

The next few days blurred into routine, but Amara carried the memory of Adrian with her like a secret. She didn’t tell her friends at school, nor her aunt at the bakery. It wasn’t something she could casually explain—not when she wasn’t sure what it was herself.

But every time she opened a book, she found herself wondering if Adrian had started reading the one she’d picked for him. Did he turn the first page that same night? Did he pause over sentences the way she did, letting words soak into his mind?

She didn’t have to wonder long.

On Thursday afternoon, while she sat under the jacaranda tree on campus, flipping through her notes, a shadow fell across the page. She looked up, startled, and there he was.

“Found you,” Adrian said, holding up The Sky Between Us. The cover was slightly bent now, proof it had been carried around and actually read.

Amara blinked. “How—how did you know I’d be here?”

“Your friend at the bakery told me you come here to study sometimes. Don’t worry, I didn’t stalk too hard.”

She laughed despite herself. “You really read it?”

“All the way to chapter twelve,” he said, sitting beside her on the bench without asking. “And I have questions.”

“Questions?”

He flipped the book open, pointing to a line she knew by heart. Sometimes the heart recognizes what the mind cannot accept.

“Do you believe that?” he asked seriously.

Her chest tightened. She had underlined that line years ago, back when her father was still alive, when she had first begun to question what love could mean.

“Yes,” she said softly. “I think sometimes we feel things long before we can explain them.”

Adrian studied her face, as if her answer mattered more than the book itself. His eyes lingered long enough to make her breath falter before he turned back to the page.

“It’s frustrating,” he admitted. “The characters are stubborn. They keep running from what they obviously want.”

“That’s what makes it real,” Amara countered. “People run from what scares them, even if it’s what they need most.”

Their eyes locked again, and this time neither of them looked away quickly.

The sound of students passing by broke the spell, their laughter spilling through the courtyard. Adrian leaned back, stretching his arms along the back of the bench. “So, Amara Daniels, do you always test people with books before you decide if they’re worth your time?”