( Sophie’s pov)
I woke before my alarm.
That never happens.
Usually I’m dragged into the day by insistent beeping and a sinking feeling in my stomach, like waking means facing life, and life means swallowing discomfort. But today — I woke up as if something in me already knew there was too much to think about to waste time sleeping.
I lay still.
The ceiling was gray with early light, and my apartment made its usual small noises — the hum of the fridge, the faint rush of distant traffic, the building settling like an old spine exhaling.
And then their names drifted into my mind.
Adrian.
Lucian.
Cassian.
Like three different climates.
Three different gravitational pulls.
Three different ways of being seen.
I lay on my side, eyes drifting toward the wall.
What Adrian said linger
