Chapter 16: Cracks in the Mirror
381 Words
The week after the dinner at Luca’s house felt like walking on thin glass—each step careful, every moment holding the weight of something unsaid.
He acted like nothing had changed. Still picked me up between classes, still touched me like I was something precious. But I could feel the tension under his skin.
“Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours,” I asked him one night as we lay on the rooftop, watching stars blink through the city haze.
He didn’t answer right away. Just exhaled.
“I keep wondering if I’m dragging you into something you shouldn’t have to deal with.”
I turned on my side to face him. “You’re not dragging me anywhere. I chose this.”
He met my eyes. “But I didn’t choose to care this much about you. And now that I do… it terrifies me.”
That was the first time I saw fear on his face—not from outside pressure, but from me. From what we were becoming.
And maybe I was afraid too.
Because the deeper I fell, the more I realized how fragile all of this was.
That weekend, I went home to visit my mom. I needed space. Time. Normalcy.
But distance only made it worse.
I missed him. Missed his laugh, the way he made me feel like the only person in the room.
When I came back Sunday night, he was waiting outside my dorm, sitting on the stairs with his hoodie up, leg bouncing.
“Didn’t want to text,” he said when I approached. “Didn’t want to ask if you still wanted to see me. I wanted to know.”
I dropped my bag and sank beside him.
“I never stopped wanting to.”
We sat there quietly. People walked past. The world kept moving. But all I saw was him.
“You scare me,” I admitted. “Because every time I think I know you, you show me another part. And I keep falling.”
He turned to me, eyes soft. “I want to be worth the fall.”
His kiss that night was slower. Deeper. A little desperate.
And in it, I tasted everything we were afraid to say out loud.
- Writer
