CHAPTER 14 (STARTING)
548 Words
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Monday slid into a soft, golden afternoon.
Campus felt both chaotic and predictable—students buzzing with the usual rush of assignments, coffee cups in hand, heads buried in books or laughter. Asher sat at one of the stone benches near the literature building, headphones in, not playing music—just needing the illusion of silence.
Zayn slid in beside him, a sandwich in his hand.
“You good?” he asked, mouth half full.
Asher nodded. “Just thinking.”
“About Rhett?”
Asher didn’t reply, but Zayn smirked anyway.
“He passed you earlier today in the hallway. Didn’t say hi though.”
“I saw him.”
“You wanted him to say hi?”
Asher exhaled slowly. “I don’t know. I just… feel weird. Like, what are we doing?”
“You’re in stage two of the crush spiral,” Zayn said. “Confusion, overthinking, staring too long, wondering if breathing at the same time means fate.”
Asher gave a weak laugh. “You’re not wrong.”
Zayn nudged him. “Talk to him. Don’t wait till you’re writing his name in the margins of your notes.”
---
Across campus, Rhett stood in the photography studio. Jude was adjusting lighting for a shoot, but Rhett wasn’t helping. He stood near the open window, letting the breeze cool his restless skin.
Jude finally asked, “You’re still thinking about him?”
Rhett didn’t reply immediately.
Jude looked up. “It’s okay if you are. You’re not made of brick, bro.”
“I don’t know what to do with this,” Rhett muttered.
“With what?”
“This… *softness.* I’m not used to it.”
Jude nodded. “That’s how you know it’s real. The fake stuff doesn’t scare you. Real stuff does.”
Rhett sat on the edge of a stool, quiet for a moment. “He looked happy at the festival.”
“Yeah. Around you, though? He looked like he wanted to know every version of you.”
Rhett sighed. “I’m still figuring out who that is.”
---
Later that evening, Asher found himself wandering into the campus library, half hoping to see Rhett and half hoping he didn’t.
Fate decided for him.
Rhett was at the back table near the windows, hoodie over his head, sketching something in his journal.
Asher stood there for a moment, then approached.
Rhett looked up slowly.
"You stalking me now?" he asked with crooked grin
"This is a library," Asher replied. "People come here. I didn’t know you’d be here."
Rhett chuckled. "Relax. I’m messing with you."
There was a brief silence.
Then Asher said, “Can I sit?”
Rhett nodded.
Asher pulled out the chair across from him and sat down, folding his hands nervously on the table.
“I was going to message you,” Asher said, “but we never exchanged anything. No number. No ID. Nothing.”
“Maybe we can change that,” Rhett replied.
Asher’s lips twitched into a smile. “Yeah?”
Rhett closed his sketchbook and leaned forward slightly. “Yeah.”
Their eyes held contact—not flirtation, not intensity, just something *real.*
Maybe this was the start of something slow.
Something intentional.
[TO BE CONTINUED...]
- Writer
