Between us in New York

CHAPTER TWO: OLDER, WISER, OFF-LIMITS

The morning air was crisp, carrying that electric buzz unique to New York in September—when the city hadn’t yet surrendered to winter’s bite, and the university campus thrummed with new beginnings.

Jaden pedaled his bike through the main gates, his headphones feeding him just enough music to drown out the chatter of students rushing toward their first week of classes. His backpack bounced against his shoulders with each turn of the pedals, the smell of coffee and food trucks drifting from the corner.

He wasn’t thinking about classes, though. Not about syllabi, or professors, or the fact that he was technically late to meet Eric at the rec center.

No—he was thinking about her.

The night before had imprinted itself into his memory like a permanent scar. That glare, those green eyes, the sharpness of her voice when she called him freshman. He should’ve hated her for it. Should’ve shrugged it off as a humiliating blip in what was supposed to be a fun party.

But instead, he’d gone to bed staring at her i********: profile.

He hadn’t followed her—God, no. That would scream desperation. But he had scrolled, finger tracing through the curated snippets of her life. Rooftop pictures with the skyline. A smiling shot at a book café downtown. A sunlit beach photo from last summer where the caption read, Twenty-one and figuring it out.

Twenty-one.

Two years. The gap wasn’t monumental, not in the grand scheme, but to Jaden it felt like a wall. She was older, and older meant more—more maturity, more experience, more…everything. She wasn’t fumbling through her first year like him. She had roots, a presence.

And a boyfriend.

That part dug into his chest like a thorn.

Jaden cut through the quad, braking hard as he spotted her—Gracyn.

She was impossible to miss. Black hair cascading past her shoulders, catching sunlight like obsidian polished to perfection. Those green eyes hidden behind oversized sunglasses now, but he still remembered how they pierced him last night. Her laugh carried across the open air, rolling out of her like honey and fire at once.

She wasn’t alone.

Her boyfriend, the blond one from last night—Luke, he remembered now, from a passing comment Eric had made—was with her, one hand casually slung around her waist as if staking a claim. Two other girls hovered nearby, friends who leaned in close when Gracyn spoke, hanging on her words.

The group looked like they belonged in some glossy magazine spread: cool, untouchable, enviable.

Jaden’s chest tightened. He hated how his eyes lingered. Hated how the memory of spilled drinks and her sharp tone replayed in his head on loop.

He wanted to look away, keep riding, let her be nothing more than another face on campus. But he couldn’t. His gaze clung stubbornly, drinking her in, trying to memorize the curve of her smile, the tilt of her head when she laughed, the way her hand brushed absentmindedly at her boyfriend’s chest as though affection came second nature.

His fingers tightened on the handlebars. He reminded himself that watching too long, following too closely, risked something worse than rejection—it risked looking like obsession.

And Jaden refused to be that guy.

So he pushed forward, pedaling hard until the group shrank into a blur behind him.

What he didn’t know—what he couldn’t know—was that Gracyn had noticed him too.

Not in the way he noticed her, with awe and curiosity, but with a flicker of annoyance and…something else. Something she didn’t want to name.

Luke had been talking—something about his internship at a finance firm—but Gracyn’s eyes had slid past him, catching the flash of a brown-haired freshman speeding by on his bike. For half a second, the memory of last night returned, the clumsy collision, the ruined drink, his wide-eyed apology.

She should’ve dismissed it. She had Luke, she had her friends, she had a life that didn’t leave space for random freshmen who couldn’t watch where they were going.

And yet, for reasons she didn’t understand, her stomach had tightened, a tiny knot forming before she forced her focus back to Luke.

“Are you even listening?” he teased, nudging her playfully.

“Of course,” she lied with a smile.

By evening, the campus buzz had shifted again. The first-day energy dissolved into clusters of students sprawled across dorm lounges, pizza boxes open, controllers in hand. Jaden found himself in his room, scrolling absentmindedly on his phone as Eric burst in, smelling faintly of weed and cheap cologne.

“Dude!” Eric grinned, dropping onto his bed with zero care for boundaries. “Guess what?”

Jaden raised a brow. “What?”

“Party. This weekend. Off-campus. My buddy from the upperclassmen soccer team is hosting. Big deal—everybody’s going.”

Jaden shrugged, pretending disinterest. “Cool.”

Eric leaned closer, smirking like he’d been waiting for this. “Guess who’s gonna be there?”

Jaden didn’t want to ask. Didn’t want to give Eric the satisfaction of seeing his pulse quicken. But his silence betrayed him.

Eric grinned wider. “Gracyn Rivers. Yeah, that Gracyn. Luke too, probably, but who cares? Point is, you’ll be in the same room. Again.”

Jaden’s heart thudded. He tried to mask it with a scoff. “You’re making it sound like fate or something.”

Eric shrugged, tapping his phone. “Hey, man, I’m just saying—you got your first impression all wrong with her. This is your shot to… I don’t know… redeem yourself. Or screw it up worse. Either way, it’ll be fun.”

Jaden’s lips twitched. Redeem himself. The idea lingered, dangerous and tempting.

He leaned back against his pillow, staring at the ceiling as Eric rambled about beer kegs and upperclassmen drama.

In his chest, though, the decision was already forming, undeniable.

He wasn’t going to avoid her. He wasn’t going to pretend she was just another face.

If this was fate, then he’d follow where it led.

A slow smile crept across his face, sharp and knowing.

The party was coming. And Jaden wasn’t about to miss it.