Liora
For the first time in what felt like forever, I had been beginning to feel like a student again. Not a placeholder. Not a problem. Not a royal complication disguised as a girl in borrowed time. The last few days had offered something rare. Quiet mornings with Mia where we shared too-hot coffee and laughed at the way upperclassmen carried their stress like capes, classes that passed without judgment breathing down my neck, long afternoons under sun-dappled trees where I watched the clouds shift across the sky instead of calculating how many eyes were watching me for the wrong reasons.
I had just started getting used to it.
And in those moments, in that brief stretch of stolen time, I felt free. I let myself be light. I let myself forget what it meant to be tied to someone else's r
