Burning Us

Chapter 3— Other People, Wrong People

Elias watched from the porch as Mara laughed with Liam, the neighbor’s college friend. Her head tipped back, sunlight catching the glint in her hair, the laugh sharp, playful, too alive. Every time she smiled like that for someone else, his chest tightened.

Why can’t it ever be me?

He hated the thought. Hated the way jealousy knotted his stomach, hated the way he wanted to storm over and claim her in some dramatic, stupid way. And yet, he didn’t move. He couldn’t. Not yet. That was the rule. That unspoken, invisible rule they’d always followed: Keep it hidden. Keep it safe.

Liam leaned closer, whispering something that made her laugh harder. Elias’s jaw clenched. He knew she was polite, playful, teasing—but every laugh felt like a dagger. Every casual touch made his blood boil.

Mara glanced up. Their eyes met for the briefest second. A spark. A warning. Something unspoken that neither of them could voice.

She looked away quickly, feigning interest in Liam’s story. Elias exhaled, shaking his head. Pathetic, he muttered.

Inside, Mara was doing the same thing. Liam was fun, harmless, distracting. But the way her stomach fluttered when Elias’s gaze landed on her… that was something she didn’t understand. Something she couldn’t name.

The tension between them had always been there. Always simmering under the surface. But seeing each other with other people… that was a new kind of torture.

Dinner later that evening was quiet. Too quiet. Elias set the plates down with precise movements, careful to avoid brushing her fingers as he handed her a fork. Mara caught him glancing at her more than once, and each time, she felt a thrill she hated and loved in equal measure.

She’s mine, Elias wanted to scream at the universe. Not literally. Not yet. But every fiber of him was screaming it anyway.

And Mara? She felt it too. That impossible pull she’d denied for years. That dangerous magnetic force she’d been pretending didn’t exist

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. They weren’t supposed to notice. They weren’t supposed to feel.

But they did.

And they couldn’t stop.