Quiet Thunder
220 Words
*Chapter Eleven – Quiet Thunder*
The next few days passed in a blur.
Eliana was beginning to learn that falling for someone wasn’t always fireworks and declarations it was often quiet thunder. The way Kai would wait for her after class, leaning against the school fence like a secret she hadn't opened yet. The way he’d send her songs at midnight unfinished, rough, and beautiful.
But with every step forward, Eliana’s fear followed.
She had learned how to survive silence, to build walls with it. Kai was different. He saw her. Listened. Waited. And that made him dangerous.
“Tell me something true,” he said one evening as they sat under the half-dead oak tree behind school.
Eliana leaned back, arms folded under her head. “I’m scared of being loved... because it means someone has the power to leave.”
Kai nodded. “Then I’ll stay.”
Just like that.
No conditions.
No explanations.
Just a promise wrapped in his voice.
She sat up, heart caught in her throat. “Don’t say that unless you mean it.”
“I never say anything I don’t mean to you.”
And for once, the quiet between them wasn’t empty. It was full.
Of things unspoken.
Of hope.
Of something that might become love,if they were brave enough to let.
- Writer
