[Hazel]
Elijah finally straightened and met my eyes.
“Oh, that,” he said, dragging a hand across the back of his bicep, his movement just a little too stiff to be casual. His expression hovered somewhere between guilt, pain, and reluctant amusement. “It’s because… the door to your apartment is broken. It's not safe for you to stay there tonight.”
He shifted slightly, rolling his shoulder as if trying to loosen something that didn’t want to budge. There was a flicker of something almost boyish in the way he grimaced—like he was half-expecting a scolding but wouldn’t have done anything differently.
“I’m sorry,” he added, glancing away for a beat. “Had to break it to get you out of there.”
The words were light on the surface, but there was something strained beneath them—tension in the
