chapter 3
1087 Words
The cold air outside felt sharper than it should have, or maybe Lyra was just still tense from the argument. She walked down the driveway faster than usual, travel mug in one hand, bag slipping off her shoulder every few steps until she finally stopped to fix it properly.
She could still feel Wayne’s eyes on her, even though the front door had already closed behind him.
Just get to class, do your assignments stay under the radar.
She let out a quiet breath and shook her head, like that would clear it.
The street was busy enough to pull her out of her thoughts cars passing, someone arguing on the phone across the road, the normal noise of the morning that felt strangely calm compared to the house she’d just left. She took a sip of the coffee.Bitter and cold.
“Great,” she muttered, but drank it anyway.
By the time she reached the bus stop, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
For a second her heart jumped, thinking it might be her father, but the screen lit up with a message from an unknown number.
She frowned and opened it.
Wayne:
You forgot your notebook.
Lyra stopped walking.
“What?” she whispered, already digging through her bag. Books, charger, pens. but no notebook. The one she actually needed for class."s**t" She groaned under her breath and leaned back against the bus stop pole.
Of course.
Another message came through.
Wayne:
Relax. I grabbed it before Vera saw it.I’ll bring it later.
Lyra stared at the screen longer than she meant to.
He grabbed it?
Since when was he paying attention to what she packed?
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before she finally typed.
Lyra:
You didn’t have to.
The typing bubble appeared almost immediately, then disappeared, then appeared again.
Wayne:
Yeah. I know.
She frowned slightly at the screen, not sure what that meant, and slipped the phone back into her pocket just as the bus pulled up.
The doors hissed open, and she climbed inside, finding a seat near the window. As the bus pulled away, she glanced back down the street without thinking.
The house was barely visible from here, hidden behind the trees and the tall gate, looking quiet and normal like it always did from the outside.
Like nothing inside it ever went wrong.
She rested her head against the glass, closing her eyes for a second.
Wayne’s voice replayed in her head again.
He asked me to keep an eye on things while he’s gone.
“…Since when?” she murmured to herself.
The bus turned the corner, the house disappearing from view, but the uneasy feeling in her chest didn’t go with it.
The bus hissed to a stop outside campus, and Lyra grabbed her bag, still distracted by the morning’s argument as she stepped out into the cold air. The second she checked the time, her stomach dropped.
She was late. Again.
She pushed the thoughts aside and hurried across campus, bag slung over her shoulder, travel mug in hand, trying to make it to class before the lecture started.
She pulled her bag higher on her shoulder and hurried across campus, weaving through groups of students heading toward the buildings. The place was louder than usual, everyone rushing, talking, laughing like the morning had started normally for them.
Lucky them.
Lyra turned the corner near the science block without slowing down and smashed straight into someone.
Her papers slipped from her hand and scattered across the ground.
“Oh no, I’m so sorry!” she blurted, already dropping to her knees to pick them up.
A familiar laugh made her look up.
“Mira,” she sighed in relief, grabbing a sheet before the wind could take it. “I didn’t see you.”
Mira crouched down beside her, already helping gather the scattered notes. She was easy to recognize anywhere on campus, mostly because of her bright ginger hair that never stayed tied back for long. Loose strands had already fallen out around her face, and her green eyes were sparkling with kindness and excitement. She was a little shorter than Lyra, but she moved with quick, restless energy, talking and laughing like the world was never as serious as it felt to everyone else.
“You never look where you’re going,” Mira said, handing her a sheet of paper. “One day you’re going to walk straight into a wall.”
“I almost did,” Lyra muttered, stuffing the papers back into her bag. “I’m late. Again.”
“You’re always late,” Mira said with a grin.
Lyra reached for the last page then felt it.
That familiar sense of being watched.
Her eyes flicked up.
Ethan.
He was leaning against a bench a few steps away, casually observing the chaos. He shared Mira’s ginger hair and green eyes, but that was where the resemblance ended. He was taller, much taller, broad-shouldered, with a faint dusting of freckles across the bridge of his nose and a hint of stubble that gave him a slightly rugged, older student look. He looked effortless, arms folded, expression amused, like this was exactly the kind of thing he expected from her.
“You’re clumsy as ever,” he said, voice carrying just enough to make her cheeks heat up.
“I..I didn’t see you there,” she stammered, trying to sound calm.
He laughed softly. “Clearly.You look like you ran here.”Ethan added, stepping slightly closer, hands in his pockets.
“I basically did,” she muttered, adjusting her bag strap. “My morning’s been complicated.”
“That sounds normal for you,” he said, smirking.
Mira rolled her eyes. “Ignore him. Come on, we’re going to be late.Here.”
“Thanks,” Lyra said, taking the last page. She shoved it into her bag.
Together, they headed toward the building, the bell echoing down the hall as students rushed inside. She slipped into the classroom just before the door closed, dropping into a seat beside Mira.
“See?” Mira whispered. “You made it.”
Lyra flipped open her notebook, muttering under her breath, “Barely.”
Her pen hovered over the page while her mind ran through the house, Vera’s clipped voice, and Wayne stepping in like he actually had a say in her life.
She tried to focus on the test, forcing herself to ignore both him and the lingering tension from the house.
- Writer
