Storm fading to a distant murmur, hours passed in restless wakefulness as one memory refused to let go.
The kiss.
It had started as a dare. A joke between two people trying to survive the weirdest three days of their lives. But it hadn’t felt like a joke when his mouth touched mine. It felt… real.
Like something we weren’t supposed to want, but did anyway.
And I had been the one to pull back. I said the words I thought I was supposed to say.
“Friends don’t kiss.”
Liam neither protested nor pulled me in. He just stayed there, as though I’d become a puzzle he couldn’t solve.
Eventually, my thoughts blurred, and I must’ve dozed off because the next time I opened my eyes, golden light filtered through the windows.
The storm had stopped, and the electricity was back.
I blinked as the h
