Loving Him

Chapter 6 - Midnight Texts

The night started with a single text.

Jayden: Still up?

I glanced at the clock and it said 11:52 p.m.

I had been awake staring at the ceiling for nearly an hour, my thoughts tangled with images of the sketches, his whispered words, and the look in his eyes when he told me I wasn’t invisible.

Me: Yeah. Can’t seem to fall asleep.

Jayden: Me neither.

That was it. No follow up, no question, just a shared restlessness in the middle of the night. It should’ve ended there.

But it didn’t.

Me: Why can’t you sleep?

Jayden: Too quiet. Too many thoughts running through.

I hesitated, fingers hovering over the keyboard.

Me: Same.

Jayden: What are yours about?

Now that was harder to answer. How could I explain that my thoughts were filled with the way he made me feel seen? That I didn’t know how someone I barely knew had already found a place under my skin?

Me: Mostly life. College. Pressure. Being... someone everyone expects something from.

A few moments passed.

Jayden: I get that. You ever feel like you're on a stage you didn’t audition for?

I stared at the message for a long time.

Me: All the time.

The typing bubble appeared again, then disappeared. Then came back.

Jayden: You want to hear something stupid?

Me: Sure.

Jayden: I draw you when I can’t sleep.

My heart thudded, the silence around me was suddenly too loud.

Me: Why?

Jayden: Because you look peaceful in my drawings. Even when everything else isn’t.

I didn’t know how to respond to that.

So I didn’t say anything.

I just sat there, rereading it until I fell asleep with my phone in my hand.

****

The next morning at school, everything felt brighter.

Colors. Sounds. Looks.

Especially the ones Jayden gave me in Chemistry. Like he was silently asking if last night had been real or if I was going to pretend it never happened.

I didn’t pretend.

When I slid into my seat beside him, I didn’t look away.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.”

That was all it took. Just one word, said with meaning.

We worked quietly through the lab, but his knee brushed mine once. Then again. Not accidentally.

Serena noticed everything, of course.

“Layla,” she said at lunch, “you’re glowing.”

I rolled my eyes. “I am not.”

“You are. Don’t even deny it. I could see it from across the hall.”

I tried to play it cool, sipping my water. “We were just... talking.”

Serena gave me a look. “You know where ‘just talking’ leads, right?”

“I’m not falling for him.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You already did. You just haven’t admitted it yet. Or you just don't want to”

I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell her she was wrong.

But I couldn’t.

Because she wasn’t.

****

That night, it happened again.

Jayden: What color do you think you feel like tonight?

Me: Blue. But like... ocean blue. Calm and soothing on the outside, stormy underneath.

Jayden: I’d draw that. But I think you’re more like violet tonight.

Me: Why?

Jayden: Because you’re trying not to be seen. But yet you still shine.

And just like that, he had undone me again.

****

The texts kept coming over the next few nights.

Some short. Some long.

Some playful.

Some teasing.

Me: What’s your favorite guilty pleasure?

Jayden: 80s rock ballads. You?

Me: Stupid teenage romance movies.

Jayden: That’s not a guilty pleasure. That’s just tragic.

Me: Shut up, you love them.

Jayden: hmm ...maybe.

And some serious.

Jayden: Do you think people ever really change?

Me: Only if they want to. And if they believe they can.

Jayden: Then maybe there’s hope for me.

Me: There’s more than just hope, Jayden.

****

By the end of the week, I had a folder of his sketches hidden in my desk drawer and a dozen text threads that made me smile like an i***t in the middle of class.

He wasn’t mine.

We weren’t together.

But something real was growing between us, quietly, like sowing roots beneath the surface.

Something soft. And steady. And a little bit scary.

And the scariest part?

I don't want it to stop.