Campus 101: Our Favourite Distractions

The slap landed before Leo could finish his sentence. The sound echoed across the empty hallway. For three seconds, neither of us moved. Leo's head was turned slightly to the side, his expression frozen somewhere between shock and disbelief. His usual crooked smile was gone. Mine was too. I stared at my own hand as if it belonged to someone else. I had never slapped anyone before. And yet, somehow, Leo had managed to become the first person to make me do it. "You lied to me," I whispered. Leo slowly looked back at me. "I didn't lie." "Then tell me the truth." Silence. That was the problem with Leo. He could turn everything into a joke. He could walk into a room five minutes late with paint on his sleeves and somehow make everyone laugh instead of asking where he'd been. He could spill soda on someone's carefully organized form and replace it the Two days after with an apology hidden beneath a ridiculous amount of colored pens. He could make people believe nothing bothered him. But I knew better. At least, I thought I did. I knew the way his smile changed when he was genuinely happy. I knew when he was pretending not to care. I knew the difference between his careless laugh and the one he used when he was nervous. I knew him. Or I thought I did. "Why didn't you tell me?" I asked. His jaw tightened. "Because I knew you'd react exactly like this." "Like what?" "Like Maya." I almost laughed. Almost. "That's your excuse?" "No." "Then what is it?" He looked away. And that hurt more than I wanted it to. Because Leo could argue with me for an hour. He could tease me about my planner. He could call me controlling, stubborn, impossible, dramatic— But he couldn't look me in the eye. Not now. Not when I needed him to. "Say it," I demanded. He didn't. "Leo." Still nothing. My heart was pounding so hard I could hear it. Somewhere outside, students were laughing as they crossed the courtyard. A door slammed at the other end of the building. Life continued as though mine hadn't just stopped. "You promised me," I said. Leo finally looked at me. "I know." "Then why?" His expression changed. For the first time since I'd met him, Leo looked genuinely afraid. Not of me. Of the answer. And that was when I realized something. Whatever had happened wasn't just about the two of us. There was something he wasn't telling me. Something involving the semester project. Something involving Lily. Something involving Ethan. Something that explained why the four of us had gone from complete strangers to the closest friends I'd ever had and why, somehow, we had ended up standing on opposite sides of this hallway months later. I wish I could say I saw it coming. I didn't. The truth is, I thought the biggest disaster of my semester would be losing my 4.0. I thought Leo spilling soda on my forms was going to be the worst thing he ever did to me. I thought Lily would always be the quiet girl who preferred computers to conversations. I thought Ethan was just another campus heartthrob trying to escape his reputation. I thought our semester project was nothing more than an assignment. I was wrong about all of it. Especially Leo. Because the boy I couldn't stand became the boy I couldn't stop thinking about. The boy who destroyed my schedule somehow became the person who made me realize I didn't need one. And the boy standing in front of me now the boy I had just slapped was keeping a secret that could change everything. "Tell me the truth," I said one last time. Leo swallowed. Then he said the one thing I never expected to hear. "You weren't supposed to find out like this." My stomach dropped. "Find out what?" He didn't answer. And that was the moment I understood. Whatever had happened between the four of us hadn't started tonight. It had started months ago. On an ordinary morning. With a perfect schedule. perfectly arranged forms. And a boy carrying a bottle of soda who was about to walk straight into my life.