SLIDING INTO YOUR DMS

CHAPTER 2: NOVA & ORION

Jace was still in his car when his mom texted him for the third time.

Mom: Dinner's at 7. Don't be late. Robert's grilling.

He stared at the message with his thumb resting on the screen. Robert's grilling meant Robert would be drinking, and Robert drinking meant Robert would be looking for someone to tear down. Jace typed back I'll be there and put the phone face down on the passenger seat.

He didn't go home. He sat in the car until the sky went dark, then drove to the library instead. The parking lot was empty and the building was closed, but he liked the quiet. He pulled out his notebook and started writing.

Some houses are built with doors. Some are built with walls. Mine was built with both, and I've been trying to find the handle for years.

He didn't post it. He just wrote it down and closed the notebook and drove home.

Dinner was exactly what he expected. Robert made a comment about his posture, then about his grades, then about the "poetry nonsense" he had heard about from a friend of a friend. Jace kept his eyes on his plate and ate in silence. His mom didn't say anything.

Later that night, he opened his messages and saw Nova was online.

@lit.with.jace: You're up late again.

Nova: couldn't sleep

@lit.with.jace: Same.

Nova: what's your excuse

@lit.with.jace: The usual.

Nova: the usual meaning what

@lit.with.jace: Meaning I keep thinking about someone who probably hates me.

Nova: i doubt that

@lit.with.jace: You don't know me.

Nova: i know enough.

Jace read that last line and something settled in his chest, a quiet warmth he couldn't name. He typed back: Goodnight, Nova.

She sent a moon emoji. He put the phone down and laid back on his bed, and for the first time that day, the house didn't feel so loud.

---

The next morning at school, he was standing by his locker when Maya Chen walked past.

He barely noticed her at first, just a blur in his peripheral vision in a black hoodie with her hair in a messy bun. Then she stopped a few feet away and he caught a whiff of something, vanilla maybe, and he turned his head without thinking.

Her eyes were fixed on her phone, and her thumb was moving fast like she was typing something urgent. Then she looked up, and their eyes met.

Jace did the thing he always did when someone caught him looking. He nodded, polite and distant, the kind of nod that said he saw her but didn't really. She didn't nod back. She stared at him for a second, rolled her eyes, and walked away.

He watched her go and tried to figure out why it bothered him. They weren't friends. They had two classes together and had spoken maybe six words to each other in three years. She was the smart one, the quiet one, the girl who always had her hand raised and her head down. She had looked at him like she hated him though, not annoyed or indifferent, but like he had actually done something to her.

Then again, he had gotten the scholarship. The one he didn't apply for, the one that landed on his desk because his counselor thought he should have it. He took it because his mom said it would look good on college applications and he didn't have the energy to argue. He didn't know Maya had applied for it. He didn't know she wanted it. He didn't know anything about her, and yet when she looked at him, he felt like he had done something wrong.

He shook it off and headed to class.

---

That night, he sat in his car again. He had nowhere else to go. Home was Robert, and school was a performance, and the library was closed. So he sat in the parking lot and watched the streetlights flicker and thought about the girl who hated him for reasons he didn't understand.

His phone buzzed.

Nova: your poem. the one you posted last week. i read it again.

He frowned. He hadn't posted anything in days.

@lit.with.jace: I didn't post anything.

Nova: not today. last week. the one about the house with no windows.

He remembered. He had written it at three in the morning, sitting in this same parking lot, and posted it without thinking.

@lit.with.jace: You remember that one?

Nova: i remember all of them.

Jace stared at the message. He didn't know what to say, so he just typed: why?

Nova: because they're the only things that make sense to me right now.

He set the phone down and pressed his knuckles against the steering wheel until they ached, then picked it up again.

@lit.with.jace: Goodnight, Nova.

She didn't reply, and he didn't expect her to. He just sat there in the dark and watched the streetlights and felt, for the first time in a long time, like someone out there actually saw him.