Lost in your Fire.

First Glimpse

Chapter One: First Glimpse

Adrian

The thing about campus life was that it all blurred together after a while. Same lectures, same parties, same faces smiling too brightly at me like they already knew who I was supposed to be. I couldn’t walk across the quad without someone calling my name. Sometimes I wondered if people actually saw me, or just the “Calloway” stitched on my varsity jacket.

I leaned against the marble railing outside Calloway Hall yeah, same last name, built by my family’s donation money years ago, which was a whole other reason I couldn’t escape the damn shadow of wealth. My teammates laughed about something dumb, but my attention had already slipped.

That’s when I saw her.

She wasn’t dressed to stand out oversized hoodie, sneakers worn down to the fabric, her backpack weighed down like it was carrying her entire life. She had a stack of books pressed against her chest like a shield. But it wasn’t her clothes or even her messy bun that caught me. It was her pace. Fast. Determined. Like she was running out of time.

Most people drifted across campus like it was a catwalk. She stormed through like every second mattered.

And then bam one of her books slipped.

Without thinking, I jogged down the steps. “Hold up I got it.”

She froze, wide hazel eyes cutting to me. Her look wasn’t awe, or gratitude. It was annoyance. Like I’d interrupted a war she was fighting.

“It’s fine. I don’t need help,” she snapped, crouching.

I beat her to it, handing the book back with a grin. “Didn’t say you needed it. Just thought you’d want the door open before your arms gave out.”

She blinked at me, unimpressed. “Right. Thanks.” And then she disappeared into the library without a single smile.

I stood there, stunned. People usually stretched conversations with me, lingered for a laugh. But she? She treated me like background noise.

And for some reason, I couldn’t stop grinning.

Maya

I hated days like this when my classes stacked back to back and my shift at the diner loomed right after. The books were heavier than they looked, but I didn’t have time to make two trips to the library. Rent was due, bills stacked higher than my textbooks, and if I didn’t clock in at the diner, I’d lose another chunk of my paycheck.

So of course my clumsy grip failed, and of course he had to be the one who noticed. Adrian Calloway. I’d never talked to him before, but who didn’t know his name? Wealthy. Handsome. Star athlete. A walking headline.

The last thing I needed was pity help from someone like him.

I ducked into the library, heart racing not from the weight of the books but from the way his grin lingered in my head. Cocky. Effortless. Dangerous in the way only boys like him could be.

“Focus,” I muttered to myself, dropping the books on the table. “Focus, Maya. He’s not your problem. Rent is.”

Adrian

That night, I should’ve been celebrating with my teammates. Friday nights were for blowing off steam, knocking back beers, maybe finding someone to keep me company. But the girl from earlier the one who stormed into the library like she was at war with the world she kept flickering back in my thoughts.

I didn’t even know her name. Just the stubborn fire in her eyes.

“Dude, you’re zoning out again,” my best friend, Marcus, nudged me across the bar booth. He was built like a tank, always the first to laugh and the last to let me brood in silence.

“Nothing,” I said, though my grin betrayed me.

Marcus narrowed his eyes. “It’s a girl. I know that look.”

I didn’t answer. But he wasn’t wrong.

Maya

By midnight, the diner grease still clung to my hair. Most students were out partying, but I was hustling across town to my second job at a rundown convenience store. It wasn’t glamorous. The neon sign flickered like it was half-dead, and the parking lot was a little too dark for comfort.

But it paid. Barely.

Inside, my coworker Tasha leaned against the counter, scrolling her phone. She glanced up as I slipped behind the register.

“You look like death warmed over,” she said flatly.

“Thanks. That’s the look I was going for.”

She smirked. “You ever think about, I don’t know, living? Like actually doing something besides classes and jobs?”

I scanned the shelves, avoiding her gaze. “Living doesn’t pay the bills.”

“Neither does running yourself into the ground.”

Maybe she was right. But I couldn’t afford to stop. Not when everything rested on me keeping the lights on, keeping food in the fridge.

I rubbed my sore wrist, whispering to myself, Just two more hours. You can survive two more hours.

Adrian

The next afternoon, Marcus and I strolled into the diner off campus. I wasn’t hungry, not really. But when I spotted her across the room apron tied loosely around her waist, balancing three plates at once I knew why I was here.

Marcus followed my gaze. “Ohhh, I get it now. The library girl.”

“Shut up.”

But I didn’t look away.

She noticed me a second later, and her eyes narrowed instantly. Like I’d walked into her carefully built defenses without knocking.

When she came to take our order, I leaned forward with a grin. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite book juggler.”

Her lips pressed into a flat line. “Pretty sure you’ve got the wrong person.”

“Nope. I never forget a face.”

“Congratulations. What’ll it be?” Her tone was brisk, professional, but I swore I saw a flicker of something else annoyance, maybe curiosity before she scribbled our order down.

As she walked away, Marcus whistled low. “She’s not biting, man.”

I smirked, my eyes still on her. “That’s what makes it interesting.”

Maya

Of course he showed up at the diner. Because my life wasn’t complicated enough.

The way Adrian Calloway looked at me like I wasn’t just some waitress with grease stains on her apron but something worth his attentionit was dangerous. People like him didn’t belong in my world. And people like me didn’t survive theirs.

But as I carried his order back to the table, my pulse betrayed me. I hated that his grin made my stomach flip. I hated that I noticed the warmth in his voice when he teased me.

Most of all, I hated that a part of me didn’t want him to look away.