CHAPTER 4
757 Words
CHAPTER 4
The Things We Don’t Say
The sky over campus was pale gold, the kind of sunlight that looked tired, like it had been working all day too. The exam timetable had just been pasted, and students crowded around the notice board, whispering, complaining, laughing nervously.
Tessa stood at a distance, notebook in hand, pretending to read while secretly searching the crowd. She told herself she was only checking to see if Louis and Adrian had seen the timetable yet — but her heart gave her away.
Louis was there, of course — effortlessly noticeable in a crowd, white shirt sleeves rolled to his elbows, that lazy smile that made people feel like the world wasn’t half as stressful as it was.
He caught her looking.
She quickly looked away, flipping a random page in her notebook as if it held the secrets of the universe.
A few minutes later, his voice came from behind her, warm and familiar.
“So you’re stalking me now?”
Tessa turned sharply. “What? I was reading.”
Louis smiled. “Upside down?”
She looked down. The page was indeed upside down. Her cheeks burned. “You’re impossible.”
He grinned, stepping closer. “You’ve said that before.”
“And I’ll keep saying it until it sinks in.”
He laughed, hands in his pockets. “You say it like you don’t like having me around.”
She met his eyes — and her voice softened. “Who says I don’t?”
It wasn’t meant to slip out that way, soft and real. His smile faltered for a heartbeat, replaced by something gentler, quieter.
Adrian’s voice suddenly broke through the moment. “Oya, lovebirds! Library time! Or are we all planning to fail?”
Tessa rolled her eyes. Louis chuckled, but he didn’t look away from her until she did.
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The library was half-full, humming with the quiet chaos of exam season. Tessa sat across from Louis, textbooks scattered between them. Adrian, of course, had dozed off after twenty minutes, his head resting on a notebook.
Louis watched Tessa highlight a line for the fifth time. “You’ve been on that same paragraph for ten minutes,” he whispered.
“I’m revising,” she whispered back.
“You’re staring.”
She frowned, whispering, “At what?”
“At the page.”
“That’s what studying looks like!” she hissed softly, biting her lip to hold back laughter.
Louis leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. “You’re cute when you argue.”
Tessa froze. For a second, the entire room seemed to blur — just his face, his voice, and the way he said it like he hadn’t even meant to say it out loud.
“Louis…” she whispered, unsure what to do with the warmth blooming in her chest.
He smiled faintly. “What?”
“Stop saying things like that.”
“Why? Because it’s true?”
She sighed, shaking her head. “Because it makes it hard to concentrate.”
He grinned. “Good. That means I’m doing my job.”
Tessa wanted to scold him, but her heart was too full. She looked down, pretending to write something in her notes. He kept watching her — quietly now, his teasing smile fading into something more thoughtful.
The light from the window caught her face, highlighting the faint crease between her brows, the soft curve of her mouth when she was trying not to smile.
Louis didn’t understand what was happening to him. He only knew that every time she looked up, he forgot what he was supposed to say next.
After a while, she noticed him staring. “What?” she asked softly.
“Nothing,” he said, smiling. “Just thinking.”
“About?”
He hesitated, then shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”
She tilted her head. “Try me.”
He smiled again, but this time it didn’t reach his eyes. “About how everything feels… different lately.”
Her voice barely came out. “Different how?”
Louis looked away. “Like you’ve started taking up too much space in my head.”
Tessa’s pen slipped from her hand. She stared at him — and for a moment, neither of them moved.
Adrian snored softly beside them, oblivious.
The clock ticked.
And in that silence, full of all the things they didn’t know how to say, Tessa realized she was in trouble — the kind that didn’t end with exams.
- Writer
