CHAPTER SEVEN_ Discomfort
209 Words
Naomi started bringing Aaron’s friend around more often.
He was different — calmer, attentive, present. Naomi laughed around him in a way I hadn’t seen before. Aaron noticed.
So did Isa.
Not because she followed us — but because Naomi talked.
Aaron stopped coming by the dorm altogether.
Instead, his attention shifted.
Texts. Comments. Invitations that felt deliberate now.
“You free tonight?”
“Engineering party. Might be fun.”
“You still pretending you’re not curious?”
I didn’t answer most of them.
Isa noticed anyway.
Not from watching me — from the way I pulled away.
“You’ve been distracted,” she said one night.
“That’s not a crime.”
She stepped closer than usual. “You don’t like when I ask.”
“I don’t like when it feels like more than asking.”
Her eyes darkened.
“Aaron makes you reckless,” she said.
I laughed softly. “No. You make me uncomfortable.”
The word hung between us.
She didn’t back away.
“That’s not what you mean,” she said quietly.
“It is,” I replied — even as my pulse betrayed me.
Her voice dropped. “Then why don’t you move?”
I didn’t.
And that was the problem.
- Writer
