THE LINE WE WEREN'T MEANT TO CROSS

*Chapter 12: Finding Out*

I didn’t answer right away.

The word _now_ hung in the air between us, heavier than any of the ones we’d avoided for months.

His desk was between us. The half-closed door behind him. The empty building outside.

“What does ‘finding out’ look like?” I asked. My voice was quiet, but steady.

Elias let out a breath he’d been holding since I walked in.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I just know I don’t want to keep talking to you like you’re only my student. Not when you’re not.”

I nodded. He was right. The defense was over. The grade was in. The power imbalance had a date stamp on it now.

He stepped around the desk, stopping a few feet away. Close enough that I could see the exhaustion in his eyes, the same kind I felt in my own.

“I’ve been careful for too long,” he said. “And careful doesn’t feel honest anymore.”

I looked at the door. Still open.

“Neither does pretending,” I said.

For a second, neither of us moved. The room felt smaller than it ever had, even on the nights when it was just the two of us and a broken laptop at 9 PM.

Then he smiled, slow and a little disbelieving, like he wasn’t sure this was real yet.

“Can I walk you out?” he asked.

It wasn’t a question about the door.

I picked up my bag.

“Yeah,” I said. “Walk me out, Elias.”

We left the office together. The hallway lights flickered on as we passed, and for the first time in months, I wasn’t watching to see if someone was coming.

We were just two people walking out of a building, late on a Friday night, with nothing left to submit but ourselves.