Nora

I felt him before I saw him.

Like static electricity crawling across skin. Like the kind of storm you can sense before the sky changes color.

I tried not to react. Tried to focus on the guy in front of me, some friend of Amelia’s, whose name I forgot as soon as he said it. He was talking about classes or travel or something else that didn’t matter.

I smiled when I was supposed to. Nodded. Sipped my drink.

But everything in me was wired toward something else. And when I turned slightly, just slightly, he was there.

Axton.

Close. Too close.

He wasn’t looking at me, not directly. But he was standing near enough that the air changed. That my lungs suddenly felt too shallow.

He said something low to someone beside him, then stepped past them, drifting just near enough that I felt the pull of it, the way the room dipped when he was close.

I turned away. Pretended not to see. But my body was traitorous. My heart stuttered.

Amelia returned a moment later, her eyes flicking to me, then past me, then back. She didn’t say anything, but her lips pressed together like she noticed.

“You okay?” she asked softly.

“Fine,” I lied.

She looked like she didn’t believe me, but let it go.

I tried to breathe normally. Tried to move through the space like it didn’t feel like he was shadowing my every step.

A minute passed. Maybe two. And then he spoke.

“Nora.”

I froze.

My spine straightened like someone had pulled a string through it.

I turned slowly.

He wasn’t smiling. He never smiled. But his mouth wasn’t tight the way it usually was.

His gaze flicked down, then back up.

“You look... different.”

I didn’t respond right away. My grip tightened slightly on the drink in my hand.

“So do you,” I said finally.

His jaw shifted like he wasn’t sure what to say next.

A beat passed. 

One heartbeat, then another.

“You don’t usually do this,” he said.

“Do what?”

“Go out. Party.”

“You don’t usually talk to people,” I countered.

Something almost like amusement flickered in his eyes.

“Touché.”

I should’ve walked away. Should’ve said something cutting. Should’ve laughed and brushed past him but I didn’t. Because the air between us wasn’t cruel tonight. It was heavy. Warm. Tense. And I didn’t want to move first.

Not this time.

He stepped slightly closer, and I didn’t step back.

“I thought you weren’t the kind of girl who needed people.”

“I’m not.”

“Then why are you here?”

I blinked. “Why are you?”

He didn’t answer. Not really. Just looked at me like he was trying to figure something out. And I hated that part of me hoped he never would.