I avoided the window for the rest of the evening.
Even as the sun dipped behind the trees and the air turned cool, I couldn't bring myself to peek outside, afraid I'd see him again. Afraid I wanted to.
I paced the floor of my apartment, every step echoing the storm inside me. My groceries were still sitting on the counter, untouched. I wasn't hungry. Not for food, anyway.
I was starving for answers.
What was Luke doing here?
The last time I saw him, he barely looked at me. He was always the quiet one—distant, unreadable. Nothing like Alex, who was charming and bold, quick to draw you in and quicker to let you down. Luke was the shadow behind the spotlight. He never spoke unless he had to, and yet I always sensed a heaviness in his eyes... a kind of sadness that mirrored mine.
Maybe that's why I never really forgot him.
A knock at my door made me jump.
I froze, the sound sharp and sudden in the silence. My heart pounded. No one knew I lived here—not really. Not yet.
Another knock, softer this time. Then a pause.
"Addison?"
The voice was low. Familiar. Dangerous.
I stood still, hands trembling at my sides.
Don't open the door.
But I already was.
There he stood—Luke—wearing that same storm-drenched blue shirt, his dark hair still messy from the rain, his eyes locked on mine with a calm intensity that made me forget how to breathe.
"I didn't mean to startle you," he said, shifting his weight, a box under one arm. "I just... thought you might want these."
He lifted the box. Books. My books. I hadn't even realized I dropped them outside earlier.
"Thanks," I murmured, reaching out with shaking hands. Our fingers touched for just a second—bare skin on bare skin—and something inside me tightened, then unraveled.
"You moved here?" I asked, stepping back.
He nodded slowly. "Last week. Aunt's old place. I'm fixing it up."
Aunt. That meant he was here to stay.
"Why?" I asked, before I could stop myself.
He looked at me for a long moment. "Needed quiet. A reset."
A reset. The word echoed through me like a ripple.
Wasn't that why I came here too?
He hesitated. "I didn't know you'd be here."
I didn't know how to respond to that.
Would it have changed things if he had?
I hugged the box to my chest, a shield. "I should get back inside."
He gave a short nod. "Right. Yeah. Just thought I'd return those. I'll, uh... see you around."
He turned to leave, but something about the way his shoulders slumped… it wasn't indifference. It was something else. Something that mirrored the ache in my own chest.
I should have closed the door.
Instead, I whispered, "Luke?"
He paused mid-step.
"I'm not who I used to be," I said, quietly. "A lot's happened."
He turned his head slightly. "Yeah. Me too."
We didn't say anything more.
He walked away, and I closed the door.
But my heart stayed open.
And for the first time in months, I felt something other than numbness.
It terrified me.
Because the boy who once felt like a shadow…
now felt like the only thing real.