"Quiet was louder than shouting."
The small gestures from Eli had left Silver feeling unmoored in a way that confrontations never did. At least with fights, you knew where you stood. But a returned pen and a deliberate shoulder brush offered no clear interpretation, just endless speculation that followed her through the rest of her classes and into the evening.
By the time she'd climbed the worn stone stairs to her residential college tower room, her brain was exhausted from trying to decode minimal contact like it contained some kind of hidden message written in a language she'd never quite learned to read fluently.
The dorm had gone still hours ago. Most students had left early for the weekend, taking advantage of the gap between midterm pressure and the next wave of assignments. The Gothic hallways that usually buzzed with noise and drama now felt suspended in time, like walking through a museum after closing.
