"Coffee appeared like magic."
Silver walked back from physio with Eli beside her, and for once, the silence between them didn't feel heavy. Just comfortable. Like they'd finally figured out how to exist in the same space without everything combusting.
By the time they reached her dorm, her leg was tired but functional. Progress, she reminded herself. Slow, painful progress.
The morning after her breakthrough, Silver sat in the student lounge trying to focus on homework. Her laptop was open but barely functioning. Her eyes skimmed the same paragraph of her sports psychology reading five times, and none of it stuck. Her leg was stretched out on the low table in front of her, compression sleeve in place, an ice pack melting slowly through the towel she'd wrapped around it.
Her muscles still felt tight from yesterday's session, but underneath the ache was something new. Something lighter.
Hope was exhausting.
