Chapter 2
For a second, I forgot how to breathe.
Aiden Cole was still standing in front of me, his hand hovering near mine as if he wasn't sure whether to help me up or give me space. His friends had stopped talking. The hallway noise dimmed, like the world had turned its volume down just so I wouldn't miss a single beat of this moment.
"Do you need help?" he asked again.
His voice wasn't impatient or annoyed like I expected from someone so popular. It was steady, warm… kind in a way that didn't match the flawless image everyone painted of him.
"I—I'm okay," I managed to whisper, even though my throat felt tight and my cheeks burned.
I grabbed my last book and rose quickly, brushing invisible dust from my skirt. Anything to avoid looking directly into those deep, distracting grey eyes.
He noticed anyway.
"You sure?" Aiden asked, slightly tilting his head. His eyes scanned me like he was genuinely checking for injuries.
I nodded too quickly.
"Yeah. Just slipped."
One corner of his mouth lifted—not quite a smile, just something small but soft. The type of expression that felt like sunlight sneaking through a window.
But then someone behind him cleared her throat loudly.
"Um, Aiden? We're going to be late."
It was Brianna Martin—tall, flawless, and everything I wasn't. She stood with her arms crossed, glaring at me like I'd committed a crime by existing too close to him.
Aiden turned toward her for a second. "Go ahead. I'll catch up."
Her eyes widened. "Catch up? For her?"
But he didn't respond.
He only looked back at me.
And for a moment, I wondered if I was trapped in the wrong version of my life. Because in all the years at Eastwood High, no one—especially not him—had ever paused their world for mine.
The hallway resumed its noise, people rushing around us like a river flowing past a stone. But inside that little bubble where we stood, everything felt still.
I finally broke the silence. "Thanks… for helping."
"Anytime." Aiden said it softly, like he meant it. "What's your name?"
My heart flipped.
"You… don't know?" I blurted out before I could stop myself.
His eyebrows lifted. "Should I?"
Instant embarrassment. My face heated up like a toaster. "No! I mean—it's fine. I just thought… never mind. My name is Liana."
"Liana," he repeated, slow and thoughtful, like he was testing how my name tasted in his mouth.
Something fluttered in my chest.
"Pretty name," he added casually.
I blinked.
Pretty?
No one had ever called anything about me "pretty."
Before I could respond, the bell rang sharply.
Aiden stepped back but held my gaze for one last, lingering second.
"See you around, Liana."
Then he turned and walked off, effortlessly slipping back into the crowd forming around him. The hallway swallowed him instantly, but something in the way he glanced over his shoulder told me this wasn't just a random moment.
It felt intentional.
Memorable.
Like the start of something that didn't have a name yet.
I stood there frozen even after he disappeared into the sea of students. My heartbeat refused to settle. My hands trembled slightly—not from fear, but from something unfamiliar and new.
"See you around, Liana," he had said.
No one like him had ever promised to "see me around."
Mostly because they didn't see me at all.
But he did.
My world, once dull and flat, now felt brighter—like someone had quietly adjusted the colors without asking for permission.
As I walked to class, every step felt lighter. Every breath felt fuller. I knew this moment shouldn't matter this much, but it did. It mattered in a way I couldn't explain, a way I wasn't ready to admit out loud.
Because deep in the part of my heart I kept hidden from everyone…
I already wondered what would happen the next time Aiden Cole looked my way.
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