Her phone started ringing.
She looked down.
MOM CALLING…
She sighed softly.
Before she could decide, a voice came from behind her.
"You gonna pick your boyfriend's call or keep ignoring it?"
Mia turned quickly.
Leaning casually near the edge of the wall, hands in his pockets like he had been there longer than she had noticed.
Her chest tightened slightly.
"It's not my boyfriend," she said immediately.
David raised an eyebrow. "Relax. I was joking."
She looked away, embarrassed. "It's my mom."
That surprised him a little.
"She calls you this late?"
Mia nodded. "She probably just wants to hear from me. She worries."
Her phone stopped ringing again.
Missed call.
She stared at it for a second, conflicted.
David watched her carefully. "You can call her back."
"I will," she said quickly, then added softer, "just… not right now."
A silence settled.
But it wasn't uncomfortable anymore.
Not like before.
Now it felt… charged.
David stepped closer slightly, not invading, just existing nearer than he used to.
"You always run outside when things get loud?" he asked.
Mia let out a small breath. "I don't like feeling trapped."
"Inside or around people?"
"Both.
He nodded slowly like that made sense to him.
Then, quietly:
"You didn't run from me though."
Mia looked at him.
"I almost did," she admitted.
That made something flicker in his expression.
"Why didn't you?"
She hesitated.
Because saying I don't know felt too honest.
Instead she said, "You don't feel loud."
David tilted his head slightly. "Is that a good thing?"
"For me?" she said softly. "Yes."
A pause.
The air between them shifted again.
He glanced at her phone, still in her hand.
"Call her," he said again, gentler this time.
Mia shook her head slightly. "If I call her now, she'll hear music in the background and start asking questions."
"Let her ask."
"I don't want to lie."
That made him quiet for a moment.
Then he said, "You lie a lot?"
Mia looked at him sharply.
"Not like that," she said quickly. "Just… small things. To avoid stress. To avoid explaining myself."
David nodded once.
"I get that."
That simple line hit her harder than expected.
Because no one usually got it.
They just judged it.
Another silence passed but this one felt different.
He shifted slightly toward her.
"You're still shaking," he said.
Mia looked down at her hands.
She hadn't noticed.
"I don't like crowds," she repeated quietly.
"I know."
That was all he said.
But it made her look up at him again.
Really look.
The way he was watching her wasn't like pity.
It wasn't like curiosity anymore either.
It was something steadier.
Something warmer.
Something dangerous.
"I can take you somewhere quiet," David said after a moment.
Mia blinked. "Like where?"
He shrugged slightly. "Just… away from noise.
She hesitated.
Every rational thought said no.
But her body was tired of panic.
"…Okay," she said softly.
His car was parked a short distance away.
Old model. Clean but worn. Like someone who cared more about function than appearance.
Mia got in slowly.
The inside smelled faintly like cologne and night air.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then David started the engine.
"You okay?" he asked.
Mia nodded. "Yeah."
But it wasn't convincing.
He noticed.
"You say that a lot," he murmured as he pulled away from the club.
"What?"
"That you're okay."
Mia looked out the window. "What am I supposed to say instead?"
"Say the truth."
She gave a small, humorless laugh. "That's dangerous."
David glanced at her briefly. "Not with me."
That made her turn toward him slightly.
"Why are you like this?" she asked quietly.
"Like what?"
"So… calm. Like nothing shakes you."
A pause.
Then he said, "Things do shake me. I just don't show it."
That surprised her.
"You don't look like someone who gets affected."
"I do," he said simply. "Just not loudly."
The car slowed at a quiet street, away from the club, away from noise.
Streetlights reflected softly on the windshield.
He parked.
And for the first time, silence wasn't uncomfortable.
It was intimate.
Mia turned slightly toward him.
"You talk like you understand me," she said softly.
David looked at her.
"I think I do."
"Why?"
He hesitated.
Then leaned back slightly in his seat.
"Because you're not as hard to read as you think."
That made her heart beat a little faster.
"I don't know if I like that," she whispered.
"Why?"
"Because it means you can see too much."
David held her gaze.
"I already do."
The air between them tightened.
Something unspoken sat in the space now fragile, inevitable.
Mia's voice dropped.
"This is dangerous," she said.
"What is?"
"This feeling."
David didn't look away.
"I know."
A pause.
Then he touched her face, while staying at her eyes.
"can I kiss you ?," he asked quietly.
she whispered, "yes."
That was enough.
The moment that followed didn't need noise.
It didn't need words.
It only needed the kind of closeness that had been building since the first night outside the club.
David leaned in slowly, giving her every chance to pull away.
She didn't.
And when their lips finally met, it wasn't rushed.
It was careful.
Like both of them were trying to understand something they didn't have language for.
Outside, the world kept moving.
Inside the car, everything else disappeared.