We were walking in our hallway when we heard footsteps on the staircase. I grabbed her hand and pulled her to my room. It was the last one in the hallway, and chances were, we couldn't be seen there if I used my power to somewhat blend into the wall and make the last light dim.

"What are you doing?" she whispered while I put her against the wall and glanced up at the light, moving my finger the way I did in the auditorium that day and dimmed it. "What the hell?" she mumbled. "Callum, why are we—"

"Shh." I put my finger over my lips.

She mimicked my actions and put her finger on her lips, looking at me with amusement swirling in her eyes. She bit back a laugh and settled for a smile.

I rolled my eyes and stepped closer to her.

She sunk further into the wall.

"Do we know if anyone is missing from downstairs?" someone's voice echoed.

I looked to the beginning of the hallway and made out the figure of two security guards.

"Not yet," the other guard replied. "Hello?!" they called out. "If anyone's up here, you're meant to go back down to the gym!"

They walked further into the hallway and I stepped closer to her, putting my hands on the wall from either side of her, and then looked at the wall over her shoulder, making sure that we were invisible and nothing but a shadow to anyone who sees. We would be a shadow, but still invisible because it's also dark in here now. With no light, there's no shadow, we're just invisible.

I kept my eyes on the wall and avoided eye contact with her because not only would I see what she's feeling, she would see whatever it is that's in my eyes right now too. And as tempted as I am to read her mind, I'm holding off.

"Hey! Anyone up here?!"

I pressed a little more into her, my grip on the wall tightened, my arms straining a little. It makes my muscles ache sometimes. I'm not meant to be hiding someone else with me like this.

"No one's up here, come on."

When their footsteps faded, I relaxed my hand and let out a small breath. I took a step back and we stared at each other in silence for a minute. I cleared my throat, "Do you... want to come in?"

She hesitated to answer.

"If we're in separate rooms, they might catch us both. But if they knock on your door and no one's in there, they'll probably think we're both somewhere else on campus," I explained.

"Yeah, that makes sense, okay," she nodded.

I unlocked the door and we slipped inside quickly and then closed it as quietly as I could. I turned around, seeing her looking around the room, sort of taking it in. I walked to my closet and grabbed a fresh t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. "Do you mind if I go shower?" I asked.

"Sure, no problem," she said, looking out of my window, her finger trailing along with my desk.

"Okay, I'll be back." I went into the bathroom, lit up two candles for some kind of light and took a quick shower, and got dressed. I ruffled my hair with the towel and then stepped back into the room, but not after blowing the candles out.

The curtains were open so the room was lit up with sunlight. "Wow," she chuckled. "You told me you read but I didn't think you meant this much." She stared at my bookcase which was kind of overflowing with books.

They were stacked, squished into the shelf, and barely hanging on.

She turned to me. "All these books and you never read a romance novel until the one I gave you? Sounds like a lie to me," she sang, scanning the shelf. "Ah-ha! Pride and Prejudice. Classic," she smirked, pointing to it.

"It's a classic so it doesn't count," I shrugged.

"Classics count," she scoffed. "And you also have Romeo and Juliet, huh?"

I walked over, pulling the copy out and handing it to her. "That's a play," I smirked.

"You read the play?" she asked in disbelief.

"We had to for English Lit in... freshman year, I think."

She nodded in understanding while I put the copy back. "So, what now? Do you want to read because it's better than talking," she said mockingly, raising her eyebrows at me.

I chuckled, "Actually, talking doesn't sound so bad."

"Oh?" she grinned.

"It's been good so far," I shrugged, sitting on the floor, on the carpet, at the foot of my bed.

She sat opposite me, leaning against the wall beside the mirror. We both sat in silence, staring at each other for a minute. "Have you ever had a crush?" she asked out of nowhere. "Your ex-girlfriend is excluded."

"Probably had plenty as a kid," I shrugged. "You?"

"Only one," she answered. "Yet."

I lifted a brow at her.

"What? There are plenty of options at Arcane High. Scott is nice," she smiled.

"Scott from English Lit? When have you spoken to him?"

"Once or twice. He seems nice, I don't know."

"What about your ex-boyfriend? I'm sure you have one?"

She nodded, "His name was Liam."

"What happened?"

She sighed, staring at her shoes. "He left me after the accident."

"The accident with your mom?"

"Yeah. Apparently, it was too much pressure to be with the girl who came back after spending nearly nine months in the hospital for recovery," she scoffed.

My brows furrowed, "Sounds like a stupid reason. And he sounds like a dick."

"He was, I don't know why I even liked him to begin with. But he was the golden boy, it makes some sense, I guess."

"Just because he was the golden boy?"

"Yeah. But he was like... the first guy to ever pay attention to me too. That's always very exciting for a fifteen-year-old," she chuckled. "Your first kiss, your first butterflies, first date, all that stupid shit. And after we broke up, I came to the conclusion that relationships are romanticized. They're really not that great, are they?"

"Not with the wrong person."

"Well then, don't we just have great luck?" She raised her eyebrows at me.

After a second, I asked, "You were in the hospital for nine months?"

"Pretty much," she nodded. "It was bad," she said slowly. "And very scary. I've never been that scared in my life."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"We're going straight from talking about my crush to my accident, okay," she chuckled.

"You don't have to."

"No, I don't. But I should. I've never told anyone," she said, narrowing her eyes at her shoes before starting to re-tie her laces. "My mom had picked me up from Liam's house. On the way back home, she got a call that one of her friends had just found out her husband cheated on her," she scoffed, rolling her eyes.

"And they wanted her there immediately. So, she told me we were headed there. It was September and pretty rainy. The roads were slippery, getting a little icy too. And her friends were very impatient. They kept calling again and again. She was getting irritated. When one of her friends called, she snapped at them. She was frustrated with them. She always had a little temper but never with me."

She leaned her head back, looking at me.

"I kept telling her to get off the phone. I kept reminding her that she was driving, the roads were slippery. There were cars coming. But she was focused on the call. And then a car came right our way. I saw it when we could still dodge it. And I told her. I yelled." She shook her head, "She didn't listen."

I could tell that she wanted to cry but she was holding off. She shouldn't because she said she's never told anybody this. She shouldn't hold off any longer.

"And then we crashed. I was awake the whole time. Even when the car flipped over and we got stuck that way. She wasn't awake, she died on impact. She didn't have her seatbelt on or anything. And even though I did, I felt like I was about to fly right through the windshield," she scoffed, shaking her head.

"I wasted a good five minutes trying to wake her up. But I didn't even know she was dead. I thought she passed out or something. And then some people gathered around the car but they didn't do one thing. So I had to take my seatbelt off, reach into the back where my phone was. And then I had to call for help. While waiting, some people helped me get out of the car. I was trying to get my mom out too but, it was impossible to do that," she groaned.

"I broke my ankle on impact, I had shards of glass everywhere on my body that cut me up, I had one fractured rib, a concussion, and a broken wrist. The recovery process was very long. I was bleeding internally too, apparently, but they talked to my dad about that. It was horrifying. I passed out in the ambulance and then woke up in the hospital after a few hours. Hurting everywhere. It was the worst pain I've ever experienced."

She hesitated, staring at her shoes again. "And they didn't tell me until two days later that my mom was dead. Even my dad didn't tell me," she scoffed, blinking quickly.

"I had no idea what to do after that, how to move on from that. And I still can't fucking move on from it." She sniffled before standing up and rushing into the bathroom, locking the door shut behind her.

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