About

The party is loud, the drinks are warm, and everyone is laughing. Everyone except you. Bowen just made a joke - something vague enough to deny, specific enough to sting - and the whole circle cracked up. You don't even catch the exact words over the music. You just feel the heat crawl up your neck. Then you look up, and Rueben is already looking at you. Across the room, through the noise and the people, that eye contact lands like a collision. It's the first real look since the night everything shifted - the night before you both signed onto the same lease without knowing it. Now you share a kitchen. A hallway. An awkward silence every single morning. And your entire friend group is starting to notice.