Luca
I watched Sienna walk away, her phone still in hand, a satisfied smirk on her face. My chest tightened as I stood frozen in the corridor, my stomach churning with something close to regret-but not for the reason anyone would expect.
I didn't expect her to actually send those photos. I only asked her to hold onto them... for insurance. Something to scare off my parents if they tried to intervene. Something I could use if it came down to choosing us over the Valerian legacy.
But now?
Now, everything was spiraling.
I turned the corner to head toward the stairwell, and that's when I saw it-the faintest trace of someone's shadow disappearing down the opposite hallway.
Something in my gut twisted.
No...
"Alstroemeria?" I called out.
No answer.
I started walking faster, heart pounding in my ears. I took out my phone, quickly pulling up our messages.
Nothing new.
I dialed her number. It rang. Once. Twice. Then straight to voicemail.
Dread sank into my bones.
I screwed this up. Somehow, somehow, I managed to hurt the one person who made me feel like I wasn't just a pawn in the family's game.
I rushed out of the building, scanning the crowd, ignoring the stares from students. I checked everywhere I could think of-the quad, the library steps, even the campus cafe.
Nothing.
And then, just as I reached the main gate, I saw her.
Alstroemeria.
Curled up against the cold iron bars, her head buried in her arms, shoulders shaking. Her hair was falling in waves around her, hiding her face-but I didn't need to see it to know she was crying.
My heart dropped to my feet.
What have you done, Luca.
I took a slow step forward, my throat dry. "Alstroemeria..."
She flinched.
She didn't even look up.
I tried again, this time more gently. "Nyxie, please. Let me explain."
"No." Her voice was broken, barely above a whisper. "Don't. Just-don't."
She slowly lifted her head, eyes red-rimmed, face pale, her expression hollow.
"You sent them," she said. "You sent those pictures to my mom."
"No," I said quickly, stepping closer. "No-I didn't. I swear I didn't. I told Sienna to hold them, just in case my parents ever tried to-"
"Oh, so you didn't press send, you just handed her the match and expected she wouldn't light the whole place on fire?"
Her voice cracked at the end, and it shattered something inside me.
"I was trying to protect us," I said quietly, guilt crawling up my spine. "I didn't think she'd actually do it."
She laughed bitterly. "You didn't think. That's the problem."
I wanted to reach for her. Say something. Fix it. But every step I took felt like walking on broken glass.
"Nyxie, I didn't mean to hurt you," I said. "I thought I was being careful. I thought-"
"You thought what?" she cut in, standing up now, her voice trembling. "That this was a game? That you could play both sides until one of them collapsed?"
I stayed silent.
She shook her head, blinking back fresh tears. "I trusted you. I let you in. I thought maybe... maybe we could be different."
"We are different," I said, desperately. "I care about you. Everything I said, everything we did-I wasn't faking any of it."
She looked away. "Then why does it feel like I was the only one trying to make this real?"
That broke me.
Before I could say anything else, a car pulled up to the curb. Andromeda.
Alstroemeria didn't even glance back at me as she opened the passenger door.
"Nyxie-" I tried one last time.
But she closed the door.
And in that moment, I realized I might've just lost the only person who ever made me want to be more.
Not for the Valerians. Not for appearances. Not even for myself.
But for her.
...
Something was wrong.
I felt it the moment I walked into class and she wasn't there. Alstroemeria was never late. Never absent without a reason. I kept glancing at the door like a lunatic, waiting for her to walk in with that calm, unreadable expression she wore so well.
But she didn't.
I messaged her once. Then twice. Then again. Each one read, delivered. None of them got a reply.
A sinking feeling started to bloom in my chest. At first, I brushed it off. Maybe she overslept. Maybe she was tired or overwhelmed. But as the minutes dragged, that theory disintegrated. Because I knew her.
This wasn't like her.
After class, I headed toward the corridor, and that's when I made the biggest mistake-I talked to Sienna.
I hadn't meant for her to send the photos. Not really. The moment those words left my mouth-"Good"-I regretted them. But it was too late. I thought she was bluffing. I thought she just wanted to scare me, to get a reaction.
But when I turned the corner and caught a flash of familiar movement, it hit me.
Alstroemeria had been there. She heard it. Every word.
Her scent lingered faintly in the air, like she had just been there seconds before, and I swear my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach.
"No," I muttered under my breath, running a hand down my face. "No, no, no..."
I tried calling her again.
Nothing.
It rang until it went to voicemail.
That night was the longest one of my life. I stared at the ceiling of my dorm room, clutching my phone in my hand like it might suddenly buzz with a miracle message.
It never did.
I thought we were good. I thought we were more than the feud. I thought I was different with her-and I was. She made me someone better, someone real. She saw the version of me I didn't show to anyone else. And now?
Now I'd lost her. Because of something I didn't stop soon enough. Because I hesitated instead of protecting her the way I should've.
The next morning, I went to the places I thought she might be. Her usual café. The library she liked. The bench under the cherry blossom tree where she once said the wind sounded like music.
She wasn't at any of them.
She disappeared from my world as easily as she walked into it.
And I had no one to blame but myself.