The remaining hours of the afternoon felt like an eternity. Layla sat through her final lecture, but her notebook remained blank. Usually, she loved the orderly rows of chemical equations, the way every action had an equal and opposite reaction. But today, the variables were all wrong. Sarah was gone, whisked away by some mysterious family emergency. Liam was a ghost, a beautiful memory from a week ago that felt increasingly out of reach.
This isn't how it was supposed to go, she thought, leaning her forehead against the cool glass of the library window. She had imagined a semester of quiet study punctuated by stolen glances at a handsome Computer Science major. Instead, she was staring down a void of solitude.
Then, her mind drifted to the parking lot. To the 6'4" enigma with the smoky eyes and the smug smirk. Maybe Jade is my knight in shining armor, she whispered to herself, then immediately felt her face heat up. It was a crazy thought, Jade was arrogant, loud, and far too intense. But as the clock ticked toward 4:30, the idea of the lonely bus ride home felt unbearable. If Jade was offering a rescue from her own thoughts, she was finally desperate enough to take it.
At exactly 4:30, Layla stood at the edge of the parking lot. She saw the sleek black car immediately. Jade was leaning against the driver's side door, checking his watch. When his eyes landed on her petite figure walking toward him, a slow, genuine grin broke across his face.
"Nice!" he called out, pushing off the car. "I was starting to think I'd have to start a search party."
"Don't get used to it," Layla muttered, though she couldn't help the small smile tugging at her lips. She climbed into the passenger seat, the interior of the car smelling like expensive leather and a hint of something spicy like cedarwood.
As they pulled out of the campus gates, the silence was heavy but not uncomfortable. Jade navigated the Montreal traffic with a practiced ease.
"So, neighbor," Jade started, glancing at her. "Why the sudden move? Did you get kicked out of your old town for being too smart?"
Layla rolled her eyes. "Nothing so dramatic. My dad got a promotional transfer. We didn't really have a choice."
"And let me guess," Jade said, his voice softening slightly. "You miss the old place? The friends? The life where you weren't the 'new girl'?"
"Every day," Layla admitted. A wave of sadness washed over her as she thought about her old bedroom and the friends she could be loud with without feeling judged.
Jade turned the steering wheel, but instead of heading toward their neighborhood, he took a sharp detour toward the outskirts of the city.
"Hey, where are we going? This isn't the way home," Layla said, her "shy" nerves jumping back to life.
"Relax, genius," Jade smirked. "I've got just the thing to cheer you up."
Ten minutes later, the city noise faded, replaced by the rustle of trees. Jade pulled the car onto a gravel path that led to a secluded, shimmering lake. The water was still as a mirror, reflecting the bruised purples and oranges of the approaching sunset.
Jade hopped out of the car without a word. Layla followed cautiously, watching as he walked to the water's edge, picked up a flat stone, and sent it skipping across the surface. One, two, three, four. "I come here anytime I miss my parents," he said quietly. The smugness was gone, replaced by a hollow tone that made Layla's heart ache.
"Did they... go away?" she asked softly, stepping closer to him.
"They've been gone a while," Jade replied, his eyes fixed on the ripples in the water. "And they'll never come back."
The weight of his words hit Layla like a physical blow. She looked at his chiseled profile, seeing the grief etched into the set of his jaw. "I'm so sorry, Jade. I didn't know."
"It's fine," he snapped back, though not with anger. He turned abruptly and headed for the trunk of the car. He popped it open and pulled out a cold beer, cracking the tab with a sharp hiss. He held a second one out toward her. "Drink?"
"No thanks," Layla said, shaking her head. "I don't drink."
"More for me, then," he said, taking a long swig.
Layla moved back to the car, leaning against the warm metal of the hood as she stared out at the lake. The silence was different, now deeper, more honest.
"So," Jade said, breaking the quiet as he leaned next to her. "What has been your favorite thing since you moved here? Aside from the thrilling bus rides?"
Layla adjusted her posture, looking for the right words. "The people," she said finally. "They've been... really nice. Mostly."
Jade chuckled, a dark, melodic sound. "Anyone in particular caught your eye?" He pointed a thumb at his own chest, his smoky eyes dancing with a bit of his old mischief. "Besides the obvious choice standing right here?"
Layla burst out laughing, the sound echoing across the water. It was the first time she had truly laughed since the move. "You're joking!"
"Nah, I'm serious," Jade said. His laughter died down, and he looked at her with an intensity that made her breath hitch. "You're pretty... smart... and... ugh." He stopped, his brow furrowing as he looked away.
"What?" Layla asked, her heart racing.
"Nothing," Jade muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked genuinely flustered, his usual confidence failing him for the first time. "We should get going. It's getting dark."
The drive back was wrapped in a thick, heavy silence. But it wasn't the silence of strangers; it was the silence of two people who had just shared a secret they weren't quite ready to talk about. Layla stared out the window, her mind a whirlwind. She had spent the day mourning the loss of Sarah and the distance of Liam, yet here she was, feeling a strange, magnetic pull toward the boy she had tried so hard to ignore.
Jade pulled the car to a stop right in front of her house. The headlights cut through the evening gloom, illuminating the driveway.
"Thanks for the ride," Layla said, her hand on the door handle. "And... thank you for showing me the lake. It really did help."
Jade gripped the steering wheel, staring straight ahead. "Whenever you wanna go there, I'm more than happy to take you." He turned to her, his smoky eyes soft in the dim light of the dashboard. "See you tomorrow, Layla."
"See you tomorrow," she whispered.
As she walked up her porch steps, she heard the low growl of his engine as he drove the short distance to his own driveway next door. Layla went inside, but she didn't head straight for her chemistry books. Instead, she went to the window and watched the tail lights of his car disappear into the garage.
Liam was the dream, the perfect code she wanted to solve. But Jade... Jade was the reaction she hadn't seen coming.