The decision didn't come all at once. It sat in the back of Layla's mind for days, a quiet constant beneath the noise of lectures and the clatter of her shifts at work. She spent hours staring at the ceiling, replaying the highlight reel of her life in Montreal. She remembered the early days, the way her heart used to skip a beat just seeing Liam's car in the driveway, the easy warmth of his laugh, and the safety he represented long before Jade ever climbed through her window.
Liam was the right choice. He was the logical conclusion to a story that should have been simple. She had loved him first, after all. Before the charcoal smudges, before the late-night heartbeats and the "something like that" excuses, there was Liam. Choosing him wasn't just about safety; it was about reclaiming the girl she used to be before Jade hacked into her system and left everything in ruins.
She found Liam near the courtyard after their afternoon lecture. The sun was dipping low, casting long, golden shadows across the stone path. He looked up as she approached, that hopeful, patient expression on his face that made her chest tighten with a mixture of affection and guilt.
"I've been thinking," Layla said, her voice steady despite the flutter in her stomach.
Liam stood up, closing his bag. He didn't push. He just waited.
"I want to be with you, Liam. I want to be your girlfriend."
The transformation on his face was instantaneous. The tension he'd been carrying for weeks melted away, replaced by a radiant, genuine joy that made Layla feel, for a fleeting second, like she had finally done the right thing. He reached out, pulling her into a hug that smelled like clean laundry and expensive soap, the smell of a boy who had his life together.
"You don't know how long I've wanted to hear that," he whispered into her hair.
Layla pulled back slightly, her hands resting on his chest. "Can we... can we keep it private for now? Just for a bit? I don't want the noise. I just want us to figure it out without everyone watching."
Liam didn't hesitate. "Whatever you want, Layla. I'm just happy you chose me."
He reached into his bag and pulled out a small, tied bouquet of wildflowers he'd clearly been keeping there just in case. They were a little crushed, but the gesture was so perfectly Liam that Layla felt a lump form in her throat. She took them, the colors bright against her palms, and forced herself to smile. She was official. She was safe.
The high of the "Yes" faded the moment she pulled into her driveway that evening. The shadow of Jade's house loomed over hers, a silent reminder of the variable she hadn't quite deleted.
She was walking toward her front door, the flowers from Liam tucked under her arm, when a figure detached itself from the darkness near the hedge.
"Layla."
She stopped dead. Jade was standing there, his hands shoved deep into his pockets, looking like he hadn't slept in days. He looked exhausted, stripped of the "chilling" bravado he'd worn at the bonfire.
"What are you doing here, Jade?" she asked. Her voice wasn't angry. It was cold, a flat, icy tone that seemed to catch him off guard.
"I came to apologize," he said, taking a tentative step forward. "About the texts. About the way I acted in the hall. I was an asshole."
Layla didn't snap. She didn't scream. She just looked at him with a detached kind of pity. "You ignored me for days. You read my messages and let me sit there like an idiot while you hung around Kianna and God knows who else. You threw away everything we had because you couldn't handle it being 'official.'"
"Layla, i …"
"No," she interrupted, her voice gaining a sharp, clinical edge. "You drove me crazy, Jade. You made me fall in love with you. You were the one who liked me first, don't even try to deny it. You hunted me down, you climbed into my life, and you made yourself indispensable. And then, the second it got real, you backed out."
She took a step toward him, the moonlight catching the tears she refused to let fall. "I feel like a crazy person. I spent weeks trying to force something that was clearly beneath you. Why did you do all that? Why go through the effort of making me want you just to leave me standing in the dark?"
Jade stood there, his jaw working as he searched for words that wouldn't come. "I'm just... I'm sorry," he finally whispered. "I didn't want to hurt you."
Layla let out a short, bitter laugh. "You didn't want to hurt me? That is absolute bullshit, Jade. You hurt me the second you decided your fear of commitment was more important than me."
She looked at the house next door, then back at him. The boy who had been her obsession now just looked like a mistake she was finally rectifying.
"I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore," she said, her voice final. "Don't climb my window. Don't wait for me in the driveway. Just stay in your lane, and I'll stay in mine."
She turned her back on him, the crushed flowers from Liam gripped tightly in her hand, and walked into her house. As she closed the door and turned the lock, she didn't feel the rush of victory she expected. She just felt like a system that had finally been wiped clean, empty, silent, and waiting for the new program to begin.