Aria didn't go looking for answers the next day

She went to class.

She sat where she always sat. Took notes when the lecturer spoke. Nodded at the right moments. Even answered a question once, her voice steady enough that no one looked twice.

From the outside, nothing had changed.

That was the point.

Her phone stayed buried in her bag, on silent. She didn't need to check it to know what was there. Liam. Iris. Jace .

Missed calls. Messages. Explanations she hadn't asked for. She ignored all of it.

It wasn't anger holding her together.

Anger was loud. Unpredictable.

What she felt was quieter than that. Colder. Precise. It didn't shake her, It sharpened her.

By the time her last class ended, the campus had thinned out. Students moved in clusters, laughing, arguing about assignments, making plans for the evening like nothing in the world had shifted.

Aria stepped outside, adjusting her bag on her shoulder, and headed toward the gate. "Aria."

She stopped .

Not because she wanted,but because she recognised the voice.

For a moment, she considered walking anyway. Pretending she hadn't heard him.

But that would mean he still had the power to make her avoid things. She turned.

Liam stood a few feet away, like he hadn't been sure she would.

He looked different. Not put-together. Not controlled. There were shadows under his eyes.

Good, she thought.

"You've been avoiding me," he said.

Aria held his gaze. "That implies I owe you access."

He blinked, thrown off by how even her voice was. "I've been trying to talk to you." "I know."

"And you're just... ignoring it?" "Yes."

The word landed cleanly between them.

Liam exhaled, dragging a hand through his hair. "Aria, what you saw "

"I'm not confused about what I saw."

"That's not what I meant."

"Then say what you mean."

A couple of students passed by, glancing at them briefly. Aria didn't look away from him.

Liam stepped closer, lowering his voice like this was something private. Like it deserved to be handled carefully.

"It wasn't planned," he said. "It just... happened."

Aria studied him for a second. Not his words him. "That's your explanation?"

"No, I'm just-"

"Because if it is," she cut in, "it's weak."

His jaw tightened. "It wasn't supposed to get to that point." "Then why did it?"

He didn't answer.

And that hesitation small, almost invisible told her everything she needed.

"You didn't stop it," she said.

"I tried-" "No," Aria said quietly. "You didn't."

Silence stretched. Not awkward. Not uncertain.

She shifted her weight slightly, folding her arms. "I'm not interested in half-truths, Liam. So let's make this simple."

He swallowed, but didn't speak.

"Did you want to kiss her?"

There it was.

No room to twist it. No room to soften it.

Liam looked at her, and for a second just a second he hesitated. That was enough.

Aria nodded once. "Okay." "Aria-"

"No, it's fine," she said. "It actually helps."

"Helps?" His voice edged with frustration.

"Helps how?"

She let out a small breath, like she was organizing something in her head. "Because now I don't have to sit there wondering if it was a mistake.". He frowned "It was-"

"It wasn't," she said, cutting him off again. "And you know that." "That's not fair."

She almost smiled at that.

"Fair?" she repeated. "You don't get to use that word right now."

He stepped closer again, his voice lower, more urgent. "I care about you. That hasn't changed."

Aria didn't react. Not even a flicker.

"Then you have a strange way of showing it."

"It's not that simple, It is."

He shook his head, frustration breaking through now. "You're shutting me out without even trying to understand."

Aria looked at him for a long moment. Not angry.

Not emotional. Just... certain.

"I understand that you kissed my best friend," she said.

He opened his mouth, but she didn't stop.

"I understand that she kissed you back."

His expression shifted.

"And I understand that neither of you told me."

Her voice stayed calm. Controlled. That was what made it worse.

"What exactly do you think I'm missing?"

Liam didn't answer. "Right," Aria said softly.

She turned slightly, ready to walk away.

"Aria, wait." She stopped again.

This time, she didn't turn around.

"There's something you don't know," he said.

She closed her eyes briefly.

There it was.

The complication. The justification. The part where he tried to make it sound like there was more to it than what she saw.

"There always is," she said.

"This isn't just about Iris," he continued. "It's about-" Don't... "Don't try to twist my head"

The word was sharp enough to cut through whatever he was about to say.

Liam went quiet.

Aria turned back, her eyes locking onto his.

"Don't do that," she said. "Don't try to turn this into something bigger so it feels less like what it is. I'm not."

"You are," she said. "You're trying to make it complicated so you don't have to say the simple version out loud."

"And what's the simple version?" he asked, his voice tight.

Aria didn't hesitate. "You wanted her."

The words landed clean. No emotion attached. No accusation.Just truth.

Liam flinched barely but she saw it.

"And maybe," she added, quieter now, "you wanted me too."

That hit harder.

She watched it happen.

Watched the realization settle in his expression.

"But you don't get both," she said.

For a second, it almost felt like everything had stopped around them.

"For what it's worth," Liam said finally, his voice strained, "you're not as unaffected as you're pretending to be."

Aria held his gaze.

"You're right."

That surprised him.

She let that sit there for a moment just enough.

Just enough for him to think he'd gotten through.

"But the difference is," she continued, "I'm not the one who has to live with what I did."

That landed. Deeper than anything else she'd said, She saw it in his face. The way it stayed with him.

She turned and walked away.

,

Aria had just stepped out of the campus library when she saw Iris standing by the stairs.

She stopped. Not dramatically. Not like in a movie. She Just... stopped.

For a second, she considered turning back inside. Sitting down. Pretending she had forgotten something. Anything to delay what this was about to be. But she didn't.

Running would only drag this out, and Aria was already tired of dragging things.

So she walked forward.

Slow. Measured. Like every step needed to be deliberate so she didn't lose control halfway through.

Iris didn't move when she saw her.

Didn't wave.

Didn't try to close the distance.

She just stood there, like she wasn't sure she had the right to come any closer.

That, somehow, made it worse.

Up close, Aria could see it clearly her eyes were swollen, red around the edges, her face drawn in a way that didn't suit her. Her hair was tied back, but not properly. Loose strands clung to her cheeks like she had been pushing them away and failing.

She looked like someone who had been crying for a long time. Aria noticed.

But she didn't care.

"Aria."

Her voice was soft. Careful.

Aria stopped a few feet away. Far enough to keep something intact. She didn't know what, exactly. Pride, maybe. Or whatever was left of it.

"What do you want?"

Iris flinched, and Aria registered it the way someone registers background noise acknowledged, but not engaged with.

"I need to talk to you."

"There's nothing to talk about. "There is."

Aria let out a small breath. Not quite a laugh, but close enough to carry disbelief.

"Is there?" she asked. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks pretty straightforward."

Iris's eyes filled again. "Please don't do this."

"Don't do what?"

"Shut me out." That almost made Aria smile. Almost. Instead, she tilted her head slightly, studying her like she was trying to understand something that no longer made sense.

"You should've thought about that," she said quietly, "before you kissed my boyfriend."

The words landed exactly the way she intended them to. Iris flinched.

"It wasn't supposed to happen," Iris said quickly, like she needed to get the sentence out before it collapsed under its own weight.

Aria's gaze sharpened. "That line again."

"It's not a line. It sounds rehearsed."

"That's not fair.

"No," Aria said. "Fair would've been hearing it from you before I had to see it myself."

That shut her up. For a moment, neither of them spoke. People passed behind them. Laughter somewhere in the distance. A door slamming. Life continuing like nothing had shifted.

But here, right here, everything had.

Iris inhaled slowly, like she was bracing herself. "It didn't start the way you think."

Aria crossed her arms. "Then tell me how it started."

There was a pause.

Too long.

That pause did something sharp and quiet inside Aria's chest. "It started a few weeks ago, Iris admitted.

A few weeks".

Aria repeated it in her head, not because she hadn't heard, but because she needed to understand it properly.

"How many weeks?" she asked.

"I don't know exactly."

Aria blinked once. "You don't know?"

"I mean... it wasn't physical before."

Before?

Aria let out a soft breath. "So there was a before.? That's not what I meant."

"It's exactly what you meant."

Iris swallowed. "We just talked."

Aria held her gaze. "About what?"

Iris hesitated.

That hesitation answered enough.

"About things he should've been talking to me about?" Aria pressed.

Aria nodded slowly. "Right."

She looked away for a second, then back at her. "That's worse, you know."

"I never meant to hurt you."

Aria let out a quiet, humorless laugh. "That sentence is doing a lot of work for people who already did the damage."

Iris stepped closer. Not enough to touch. Just enough to feel like pressure.

"It wasn't planned. We just kept spending time together and he was confused and I-"

She stopped.

Aria's eyes narrowed slightly. "You what?"

Iris looked at her, and this time she didn't look away. "I was there."

That landed differently.

Not softer.

Just... clearer.

Aria exhaled slowly. "So while I was trusting both of you, you were positioning yourself as the alternative?"

"That's not fair."

"It doesn't have to be fair," Aria said. "It just has to be true."

Iris's voice rose, sharp now. "You think this was easy for me?"

Aria stared at her.

"No," she said, her voice dropping, steady and controlled. "I think the difficult part belongs to me."

That quieted her again.

"I hate myself for this," Iris whispered.

Aria's expression didn't change. "That sounds like something you need to deal with on your own. Aria-" No."

The interruption was immediate.

"You don't get to do that," Aria continued, her voice colder now. "You don't get to show up here crying like I'm supposed to help you process what you did to me."

Iris went still.

"You don't get to hurt me," Aria said, each word measured, "and then make me responsible for how guilty you feel about it."

Aria took a breath. Slower this time.

"You were my best friend."

The words didn't rise. They didn't break.

They just... settled.

Iris's face crumpled. "I still am."

Aria looked at her for a long moment.

Long enough to remember things she didn't want to remember.

Then she shook her head. "No."

"Friends don't do this," she said. "They don't stand next to you, learn everything about you, and then use it to get close to the one person they know matters."

"I didn't take him," Iris said weakly.

Aria met her eyes. "Then why did he kiss you back?"

Iris said nothing.And that nothing said everything.

Aria stepped back.

This time, the distance wasn't accidental.

It was chosen.

"I need space."

"For how long?" Iris asked, panic slipping into her voice now.

Aria held her gaze, steady.

"I don't know."

"Long enough to remember who I am without you in my life."

And then she turned, leaving Iris exactly where she had been standing.

Iris didn't go home after Aria walked away. She stayed, Long after the campus started to thin out. Long after the noise faded into something distant and unimportant. She sat on a bench near the back field, the kind of place people passed without noticing. It suited her Right now, she didn't want to be seen.

Her phone rested in her hand. The screen was still open, Aria's last message. Days old.

Casual. Ordinary. The kind of message you don't think twice about when you read it. The kind you assume there will always be another after.

Iris stared at it.

She didn't know what she was looking for anymore.

An answer, maybe.

Or something that would make what happened feel less final.

Her thumb hovered over the screen, then pressed the lock button.

It was easier that way.

"You look like you've been waiting for someone who isn't coming."

Iris didn't look up. She already knew.

Liam.

His voice carried something different now. Not the usual ease. Not the quiet confidence that used to make everything feel simple. There was something tight in it. Controlled.

"I wasn't waiting for you," she said.

It came out flat.

He stepped closer anyway. Close enough that she could feel his presence without turning. Then he sat beside her, leaving space between them. Not too much. Just enough to make it obvious.

"I know," he said.

The silence that followed wasn't familiar.

They had shared quiet before. Easy ones. Comfortable ones. This wasn't that.

This felt like something neither of them knew how to fill.

"How did it go?" he asked.

Iris let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.

"Exactly how you think."

He nodded once, slow.

"That bad?"

She turned her head slightly, just enough to look at him. "Worse."

Something in his expression shifted. Subtle, but there. His jaw tightened before he looked away.

"She won't talk to me either," he said.

Iris almost smiled at that.

Not because it was funny.

Because it wasn't surprising.

"Why would she?" He didn't answer.

There was nothing to say to that. No version of the truth that made it sound better.

The quiet stretched again.Longer this time.

He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, staring at the ground like it might offer him something useful.

Iris watched him.

This-this was the part they hadn't thought about.

Not properly.

Not beyond the thrill of it. Not beyond the secrecy, the stolen moments, the feeling of getting away with something.

Reality didn't feel anything like that.

"She knows," Iris said.

Liam didn't look up. "Knows what?"

"It's been going on for weeks."

That got his attention. His head turned, his expression sharpening.

"You told her?"

Iris shook her head. "She figured it out."

"I just didn't lie about it."

He exhaled slowly, dragging a hand through his hair. "Great."

Iris studied him. "You're not even surprised."

"I am," he said. "Just not about that."

She frowned slightly. "Then what?"

He hesitated. It wasn't long.

But it was enough.

Enough for something in her chest to tighten without permission.

"That it got this far," he said finally.

The words landed wrong.

Not loud. Not dramatic.

Just... wrong.

Iris held his gaze. "Meaning?"

He glanced at her, then away again.

"It wasn't supposed to turn into this."

Something cold settled under her skin.

"That's what you told Aria."

"It's the truth."

"Or it's just convenient."

His head turned back to her, sharper this time.

"That's not fair."

"No," Iris said quietly. "What's not fair is pretending this just happened."

He didn't interrupt her.

Didn't argue.

Because he couldn't.

"It didn't," she continued. "We both know it didn't."

The air between them felt heavier now.

Iris didn't look away.

"So say it," she said. "At least be honest about something." His brows pulled together. "Say what?" That you wanted this."

The words didn't shake.

That surprised her.

For a second, Liam just looked at her.

Then he looked away.

"I didn't plan it." That's not what I asked."

Another pause. Longer this time

Long enough to feel like an answer.

Iris nodded once, slow. "Right."

"That doesn't mean I didn't care about Aria," he added quickly.

There it was. Of course it was.

Iris looked away.

"Of course you did."

Something in her voice must have shifted, because he went still.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

"No," he said. "Say it."

Iris turned back to him.

"You still care about her." It wasn't sharp.

It wasn't accusing,

It didn't need to be, It was true.

And he didn't deny it.

That was the part that stayed with her The absence of denial.

Her chest tightened, but she didn't let it show.

"And me?" she asked.

Liam ran a hand through his hair again, the frustration clearer now.

"It's not that simple."

Iris let out a small laugh. There it is.

"What?"

"The part where you make it complicated so you don't have to answer." That's not what I'm doing."

"Then answer."

He didn't.

That was all the answer she needed.

Iris nodded slowly, like she was confirming something she had already suspected.

"Okay."

"Iris-"

"No," she cut in. "It's fine." I get it.

"Get what?" he asked, sharper now.

She looked at him. Really looked at him

And for the first time, she saw it clear

"I was the easier choice," she said.

"That's not true." Isn't it? His jaw tightened.

"You think I'd do all this for something easy?"

Iris held his gaze. "You didn't do this for me."

That made him stop.

Completely.

"You did it because you wanted something you weren't supposed to have."

The words didn't need force.

They landed anyway.

"And now that it's real," she continued, quieter now, "you don't know what to do with it."

Liam didn't respond.

Because there was nothing he could say that wouldn't prove her right.

Iris looked away.

The feeling she had been chasing for weeks whatever it was-it wasn't there

"This isn't what I thought it would feel like," she said. He didn't ask. He understood.

That made it worse.

Iris stood up. "I should go."

He looked up at her. "Iris-" She shook her head.

"Not today."

"I think we've done enough for one day."

She didn't wait for a response.

She turned and walked away.