The air between them crackled with something new now. Something volatile and alive. The moment in the music room hadn't faded like a dream. It lingered, clung to Selene's skin like static, replaying in sharp flashes whenever she closed her eyes. The kiss. The words. The look on Lila's face right before she'd leaned in again.
She couldn't pretend it hadn't happened. Didn't want to. But that didn't make it any easier to exist inside the same walls that had once been a sanctuary. Now the music room felt heavier, charged with every unspoken thought, every stolen glance.
The next day at school was strange. Selene had half-expected Lila to avoid her, to pretend nothing had happened. But Lila was... normal. Almost too normal.
"Hey," she said casually when Selene walked into the music room after the final bell. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor, sketchpad in her lap, headphones draped around her neck. "You look tired."
Selene stared at her. "That's it?"
Lila blinked. "What?"
Selene's fingers tightened around the strap of her backpack. "You're not going to say anything about yesterday?"
Lila tilted her head, like she was examining a complicated painting. "You want me to?"
"I... I don't know," Selene muttered, dropping her bag by the piano. "It just feels weird pretending it didn't happen."
"I'm not pretending," Lila said. She set her sketchpad aside and stood. Slowly. Deliberately. "But I also don't want to scare you off."
"You won't."
Lila smiled, soft but knowing. "You say that, but you're already on edge."
Selene looked down at the piano keys, her reflection fractured across their polished surface. "I'm not good at this."
"Neither am I."
Selene glanced up, surprised.
Lila was closer now, her hands in her pockets, voice quiet. "People think I am. Because I flirt and I joke and act like nothing touches me. But that stuff? It's armor."
Selene's throat tightened. She understood that more than she wanted to admit.
"So what now?" she asked.
Lila shrugged, but it wasn't dismissive. It was careful. Thoughtful. "We don't have to figure it out all at once. We just... let it be what it is. And if we both want it, we keep going."
Selene swallowed. "I want it."
Lila smiled again. Not her teasing grin, but something real. Something vulnerable.
"Me too."
---
The days that followed were filled with a strange kind of tenderness. They didn't kiss again, not right away. But everything felt different. Charged. Like each moment between them was humming with the memory of what they had shared.
Selene started noticing more details. The way Lila's eyes crinkled when she laughed. How she tapped her pencil twice before sketching. The way her fingers absently brushed against Selene's when she passed a note or adjusted the sheet music.
She began to crave those small touches, those quiet looks.
But with the closeness came a deeper kind of ache. A fear she couldn't quite name. Because nothing about what they were doing was simple. Nothing about this felt safe.
One afternoon, a week after the kiss, Selene found herself alone in the music room. Lila was late. Probably stuck in her art elective.
Selene sat at the piano but didn't play. Her fingers hovered above the keys, twitching with energy she couldn't release. She felt the pull of something sharp and dark inside her. A familiar sensation. The kind that whispered, "This isn't real."
The door opened behind her. She didn't turn.
"Hey," Lila's voice was breathless. "Sorry. I got caught up."
Still, Selene didn't move.
Lila paused. "You okay?"
Selene's fingers pressed lightly against the ivory keys, just enough to make a soft, broken chord.
"What are we doing?" she asked, her voice barely audible.
Lila stepped closer. "I thought we were figuring it out."
"I mean... what are we really doing?" Selene turned to face her. Her eyes burned. "I think about you all the time. Even when I don't want to. And when you're near me, it's like I'm constantly on fire."
Lila's face softened. "Selene—"
"And when you're not, it's worse," she went on, almost shaking. "It feels like I'm waiting for something that's never going to happen."
Lila's brow furrowed. "But it did happen."
"Yeah, once. And now we're back to this... game. Like we're pretending not to want more."
Lila closed the space between them. "I'm not pretending."
"Then what are you doing?"
There was a beat of silence. Then Lila whispered, "Trying not to break you."
That landed like a stone in Selene's chest.
"You're not," she said. "You won't. What's breaking me is not knowing."
Lila exhaled, long and shaky. Then she reached out, her fingers brushing against Selene's jaw, tipping her face up gently.
"You want more?"
Selene nodded.
"Even if it's messy? Even if it hurts sometimes?"
Selene's eyes didn't waver. "Especially then."
Lila leaned in slowly, pressing a soft kiss to Selene's cheek. Then her lips found Selene's, just once, brief but full of promise.
"Okay," she murmured. "Then we'll stop pretending."
And in the space between breaths, between want and fear, Selene felt something shift.
She wasn't sure what this was becoming. But she knew one thing for certain:
She wasn't alone in it anymore.