THE DIFFERS : THE UPRISING

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• ＷＩＬＬＯＷ •

The fire crackled softly, casting golden light across the faces around me, but I barely heard the laughter, the teasing voices, the flicker of a guitar somewhere further down the hill. It all felt like a distant echo.

Because all I could feel was him.

Raiden sat just a few feet away, talking quietly with Alan and one of the other boys. He looked calm, relaxed even, but every time his eyes flicked to mine, something inside me fluttered so violently I had to look away.

I pulled my knees to my chest and stared into the flames, pretending to be immersed in the shapes they danced in, but my mind was elsewhere.

I could still feel his skin against mine. The weight of his touch. The way he held me like I mattered. Not like something fragile, but something real.

My body still remembered everything.

Not just the heat or the rush, though that lingered too, in the way my heart wouldn't stop racing. It was something deeper. Like the memory of being opened and seen, held in a way I hadn't realized I'd needed.

Like part of me had changed and would never go back to what it was before.

I'd given him something I hadn't even fully understood myself. Something I'd been scared to admit I wanted. Now that it had happened, it wasn't like I thought it would be. It wasn't just physical. It wasn't a blur. It was intimate, emotional in a way that left me raw and full at the same time.

I wasn't sure what we were now, or where we stood, but in that moment he had made me feel safe and chosen.

I wondered if he knew.

I stole a glance at him again. He caught my gaze this time and didn't look away. His expression softened, just a little. His mouth twitched like he wanted to smile but didn't. My stomach flipped, a shy kind of ache curling behind my ribs.

I wondered if the others could feel it, the gravity that pulled us together even in silence.

My heart felt too big for my chest.

I hadn't lost anything. If anything, I'd found something I didn't know I was missing. I wasn't sure what would come next, but right then, with the fire warming my face and Raiden's gaze warming the rest of me, I knew something had shifted between us.

I wasn't afraid of it anymore.

"So?" Avani asked me as she came to sit with me by the fire, the others were now playing some games or telling stories.

I had chosen to sit a bit farther apart from them, needed some time to think about everything. I couldn't stop thinking about Raiden, it was intoxicating in a good way. But also made me completely out of my mind, I was drowsy and sleepy, lost in thought.

"We talked," I whispered, losing myself looking at the sparks of the fire.

"You just talked?" She closed the distance between us and laid her head on my shoulder, watching the fire too. It was comforting, Avani was a ray of sunshine. She was calm and sincere, her voice soothing and her eyes never judging.

Something about her made me want to confide. I wasn't scared or ashamed of anything, but I was shy about telling her that. Yet, I wanted to tell someone, like I would have instantly done with Alicia.

The memory of her struck something dark in me, I shuddered at the thought. Ava felt it as she took my hand, giving it three light squeeze.

"You don't have to say anything if you're not comfortable with it, just want you to know I'm here. And I'm glad you two made up, Rai really likes you. Whatever he said, or done, he needs you. Just like we do." I squeezed her hand back, smiling softly at the thought of them needed me, accepting me fully.