Assigned

Ocean Kingston is eighteen years old, a senior counting down the final months before everything changes. Graduation looms, freedom feels close enough to touch, and the long-anticipated senior class trip is supposed to be the last uncomplicated memory she takes with her. One month away. One final escape before adulthood begins.

The destination is meant to feel like a dream-sun-washed streets, unfamiliar air, and a carefully planned itinerary meant to keep everyone busy and supervised. But plans unravel quickly.

Meilani Vilsaint, the school's composed and distant counselor, never intended to spend her time chaperoning a group of seniors. Yet circumstances leave her with no choice. Professional, guarded, and impossible to read, she follows the rules because that's what she's always done.

Until the room assignments fall apart.

With no other options available, Ocean and Meilani are placed in the same apartment-style suite-separate bedrooms, shared walls, a shared kitchen, a shared living space. Close enough to hear footsteps. Close enough to notice habits. Close enough to blur lines that should never be crossed.

What begins as forced proximity turns into quiet tension. Lingering glances. Conversations that stretch too long into the night. Feelings neither of them asked for, in a place far from home where consequences feel distant-but not absent.

Because some boundaries exist for a reason.
And some connections refuse to be ignored.