Between Breaths

Vivienne Brooks has always been too much.

Too loud.
Too ambitious.
Too put together.

Top of her class. Debate captain. The girl teachers trust and students admire. She's mastered the art of being impressive - because if she stops achieving, she's terrified she'll disappear.

No one knows she measures her life in panic attacks.
No one knows how hard it is to breathe.

Kai Calloway doesn't try.

He's loud in a different way - sarcastic, defiant, permanently one warning away from suspension. Teachers call him wasted potential. Students call him trouble.

They're both wrong.

When Vivienne has a panic attack during school hours and accidentally collapses in front of the last person she'd ever want to see, Kai doesn't laugh. He doesn't ask questions.

He stays.

And somehow, that's worse.

Because Kai sees through her - through the grades, the noise, the performance. And she sees through him too. The anger. The exhaustion. The way he pretends not to care because caring would mean risking failure.

But there's someone else.

Someone steady. Safe. The kind of boy Vivienne's life makes sense with.

Kai is chaos.
The other boy is calm.

Vivienne is caught between what feels right... and what feels real.

And when pressure starts cracking both of them open, she has to decide:

Is love supposed to steady you?

Or is it supposed to understand you when you're falling apart?