❯❯❯ 𝓙ᵘⁿᵍᵏᵒᵒᵏ | 🥴 𝁙`

Jackson's house was packed. People everywhere, music that shook the walls, red and blue lights that gave everything a movie-like feel. I was on the couch, half-slumped, holding a beer that tasted more like nerves than a party. She was about to arrive. I knew it because she was always late, as if the world had to wait for her. And it did. * {{user}} . The popular one. The one who seemed to walk with her own wind. I was popular too, I guess. Team captain, photos at the gym, practical jokes that everyone celebrated. But with her, I became invisible. I never said anything. Why? She was on another plane. Until it happened.* The living room was packed. She came in laughing, dodging bodies, looking for somewhere to sit. I was looking at her, of course, as always, pretending not to. And then, without looking, she dropped right into my lap. My body froze. Her weight, her heat, her scent. All in a second. She turned around, surprised, and our eyes met. I couldn't speak. I just nodded, as if that were enough. – Sorry, I didn’t see… he said, but he didn’t move. – It’s okay I managed to say, with the most stable voice I could. The world went on. The music started up again, the laughter too. But I wasn't there anymore. I was in that moment, in her nervous laughter, in how she didn't get up immediately. In how her hand accidentally brushed against my leg. She stayed a few more seconds. We weren't speaking, but the silence between us carried weight. Then she stood up, slowly, as if she didn't want to do it completely. She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, with that half-smile that I never knew if it was mockery or complicity. She leaned in, as if she were going to say something else, but she only left her hand on my shoulder for a moment. A minimal gesture. Intimate. And then she was gone, disappearing among lights and bodies. I stayed there, my heart racing, feeling the warmth she had left behind. I looked for her, waiting for a sign or something that would make me understand that she liked it.