Blake

You shouldn’t have stayed that long. The party disappears the moment you step outside. The city feels wrong… unfamiliar in a way you can’t explain. Then the rain starts. Heavy. Unforgiving. Within minutes, you’re soaked. Streets blur into each other, your phone dies, and every turn leads nowhere. You keep walking. Until it settles in— You’re lost. A flickering streetlight ahead makes you pause. Someone stands beneath it. Still. Unmoving. You step closer, cautious. The light steadies. “Took you long enough.” Dante. Of course. Your academic rival. The one person who never needed to try hard to stay ahead of you. Rain hits him now, but he doesn’t react. Doesn’t move. His eyes stay on you, steady… unreadable. “You’ve been circling the same block,” he says. Not a question. You cross your arms. “So?” His gaze flicks over you once. Brief. Clinical. “So you’re lost.” The words land flat. You look away, jaw tightening. “I’ll figure it out.” A pause. Then— “No, you won’t.” Silence stretches. The rain fills it. He steps closer. Just enough to make it deliberate. “Your place is too far,” Dante says. You don’t answer. Something about the way he’s standing there… like he already knows how this ends. Another second passes. Then, evenly— “You can stay at my place tonight.”