By midday, the news had spread.
Not officially. Not loudly. But the way things always did through glances that lingered too long, whispers that followed footsteps down the hallway, and phones tilted just enough for someone else to see a screen before it went dark.
Aria felt it before anyone said anything.
She sat in her lecture, pretending to focus on the words written across the board, but her attention drifted. Every time she shifted in her seat, she caught someone looking at her quickly looking away when their eyes met hers. A group of girls behind her murmured softly, their voices dropping whenever she turned around.
She didn't need to hear her name to know it was being said.
Her phone buzzed once on her desk.
She glanced down.
You okay Liam
She hesitated, then typed back.
Yeah. Just… noticing things.
A moment later, her phone buzzed again.
Same. I'll see you after this class.
That helped more than she wanted to admit.
Aria exhaled slowly and forced herself to focus again. She reminded herself that she hadn't done anything wrong. She wasn't cheating. She wasn't hiding. She wasn't pretending to be something she wasn't.
Still, the attention felt heavy.
When the lecture ended, chairs scraped against the floor as students stood and filtered out. Aria gathered her things calmly, refusing to rush. As she stepped into the hallway, the noise swallowed her laughter, conversations, lockers slamming shut.
And then she saw Chloe.
Chloe stood near the lockers, laughing too loudly at something someone said. Her posture was relaxed, but her eyes flicked toward Aria for just half a second.
That was all it took.
The smile slipped.
Just a little.
Aria felt it like a quiet sting.
She didn't stop. She didn't confront her. She simply kept walking, her spine straight, her face neutral, even though something uneasy twisted in her stomach. The tension between them hadn't exploded it had thickened, like air before a storm.
By the time Aria reached the courtyard, Liam was already there.
He was leaning against a bench, phone in hand, talking to one of his teammates. The moment he saw her, his expression shifted softening, grounding, like she had become a familiar place in a crowded world.
He excused himself immediately and walked toward her.
"You look tired," he said gently.
She shrugged. "It's just… a lot of eyes."
"I noticed," he replied, not pretending otherwise.
They walked side by side toward the cafeteria, not holding hands this time but close enough that their arms brushed with every step. It felt intentional, like both of them understood that visibility came with consequences.
Inside the cafeteria, the noise doubled.
As soon as they stepped in together, the energy shifted. Conversations faltered. Someone laughed nervously. A few heads turned openly now, no effort made to hide curiosity.
Aria stiffened slightly.
Liam noticed.
Without touching her, he leaned closer and said quietly, "We can sit somewhere else if you want."
She shook her head. "No. I don't want to hide."
Something unreadable flickered across his face respect, maybe. Or pride.
They grabbed food and found a table near the windows. A few people they knew waved. Others stared.
Aria poked at her food, appetite suddenly gone.
"This feels weird," she admitted softly.
Liam nodded. "Yeah. It does."
There was a pause.
Then he added, carefully, "But I don't regret it."
Her eyes lifted to his.
"Neither do I," she said.
Across the room, Chloe sat with her friends.
She wasn't watching constantly she refused to but every now and then, her gaze drifted back to Aria and Liam, sitting too close, speaking too quietly, existing in a way that felt… intimate.
One of her friends leaned in and whispered something.
Chloe laughed sharply. "It's nothing," she said, a little too quickly. "They're not even together."
But the words tasted bitter.
After lunch, the campus felt tighter somehow, like walls closing in. Aria and Liam walked outside again, sunlight warming the concrete beneath their feet. He stopped near the gym entrance, turning to face her.
"I have practice again in an hour," he said. "But… I wanted to ask you something."
She raised an eyebrow. "That sounds serious."
He smiled faintly. "Only a little."
He hesitated not long, just enough for her to notice.
"I don't want to pressure you," he said. "But I also don't want to pretend this is nothing. So I just want to know… are you okay with people seeing us like this?"
She thought about Julian.
About absence. About silence. About how she had waited for clarity that never came.
"I'm okay with the truth," she said finally. "Even if it's messy."
Liam nodded slowly. "Then so am I."
He didn't kiss her.
He didn't pull her into his arms.
Instead, he reached out and brushed his knuckles lightly against hers an almost-touch that somehow felt more intimate than anything else.
Someone nearby cleared their throat loudly.
Aria glanced over and saw Chloe standing a few feet away.
The moment stretched.
Chloe crossed her arms. "Hey," she said, her tone casual but strained.
"Hey," Aria replied.
Liam nodded politely. "Chloe."
For a split second, something unspoken passed between them expectation, disappointment, realization.
"I didn't know you two were… this close," Chloe said, forcing a smile.
Aria met her gaze. "Neither did I. At first."
Silence.
Chloe's jaw tightened, but she recovered quickly. "Well. Good luck with practice."
She turned and walked away before anyone could respond.
Aria let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
"That was uncomfortable," she muttered.
Liam watched Chloe disappear into the building. "Yeah."
He looked back at Aria. "You okay?"
"I think so," she said honestly. "It's just… things are changing."
"They always do," he replied. "The question is whether we let them change us too much."
She studied his face. "And will we?"
A beat passed.
"I hope not," he said quietly.
The afternoon stretched on.
Classes. Conversations. More looks.
By the time Aria returned to her final lecture of the day, exhaustion had settled into her bones not physical, but emotional. She kept replaying moments in her head: Chloe's face, Liam's restraint, the way people looked at them like they were waiting for something to happen.
When the bell rang, relief washed over her.
Outside, Liam waited for her near the steps.
"Walk you home?" he asked.
She smiled. "Yeah. I'd like that."
As they left campus together, the sun dipping lower in the sky, Aria realized something quietly important.
This wasn't a beginning.
It was a crossing.
And once crossed, there was no pretending she was still standing safely on the other side.
Whatever this was with Liam whatever it became it had already changed the way the world saw her.
The only question left was whether she was ready for what came next.
And somewhere behind them, Chloe watched from a distance, her disappointment slowly hardening into something far less forgiving.