CHAPTER 14: After the Quiet

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Chapter 14: After the Quiet

Back on Campus

The weekend had ended, but something about Daisy and Calvin's rhythm had changed.

They still sat in their usual library corner. Still traded notes and half-smiles. But now, there was a new softness between them—a trust not yet spoken, but felt.

Daisy reached across the table, brushing his hand lightly. "You okay?"

Calvin nodded. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

"If I had met you any earlier... I wouldn't have been ready."

She smiled faintly. "If you had met me earlier, I wouldn't have let you in."

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Lina & Marcus

Lina hadn't stopped thinking about the porch moment. It kept replaying in her mind—not because Marcus had said anything poetic or dramatic. But because it felt real.

The next day, she found him outside the psychology building.

"I don't do slow," she told him.

"I don't do games."

"Then what do we do?"

"We try," Marcus said, "without pretending it doesn't matter."

She blinked. "That's it?"

"That's enough, isn't it?"

Lina didn't answer—but she stayed.

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The Shift

Over the next week, things moved. Not loudly. Just... forward.

Daisy told Calvin about her childhood in more than fragments. About how silence was often mistaken for peace.

Calvin admitted he'd never let anyone close because he feared being needed and then resented.

Lina started texting Marcus at midnight—quotes, random thoughts, sometimes just silence.

Marcus began writing again. Poems he didn't share. Yet.

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But Then

An unexpected message arrived on Daisy's phone.

From her father.

> "We need to talk. At home. Alone."

And just like that, the quiet they'd found cracked. Because some pasts don't stay tucked away. Some knock at your door, just when you start to believe in the future.

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