The kitchen felt smaller after Jade left, the air still humming with the ghost of his presence. After the heat of the kiss, he had pulled back just enough to look her in the eyes, his hands still resting casually on her waist.
"Go out with me tomorrow?" he had asked, his voice low and devoid of its usual defensive edge. "It doesn't have to be a 'date' if you're not ready for that word, but... it could be. If you wanted it to be."
Layla had nodded, her heart still performing a frantic rhythm against her ribs. "I'd like that."
He'd leaned in for one more kiss, softer this time, almost a promise, before grabbing his ginger ale. "I better bounce before your mom pulls up in the driveway. I don't think I can look her in the eye without grinning like an idiot."
As the front door clicked shut, Layla leaned against the counter, her fingers tracing her lips. For a few blissful minutes, the world was simple. She was a girl who had found someone who actually showed up.
Then, her phone buzzed.
Liam: I know I messed up. The lake, the silence... I wasn't myself. Can we do a redo? A second chance? I want to explain everything, Layla. Please.
She stared at the screen, the blue light felt cold. Two days ago, this message would have made her year. Now, it just felt like a complication she didn't want to solve.
The next morning, the "afterglow" was still there, but it was clouded by the weight of Sarah's constant warnings. Layla was happy, happier than she'd been since moving to Montreal, and she wanted something serious with Jade. But she couldn't build a house on a foundation of riddles.
She met Sarah at their usual spot under the clock tower before classes. "No more riddles, Sarah," Layla said, skipping the small talk. "You keep telling me to be careful. You keep acting like Jade is a monster. If we're best friends, you need to come clean. What happened between you two?"
Sarah went pale, her hand trembling as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear. She looked at Layla, seeing the determination in her eyes, and finally, the dam broke.
"We were each other's everything, Layla," Sarah whispered, her voice cracking. "Jade was my first boyfriend. My first love. My first... everything. It wasn't just a crush. We were going to be forever."
Layla felt the world tilt on its axis. The oxygen seemed to leave the quad.
"And then he changed," Sarah continued, tears welling in her eyes. "Or maybe he didn't change, and I just saw who he really was. It ended badly. It's why Liam hates him so much. He watched me fall apart for a year because of Jade."
Layla sat there in stunned silence, the ginger ale from the night before turning to lead in her stomach. She hadn't told Sarah about the kiss. She hadn't told her about the date tonight. And suddenly, she was glad she hadn't.
How could she? How could she go out with her best friend's ex? The boy who had apparently shattered the person she cared about most? And why hadn't Jade told her? He had plenty of chances. Every time he smirked at Sarah in the cafeteria, every time they drove past his house, he knew.
"I... I have to go," Layla stammered, standing up so quickly her chair nearly toppled.
"Layla? Are you okay?" Sarah asked, reaching out.
"I'm late for work," Layla lied, her voice thick. She turned and ran, not toward the bus stop, but away from the truth she wasn't ready to handle.
The fluorescent lights of the shop felt like they were vibrating, matching the frantic pulse in Layla's temples. Every time she looked at the clock, only three minutes had passed. It was the longest shift of her life. Her hands felt clumsy, her movements heavy, as if she were moving through chest-deep water.
During her ten-minute break, she sat in the cramped back room, staring at a stack of folded cardboard boxes. She pulled out her phone, her thumb hovering over Jade's contact. She wanted to scream at him. She wanted to ask him how he could look her in the eye and kiss her, knowing that he had once been Sarah's "everything."
Was I just a way to get back at Liam? The thought was a jagged piece of glass in her mind. Or am I just a replacement for the girl he lost?
She thought back to the way Jade had looked at her in the kitchen, the softness in his eyes, the way he had teased her about the ginger ale. It felt so real. But Sarah's tears had been real, too. Layla felt like she was being torn in two, a chemical bond being ripped apart by a force she couldn't control.
"Layla! Back on the floor!" Maria yelled.
She stood up, her legs feeling like lead. She spent the final hour of her shift in a daze. She didn't look at the customers; she just looked at their hands, their credit cards, the repetitive motion of the coffee pouring.
When the clock finally hit 4:00 PM, she clocked out with a trembling hand. She didn't wait for her ride. She didn't want to see Jade's car. She didn't want to see Liam's "explanation." She walked out the back door and started walking toward the park, the cold Montreal wind biting at her cheeks.
She needed to breathe. She needed to figure out if her happiness was worth the price of her best friend's heart. As she sat on a lonely park bench, watching the grey clouds roll in, she realized that the "Chemistry of Code" was far more dangerous than she had ever imagined. In code, a mistake can be deleted. In life, the bugs stay with you forever.
She pulled her coat tighter around her, her phone buzzing in her pocket with a new notification. She didn't even check to see who it was. She just closed her eyes and let the first tear fall.