Chapter 28 – Too Close for Comfort
Sam's POV
The lights went out around midnight.
One second, the dorm hummed with its usual low buzz—the heaters clanking, someone down the hall snoring, Elias tapping his damn pen like he always did. The next, everything snapped into silence. Pitch-black.
I sat straight up. “Uh… did the world just end?”
From across the room, Elias groaned. “Relax, Hale. Power outage. Happens all the time.”
“Yeah? Well, happens to freak me out.”
I heard him chuckle in the dark, low and warm. “What, big bad Hale is afraid of the dark?”
“Shut up,” I muttered, groping around for my phone. The screen lit up, a small rectangle of light cutting through the pitch-black. I let out a breath.
“Coward,” Elias teased.
“Easy for you to say. You probably sleep with your eyes open like some creep.”
“Maybe I do.” His voice was closer than before, and I realized he’d moved.
The light from my phone hit his face, and my chest did something weird—like it skipped a beat. His hair was messy, his eyes lazy but alert, his mouth curved in that cocky smirk.
“Quit staring,” he said, smirking wider.
I rolled my eyes. “You wish.”
He leaned against the edge of my bed like he owned it. “It’s freezing in here. Heat’s out with the power.”
“Congrats on your observation skills.”
“You’re in a mood,” he said. Then, without asking, he flopped down on my bed.
I blinked. “Uh. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Trying not to freeze to death.” He stretched out, his arm brushing mine. “Your bed’s warmer.”
“Because I was in it!” I shoved at him, but he didn’t budge. “Go back to yours.”
“Can’t,” he said, grin audible in the dark. “It’s too cold.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“And you’re bossy.” He tugged the blanket like it was his.
I yanked it back. “This is not happening.”
“Oh, it’s happening.” He tugged harder, and somehow, in the dark and the struggle, the blanket twisted around us both. We ended up shoulder to shoulder, pressed close, breathing the same air.
“Elias,” I hissed.
“What?” His voice was low, teasing, but there was something else in it.
“You’re in my bed.”
“I noticed.”
“You’re too close.”
“You noticed that too.”
I should’ve shoved him off. I should’ve yelled. Instead, I froze. His body was warm against mine, and for the first time since the blackout, I wasn’t cold.
His breath brushed my ear. “Relax, Hale. I’m not gonna bite.”
“Good. Because if you did, I’d bite back.”
He chuckled. “Now that’s a picture.”
I groaned, covering my face with my hand. “You’re impossible.”
“You like it.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
Silence fell. The kind that wasn’t empty. The kind that buzzed.
I shifted, trying to put space between us, but the bed was too damn small. His leg brushed mine, his arm settled near my shoulder.
“Comfortable yet?” he asked softly.
“No,” I whispered back.
“Liar.”
My pulse was racing. I could feel every inch of him—solid, warm, steady. My mind screamed at me to get out, to move, to do anything but this. But my body? My body betrayed me, staying still. Staying close.
“Why are you really in my bed?” I asked finally.
There was a pause. Then his voice, quieter than I’d ever heard it. “Because I trust you.”
The words punched the air out of me. Trust. The one thing I couldn’t afford.
I turned my head toward him. In the dim glow of my phone, I could see his eyes, closer than they’d ever been. Searching mine.
“Elias…” I whispered.
“Yeah?”
I didn’t know what I was going to say. Don’t trust me. Stay away. Or maybe something dangerous, like don’t stop.
But the words got stuck in my throat.
Instead, the silence stretched, and his gaze dropped to my mouth. Just for a second. Barely there. But I saw it. Felt it.
My breath caught.
He leaned in—just a fraction, just enough to make the air between us burn.
I whispered, “This is a bad idea.”
“Probably,” he murmured.
“Then why…”
“Because I want to.”
My chest tightened. Every nerve in me screamed. His hand brushed my arm, slow, testing.
And I didn’t pull away.
I should’ve. But I didn’t.
Instead, I let myself lean into the heat of him, let my guard slip for one reckless heartbeat.
The world outside the blackout didn’t matter. The dorm, the bullies, the secrets—they all vanished. It was just his breath, his warmth, the space between us thinning.
Then—
A loud bang rattled the door.
We both froze.
Someone was in the hall.
And they’d stopped right outside our room.