Chapter 76 : Part Away
STEPHEN’S POV
I don’t think. The moment his lips crash into mine, everything else just… disappears.
The anger, the frustration. The sharp, jagged edge I’ve been carrying around since that night.
They were all gone. All I can feel is him.
For a split second, I freeze, not because I don’t want this, but because I’ve wanted it for too long and I’ve imagined this moment in a hundred different ways, and none of them ever felt like this.
Then something inside me snaps into place and I kiss him back, hard.
My hand comes up instinctively, gripping the back of his neck as I pull him closer, like I’m afraid he might change his mind if I give him even an inch of space. His fingers clutch at my jacket, holding on just as tightly, and it sends a rush of heat straight through me.
He’s here and he chose this.
The thought alone is enough to make my chest feel like it’s about to burst.
The kiss deepens, messy and uncoordinated at first, too much emotion, too much everything, but we find a rhythm quickly. Like we’ve been here before and our bodies remember something our minds tried to ignore.
My heart is pounding so hard I can barely hear anything else over it.
I pull back just enough to breathe, our foreheads almost touching, both of us slightly out of breath.
“You have no idea,” I say, my voice rough, barely steady, “how long I’ve been waiting for you to do that.”
His eyes flicker, searching mine. “Yeah?”
A breath leaves me, something between a laugh and a confession. “Since detention.”
He blinks. “Detention?”
“That first time,” I say, my grip tightening slightly on him. “When we kissed.”
His lips part slightly, like he’s remembering it the same way I am.
“I thought it was just… a moment,” he admits quietly.
“It wasn’t,” I said immediately.
It never was.
“That messed me up, Hayden,” I continue, the words spilling out before I can stop them. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it after. I kept telling myself it didn’t mean anything, that it was just…heat of the moment, whatever.”
I shake my head slightly, a humorless smile tugging at my lips. “But then you looked at me the next day like nothing happened,” I add, softer now, “and I realized I didn’t want it to be nothing.”
His expression shifts, guilt, something softer, something deeper.
“I didn’t know what to do,” he says again, quieter this time.
“I know,” I mutter.
I do. That’s the worst part but knowing doesn’t make it hurt less.
For a second, neither of us moves. The tension is still there, but it’s different now.
Then his hand tightens on my shirt, grounding me. “I’m here now,” he says.
And that…That’s it. That’s all it takes. I kissed him again. This time, slower, like I’m making up for every second we lost pretending this wasn’t happening.
His hand slides from my jacket to my arm, then up to my shoulder, pulling me closer until there’s barely any space left between us. The cold night air doesn’t matter anymore. The world doesn’t matter.
It’s just this. Just us.
I don’t know how long we stay like that, minutes, maybe but eventually, reality creeps back in.
The wind, the distant sounds from below. The fact that we’re still on the roof, completely exposed.
I pull back slightly, brushing my thumb along his jaw without thinking.
“We should… probably not stay up here,” I murmured.
His lips curve just a little, like he knows exactly what I’m implying. “Yeah,” he breathes.
But neither of us moves right away, like we are both afraid the moment might break if we do.
Then, finally, I step back, grabbing his hand before I can overthink it.
He doesn’t hesitate.
We make our way down in silence, but it’s not the awkward kind. It’s… charged. Every glance, every accidental brush of our arms feels amplified.
By the time we reach the hallway, my pulse is already picking up again.
This is real.
I push the door open, letting him step inside first before closing it behind us.
And the second it clicks shut—He’s on me again or maybe I’m on him.
I don’t even know who moved first.
All I know is that we collide halfway across the room, and suddenly we’re laughing under our breath between kisses, the tension snapping into something lighter but no less intense.
“Are you sure about this?” I ask, pulling back just enough to look at him.
I need to hear it, not just feel it.
His eyes meet mine, steady despite everything “Yeah,” he says.
There was no hesitation or doubt.
Something in my chest settles. “Good,” I murmur.
Then I kissed him again.
This time, there’s no rush.
We move blindly, bumping into the edge of the desk, then the wall, neither of us really paying attention to where we’re going. My hands find his waist, steadying him, and his grip tightens on my shirt again like he doesn’t want to let go.
I don’t want him to.
The room feels smaller somehow, like the air itself is charged with everything we’re not saying out loud.
Every look, every touch and every moment we almost lost.
When we finally break apart again, both of us breathing a little harder, I rest my forehead against his.
“This doesn’t go away tomorrow,” I say quietly.
It’s not a question. It’s just… the truth.
His fingers curl slightly against my arm. “I know.”
“And people are going to talk,” I add.
“I know.”
“And it’s not going to be easy.”
His gaze doesn’t waver. “I know, Stephen.”
Something in my chest tightens again, but this time it’s not fear.
“Okay,” I breath.
I brush my thumb along his cheek one more time before pulling him back into me, slower now, softer but no less certain.
For the first time since all of this started…
I’m not wondering about this or questioning it.
I’m right here and so is he.