@bufbiwh719: I loved this story, so I made an interactive version on Cycle AI where you can step into any character and live it yourself！ Instead, I said, "You hate everybody. That's not a useful warning." Nate wouldn't explain. He sat on his bed while I cleaned his cuts, giving me the kind of silence that usually made me want to throw something. Tonight it made me want to stay. Which was inconvenient. I had spent a considerable amount of energy trying to escape this room. After a late-night cafeteria break-in turned into a fire, I got a choice-free fresh start at a school for troubled teenagers. Then a clerical mistake landed me in the boys' residence. The headmaster couldn't move me until a girls' room opened up. My roommate had a high-risk classification and absolutely no talent for making anyone comfortable. I had a low-risk classification and an increasingly ambitious revenge plan. He humiliated me. I had his furniture carried outside the library. When he came home, half our room was empty. For once, he had nothing to say. Beautiful moment. I should have painted it. Painting was the one thing I took seriously. In the art room, I could turn a whole disastrous day into colors that made sense. Back in our dorm, Nate ruined my concentration just by existing. There had also been a kiss. A party dare, very brief, and therefore legally irrelevant to my feelings. That was my position. He seemed entertained by it. Then, one evening, I talked him into a clay mask. The boy everyone avoided sat opposite me with gray cheeks, looking unexpectedly willing to be ridiculous. "Truce?" I asked. He agreed. No argument. That almost worried me more than the pranks. We started asking questions. He wanted to know my favorite food. I wanted to know his past. Guess which answer I got. Now he was back with split skin and bruises, and I was learning things he hadn't offered. The way he braced before I touched a cut. The way a laugh hurt. The way he let me help even while insisting he didn't need it. "Hold still." "You're enjoying ordering me around." I was. I wasn't enjoying the blood on my towel. He watched me closely enough that I lost track of what I was doing. For a moment, being near him didn't feel like an argument. I backed away before I could give that feeling a name. Sam was uncomplicated. Hot chocolate after swim practice. Easy conversation. A café invitation. I said yes because, for once, I wanted something easy. Nate found out and stormed to Sam's room. I followed, just in time to see him shove Sam against the wall. Sam smiled. Nate raised his fist. I begged him to stop, and he did. Later, Eli told me Nate was avoiding me because he thought I was scared. I almost laughed. Then I realized I had spent the whole day waiting to hear his key in the lock. "What happened between them?" Eli looked away. "You'll have to ask him." For weeks, I'd wanted a different roommate. Now I needed this one to come home—and finally answer me. https://cycleai-link.pages.dev/J9XF1R #BookTok #ForcedProximity #RomanceReads #SlowBurnRomance #BookLovers ReadingCommunity Fiction

Pages of Longing

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Tuesday 20 October 2026 02:16:18 GMT