Page 16 of Only When It Breaks

Ava catches my eye first, and there’s this flicker, guilt, maybe? She nudges Kai and says something I can’t hear. He looks up. His grin falters when he sees me.

I straighten up, schooling my face into something neutral. Or Ihopeit’s neutral.

“Hey,” Ava says as they reach me. “Sorry I’m late. We were-”

“Plotting the geek revolution,” Kai cuts in, giving me a crooked smile. “She’s letting me sit with her now.”

Ava rolls her eyes. “Temporarily.”

I force a smile. “Wow. Didn’t realise we were recruiting.”

Kai chuckles like I’m joking, but Ava shoots me a look. Adon’t-be-weirdkind of look.

He nudges her shoulder, “I’ll wait for you,” he says, heading off toward the carpark.

“Kai’s giving us a lift,” she tells me casually like it’s no big deal.

I stop walking. “What?”

“He offered.”

I glance ahead, and sure enough, Kai’s unlocking his car. “He offered?” I repeat.

Ava nudges me. “He’s being nice, Em. Like, actually nice. You can scowl all you want, but he made me laugh today.Me.You know how rare that is.”

“I laugh with you all the time.”

“That’s different. We share a brain.” She hooks her arm through mine. “Come on. Consider it an anthropological experiment. Let’s observe the wild hot boy in his natural habitat.”

I sigh but let her drag me toward the car.

Kai looks up as we approach and opens the passenger door. “Shotgun’s yours, Ava.”

She beams. “Nah, let Emmie take it. She gets carsick.”

I don’t, but it’s not worth the argument. I slide in, the seat oddly warm, like he was just sitting here. He climbs in next to me, the space suddenly feeling too small.

“Ready?” he asks. I nod, avoiding his eyes.

The engine starts, and music trickles through the speakers, a song I almost recognise. Not what I expected him to play. Ava immediately launches into nervous chatter about teachers and homework. And anytime silence falls, she fills it with something else equally as unimportant.

Kai side-eyes me, “You okay?”

I nod, keeping my eyes focussed on the road. He drives carefully, like he’s carrying precious cargo. I assumed he’d be a boy racer type.

By the time we pull up outside my house, I can’t remember anything from the drive except how the light caught his profile and the weird weight sitting behind my ribs.

“Thanks for the ride,” I say, grabbing the door handle.

“No problem.”

Ava leans forward. “Can he drive us again tomorrow?” she asks brightly. I don’t answer. I’m already out of the car, trying to breathe.

By the time we’re upstairs in my room, Ava’s still buzzing. She kicks off her shoes and flops backwards onto my bed like we just got back from a concert. “Okay. I was wrong about him.”

I raise a brow as I pull off my jumper. “You’re never wrong about anyone.”

“Except this time.” She grins up at the ceiling. “But he’s . . . different. Like, genuinely trying. It’s kind of nice to see him being a human instead of whatever robot version of hot-guy arrogance he was before.”

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