Page 56 of The Obedient Lie
He stayed exactly where he was, one arm slung lazily along the back of the couch behind me, his other hand cradling a glass of whatever he was drinking.
I stayed still.
Eyes glued to the screen.
Hands typing words I didn’t feel.
Face flushed with confusion.
Why was Bastion here?
He wasn’t reading. Wasn’t working. Wasn’t scrolling his phone or doing anythingnormal.
He was just watching. Or… at least that’s what it felt like.
Every time I shifted, I felt it. The weight of his eyes.
Not moving. Not blinking. Justthere.
I hated how aware of them I was.
Ofbothof them.
The silence grew thicker. Denser. I could hear the hum of the laptop fan and the occasional crack of thunder outside.
Luca leaned forward.
He didn’t say anything at first. Just reached out and tapped the screen, his finger brushing a line of text. “That sentence doesn’t make sense,” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
He pointed again. “Right here. You’ve got a subject but no predicate.”
My brain scrambled. “Oh.”
I moved the cursor, made the edit. “Sorry.”
And I meant it—though I wasn’t even sure what I was apologizing for.
Something in Luca’s breath shifted. Not quite a sigh—more like a release of tension he’d been holding in his chest.
His hand came up slowly, fingers brushing the side of my face.
And then, he did it.
He tucked my hair behind my ear.
The hair I’d been using as a curtain.
My shield.
My armor.
He swept it away with two fingers, slow and deliberate.
I froze.
Luca didn’t move away. Didn’t explain. Just lingered a second too long, eyes fixed on the now-exposed side of my face.
