(Anthony's POV)
I always knew Lara was fragile in ways she never let anyone see.
Not breakable — no, Lara Chua was steel when she wanted to be —
but thin in the places where she'd stretched herself too tightly
for too long
for one person.
For Steven.
And today… I heard that thinness tremble before anyone else did.
--
(During Physics Lab — The First Tremor)
It was supposed to be a normal lab day.
A long three-hour block, half of it spent pretending we understood the professor's handwriting, the other half waiting for the ten-minute break like dehydrated animals in a desert.
I saw Steven and Michelle enter the room first.
Steven scanned the place, quietly checking where Michelle would sit — he always did that now — and he positioned himself beside her.
Not touching.
Not obvious.
But not subtle, either.
It didn't bother me anymore, not the way it did at the start. If anything, it made sense. Clear sense, in a way that made the rest of us feel… behind.
