Chapter 5: Kindred Hearts

Emily 👩🏻

I expected bunking with a cheerleader to be a sitcom disaster—awkward silences, her commandeering my desk for makeup tutorials. But Sarah fit into my life like a missing semicolon, her sharp wit and easy laugh syncing with my weirdness as if we’d been friends forever. She wasn’t just the polished head cheerleader; she was a sci-fi nerd with a heart as big as her grin, and somehow, she became my second real friend after Jake. I saw it in her eyes. A rare softness behind her guarded exterior. A trust that felt like a gift.

Our apartment, nestled in a gated complex that kept Vance’s creepy truck at bay, was a cozy mess: plush couches, a coffee table buried under takeout menus, and a kitchen scented with my coffee or Jake’s infamous toast-burning attempts. My room was my sanctuary. A cluttered desk piled with coding books, a wide window spilling soft streetlight, and a twin bed we shared after the air mattress squeaked like a horror movie prop.

“No way we’re wrestling that thing all night,” Sarah had teased, her eyes sparkling. “The bed’s fine, right?”

“It’s just friendly vibes,” I’d replied. My heart was tripping at the thought of her being so close.

By the third night, we were tangled under the quilt together. Her leg brushing mine and her breath soft against my shoulder. My skin tingled, hyper-aware of her warmth, but I dismissed it as sleepover vibes. Jake had mentioned Sarah’s interest in girls, and I’d noticed her gaze lingering. Soft and searching, a beat too long for platonic. Yet she kept things chill. Her touches were friendly while she maintained a careful boundary that felt like a coded message. That restraint stirred a quiet curiosity in me. Her unspoken attraction was a warm variable I couldn’t quite debug.

During that first week, we found a rhythm. After classes, we’d sprawl on the bed, my laptop’s glow illuminating her sci-fi paperbacks. Her collection rivaled my own dog-eared treasures. We skipped shallow party chatter. Instead we bonded over Star Wars droid debates and fantasy plot holes, laughing until our sides ached. Sarah understood my coding obsession in a way Jake, bless his lazy-coder soul, never did. He’d toss out GitHub fixes and zone out, but Sarah leaned in. Her hair brushed my arm as she pitched ideas that sparked.

“Loop the chess notation for the knight’s path,” she suggested one night. Her breath tickled my ear as she peered over my shoulder. Her fingers brushed mine as we wrestled for control of the laptop. Her laugh was close enough to feel. Her eyes held mine a moment too long, and my stomach flipped. ‘Was she flirting?’

“That’s brilliant,” I said, grinning as I tweaked her fix to boost the knight’s accuracy. “You’re hired.”

“Only if you stop hogging the quilt, nerd,” she teased while nudging me. Her idea and my execution. We were a perfect pair.

But Jake was acting off. He’d poke his head into my room and see us cackling over a Blade Runner meme. Then he’d get a pinched look, like he’d crashed a party uninvited. I thought he was giving us space, but it felt wrong. ‘Is he missing me?’

He used to sneak me coffee during all-nighters, his grin making my heart race. Now he was quiet, like I’d lost the kid who punched bullies for me in middle school. Did I push him away? Guilt gnawed at me, a bug I couldn’t squash.

On Tuesday night, Jake appeared with a pizza box, his smile hopeful but shaky. “You two hungry?” he asked.

“Hell yeah!” Sarah chirped, shifting away from me on the bed. She was subtly recalibrating her orbit.

We piled onto the couch, Jake waiting for us to grab slices before taking his own. Ever the knight. “Let’s work on the game,” he suggested. “I found some board layout code. It just needs a loop to sync the moves.”

“No need,” I said, waving a pizza slice. “Sarah caught a knight glitch and fixed it with notation. I optimized it. We’re almost done.”

His smile faltered, his eyes flicking to Sarah. “Cool,” he mumbled, shredding the edge of the pizza box. ‘What’s wrong, Jake?’ He tried joining our Blade Runner banter, but his joke fell flat, and we steamrolled on. His shoulders slumped, and he slipped out, muttering about assignments. ‘Jake and homework?’ His footsteps dragged down the hall, heavy, like he was hurt. My chest tightened. Is he upset with me? Sarah? Both?

Sarah reached for the remote, her hand brushing mine. A fleeting touch, she quickly pulled back. My skin tingled, and I cursed my brain for noticing. I wanted to chase Jake, but her laugh pulled me back. ‘I’ll fix it later.’