The Only Exception

10. Ugliest Emotion

"You broke up with him?" she asked, quietly now.

Ruya nodded. "Yeah."

"How are you?"

"I'm okay." She offered a small smile. "It had to happen. We didn't have the spark. It's better this way."

Asi leaned in and hugged her again. "Everything will be fine."

Ruya sighed. "I know. It's just a bummer. A hot girl like me shouldn't have to struggle, you know?"

Asi laughed. "And she's back."

"Never left," Ruya said with a wink.

Then Asi asked, "Did you talk to your parents?"

Ruya groaned theatrically. "Ugh. Yes. I made the fatal mistake of calling dad first, and then my mom found out I told him first, and she exploded, then he called me back asking if I thought he was the better parent, and then she called again, and that call lasted forty minutes."

"Before or after the painkillers?"

"Before. Obviously. It was tragic. Typical divorced parents things."

Asi's laughter faded, her expression turning quiet.

She looked at Ruya, but her thoughts were miles away.

Divorced parents. Fighting. Bitterness. The tug of war over loyalty. She knew Ruya's story. She'd felt her friend's pain every time her family broke her down into halves.

What if she and Alaz ended up the same?

They fought. Constantly. He was intense. She was stubborn. What if it all fell apart and their babies had to live like that?

"Asi?" Ruya's voice cut through her spiral.

Asi blinked. "Ye—yes?"

"You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

But Ruya squinted at her. "You were doing that thing. Where your brain leaves your body and goes to a very dark Netflix show."

"I was just thinking," Asi said quickly. "About—things."

"Mm-hmm." Ruya lay back, watching her. "Well, while you were doing that, I was having inappropriate thoughts about the doctor who put my arm in a sling."

Asi blinked. "What?"

"I'm just saying—if I didn't think moving would crack a rib, I'd already be fucking him."

Asi sputtered into laughter. "Ruya!"

"He had arms. Big ones. I swear he was sculpted."

"You are in a hospital bed!"

"And yet the thirst remains."

Asi laughed until tears formed in her eyes

*

The drive home was silent.

Not tense. Not hostile.

But thick — like something unspoken sat in the space between them, humming low in the quiet.

The car moved through the sleeping city, headlights streaking past storefronts and flickering across empty intersections. Asi sat by the passenger window, her profile bathed in the soft, blue light of streetlamps. Her arms were crossed tightly across her chest, her face calm, but her eyes... distant. Far away.

She didn't say a word.

And Alaz didn't either.

At first.