In Between Codes

Chapter 3

He took her hand, gently, like she was something fragile.

"We stayed because if everyone runs when the hate shows up, then the hate wins. And the world becomes colder. Smaller. Meaner. You don't fight that by hiding. You fight that by standing next to the people who are brave enough to say, 'This is who I am.'"

Alison didn't know what to say. So she said nothing. But she never forgot.

Back to the present moment, Alison reached for her phone and opened her photo album. One picture in particular.

It was her and Tomy — back when they were both toddlers. They'd gotten into her mom's makeup drawer and decided to "make each other pretty." It was chaos. Lipstick smudged to their ears, blush like war paint, mascara on their shirts. They looked ridiculous.

But Tomy?

Tomy looked happy.

Happier than Alison could remember ever seeing.

Alison stared at that picture for a long time. Then closed her phone. "Am I I wrong to do what I did? Am I meddling in something that isn't mine?"

She didn't know. Maybe she had acted too soon. Maybe she should've waited for Tomy to say it first. But it was too late now. The only thing left to do was hope — that Tomy wouldn't be mad, and that one day, maybe not long from now, she'd see that same joy on Tomy's face again.

****

Tomy slumped into his room and let the door click shut behind him. The weekend had left him completely drained — not in a bad way, just... full. Full of emotions and moments he couldn't quite figure out.

He was happy, of course. Spending time with Alison had been the most fun he'd had since she left. Their dancing video was a hit — people were commenting, remixing, even tagging it in reaction videos. Saturday had been perfect, filled with laughter and nice conversations and  jokes.

But then came the Sunday afternoon version of Alison. Quiet. Distant. Lost in her phone. Barely reacting when he tried to talk.

And just when he thought he'd done something wrong, she'd smiled again at him. Said goodbye warmly, even folded his laundry without being asked.

What was that?
Happy. Cold. Then warm again.
It was like emotional whiplash.

Too much to figure out tonight.

So he sat down beside the neat stack of folded clothes Alison had left on his bed, pulled his gaming headset on, and launched into his favorite multiplayer game.

"Yo! Thomas' here!"

"'Bout time, bro — we were waiting on the raid!"

As soon as he loaded in, the team was already laughing and talking over one another, excited to have him join. With Samantha feeding him tactical reads, cooldown timings, and enemy positions, Tomy was extremely good.

They blitzed through boss fights and completed an elite-tier raid in record time.

"Bro, was that you in that dancing video?" one teammate asked between matches, clearly grinning through his mic.

"Oh noooo, we're doing this now?" Tomy groaned, playing along.

"Dude had moves," another chimed in. "I didn't know you had an influencer alter ego!"

"You were like—" someone added, launching into a bad impression of his dance. "Left spin, jazz hands, dolphin dive, boom!"

Tomy rolled his eyes, then Samantha came in support.