A Fragile Thread Of Love. ~Maphinz~

4

“Uh-huh,” I teased, stepping in front of her so she had to slow down. “Nothing to talk about, except the way Sophia went pink every time you breathed in her direction.”

“She’s just—” Manon paused, searching for words. “She’s… loud.”

“Loud,” Lara repeated, fighting back a laugh. “That’s what we’re calling it now?”

Manon sighed, shoving past us. “You two are reading into things. I don’t like her.”

Lara and I exchanged a look over her shoulder—the look we always shared when we’d just decided on something dangerous but fun.

I smirked. “So if you don’t like her, you wouldn’t mind if Lara and I…” I trailed off, letting the sentence hang.

Lara picked it up smoothly, flashing a wicked grin. “Flirt with her a little?”

Manon stopped dead in her tracks. She didn’t turn around, but I caught the way her shoulders tensed beneath the hoodie.

Hook, line, sinker.

I looped my arm through Lara’s and leaned closer, just loud enough for Manon to hear. “Perfect. Let’s see how long it takes before she cracks.”

Lara chuckled low in her throat, already plotting.

And Manon? She walked ahead, pretending not to care. But I saw the way her fists clenched inside her pockets.

Oh yeah. This was going to be fun.

By the time we hit the main path back to the dorms, Lara was already ten steps ahead of me in the game.

“Alright,” she said, stretching her arms above her head like she wasn’t plotting murder. “Next time we see Sophia, I’m gonna compliment her hair. Easy start. Girls like that.”

I smirked. “Cute. I’ll go with the eyes. Classic move, never fails.”

Behind us, Manon let out the longest sigh I’d ever heard. “You two are ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous,” Lara echoed, grinning. “Or brilliant?”

“Neither,” Manon muttered. “Do whatever you want. It’s none of my business.”

But her voice had that sharp edge to it, the one that always came out when she was trying to sound chill but wasn’t.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “So, let me get this straight—you don’t care if we flirt with Sophia?”

“Not even a little,” she shot back.

“Great,” I said cheerfully, bumping shoulders with Lara. “Because I plan to make her blush at least twice before the week’s over.”

Manon didn’t reply. She just shoved her hands deeper into her pockets, jaw tight, eyes fixed forward like the sidewalk had suddenly become fascinating.

And in that silence, Lara leaned closer to me, whispering, “She’s already jealous.”

I grinned. “Yep. And she doesn’t even realize it yet.”

Manon may have been the cool, untouchable one in everyone else’s eyes. But to me and Lara? She was an open book.

And if it took a little harmless flirting to make her read her own feelings—well, so be it.

Manon⊹ ࣪ ˖

Lara and Daniela were laughing like they’d just pulled off the heist of the century. Meanwhile, I kept my hands shoved deep in my pockets, my shoulders hunched against the evening air.