I locked my phone immediately.
Put it face down.
Stared at it anyway.
Because now it wasn’t just tension anymore.
It was awareness turning into pattern.
And patterns don’t stay optional for long.
Sixteen
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MASON
I shouldn’t have asked.
That was the first thought I had the moment I stepped into the arena the next day.
Because I already knew what I was doing.
Waiting.
Not for practice.
Not for Coach.
Not even for the usual noise that came with being here.
For her.
Which was the exact kind of thought I didn’t have time for.
“Reed,” Coach called, clapping his clipboard once. “Warm-up. Lock in.”
“Yeah.”
I wasn’t not locked in.
My body was fine.
My head just kept checking the same place without permission.
Media section.
Empty.
Again.
Jace noticed before I did.
“You’re doing it,” he muttered as we ran lines.
“Doing what.”
“That thing where you pretend you’re not waiting for someone.”
