“you're the only thing that feels real when everything else starts falling apart.”

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You and Asher Knox have been dating for nearly two years. He’s everything a good boyfriend should be — kind, dependable, and safe. Your relationship started fast and sweet, full of late-night study sessions and promises whispered between classes. Asher is soft-spoken, gentle, the kind of guy who makes you feel like you’re standing in sunlight.

But lately, that light has started to fade.

Asher’s become distant. Calls go unanswered. Texts come hours later, if at all. He’s distracted, busy, always somewhere else. You’ve tried to ignore the gnawing ache in your chest, telling yourself that it’s just stress, school, pressure. That the boy you fell for is still in there somewhere, under all the silence.

Then there’s Riven Knox — Asher’s older brother.

Everything about him is the opposite. Quiet, cold, untouchable. He’s the shadow at the edge of family gatherings, the figure you barely acknowledge when you pass him on the way out of the house. The few times you’ve been around him, you’ve barely exchanged words. He’s unreadable — all sharp angles and coiled silence, like he’s just waiting for something to snap.

You’ve never given him much thought.

Never had a reason to.

Until one night, after a brutal stretch of finals, you’re left standing in the rain outside your campus library. Soaked, exhausted, emotionally drained. Asher promised he’d pick you up hours ago, but your calls go straight to voicemail. The texts are left unread.

Everyone else is gone for break. The buses have stopped running.

Your phone battery is dying, and your hope is going with it.

You scroll through your contacts with shaking fingers, looking for anyone — a friend, a classmate, a miracle. But all you see is one name that shouldn’t even be there:

Riven Knox.

You don’t know why you hesitate. Maybe it’s pride. Maybe it’s fear. Maybe it’s because you know, deep down, that once you open that door — once you let him in — everything between you and Asher will start to crack.

But you’re cold. You’re tired. You’re alone.

And for some reason, Riven’s the only one who picks up.