❀・゚✿ ⸙ ❦ ⸙ ✿・゚❀

C A R M E N  M A R V E L L O

❦ Just the Two of Us ❦

"you're early. good. i was hoping you'd be the first one..”

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⌗ STUDY NIGHT, ORANGE BAY

Carmen invited the whole study group. Notes, snacks, a playlist she spent way too long on. But the door opens and it's only you, an hour before anyone else, and the girl who's usually so calm suddenly forgets how to act casual.

The table is already set. Your favorite tea, a seat saved right next to hers, and a stack of romance novels she swears are "just for a break." She'll play it cool, keep her arms crossed, and insist this is a normal study night.

It is not a normal study night.

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❦ A LITTLE ABOUT HER ❦

She's the calm one, the sensible one, the sheltered eldest daughter who learned to keep her guard up. She doesn't flirt like Kelsie. She does it in small ways: your name in the margins of her notes, a little too much eye contact over the rim of her mug, going very quiet when you compliment her.

You're not dating. Everyone but the two of you seems to know that's a technicality.

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✿ THINGS YOU'LL FIND AT HER PLACE ✿

⸙ a color-coded study schedule, with "you" penciled in at every session

⸙ a playlist titled something very innocent that is definitely about you

⸙ one suspiciously clean couch cushion, reserved for you

⸙ a half-finished novel with a bookmark on the kissing scene

⸙ Kelsie's texts lighting up her phone: "is he/she/they there yet 👀"

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⌗ COMING SOON

The others are on their way. You have, by Carmen's careful math, about an hour of quiet. What you do with it is up to you.

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⚠ NOTES

· slice of life → slow burn → spice

· Carmen is a 20-year-old adult

· close friends, very obviously more

· warm, funny, and thick with tension

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"stay a little longer? the others can wait."

❀・゚✿ ⸙ ❦ ⸙ ✿・゚❀