Page 29 of The Stuffing Situation

Like the first page of something sacred.

14

The Choice

They sat in silence when they were left alone. Blair’s living room was dimly lit, with just a few candles flickering on the mantle. Outside, the sounds faintly sank in; life was still going on, but inside, it felt like the world had paused. Maya was curled on the edge of the couch, knees drawn up, her hands balled into the sleeves of her oversized sweater. Across from her, Felix sat stiffly, shoulders too square, too still, like someone afraid to move in case it changed everything.

Between them sat a mug of cooling tea, yet neither of them touched it.

Ashar had been drawing containment runes in the air like it was no big deal, and Blair, shockingly, was quiet. She leaned against the kitchen counter, a half-full glass of red wine in her hand, eyes flicking between Felix’s bandaged hand and Maya’s face.

“Trust me,” she muttered, just loud enough for Maya to hear, “I didn’t summon Ashar because I was brave. I did it because I was tired of being disposable.”

Then she drained her wine like she hadn’t just gutted Maya’s entire nervous system. Maya didn’t answer because she couldn’t; her eyes drifted again to Felix’s bleeding hand.

The towel was gone now, replaced with gauze, but the stain of the blood still lingered. His fingers kept flexing, slow and uncertain, like he was adjusting to something new and not entirely welcome.

It wasn’t the blood itself that frightened her, although blood didnt make her the most comfortable. It was what it meant, that he wasn’t just changing, but he was becoming something she wasn’t sure she could name yet.

Later, after Blair disappeared into the kitchen and the air had cooled a little, Maya moved toward the sink, clutching her mug. Pretending to rinse it out, pretending anything was simple.

She didn’t hear him get up, but she felt his body behind her, close but not touching.

“You’re pulling away,” Felix said.

She didn’t turn.

“I’m trying to breathe.”

A pause.

“From me?”

She didn’t answer.

“You keep acting like I’m fragile,” he continued. “Like I’ll shatter if you stop pretending this is temporary.”

“That’s not, ” she began, but even the lie couldn’t finish forming.

Felix waited.

She stared into the sink like it held answers. “Because if it’s not, if this is real, then losing you will break me.” Her voicecracked on the last word. “And I don’t know if I come back from that.”

Felix stepped beside her, quiet but steady.

“Then break,” he said. “But don’t lie to both of us just because you’re scared of needing something that might actually stay.”

She turned toward him, sharp and breathless.

“Do you even know what it means to stay? Or are you just coded to want me until I break first?”

His eyes didn’t flinch.

“I didn’t choose to want you,” he said. “But I am choosing to fight for this.”

He looked at her, the weight of everything they hadn’t said hanging in the air. “Can you say the same?”

She wanted to, God, she wanted to, but she didn’t move, she didn’t speak, and Felix took a step back, not because he wanted to, but because he saw that she wasn’t ready.