Chapter 6
I picked up my phone and opened my chat with Samuel.
His last message was from that afternoon: [Get some rest tonight. Tomorrow's gonna be tougher. If it gets to be too much, tell the leader. Don't try to power through it.]
I stared at the screen for a long time before finally typing a message and hitting send. [Thanks for today.]
His reply came almost instantly. [Still up?]
[Can't sleep.]
Samuel: [You feeling okay?]
[Yeah. I just wanted to say thanks.]
A few seconds passed before his reply came through. [Leah, you never have to thank me. Anything I do for you, I do because I want to.]
I pressed my phone against my chest and stared at the ceiling. My heart was beating a little too fast.
It was nothing like the way it used to race when I had feelings for Lucas.
Back then, my heartbeat was panicked and erratic, stripped of any sense of safety. It felt like walking a tightrope over a cliff, where one wrong step could send me falling.
But with Samuel, the feeling was steady and grounding, like a warm hand holding me up and never letting go.
The day freshman orientation ended, the school held a welcome party for the incoming class.
Samuel took the stage as the freshman representative.
He wore a crisp white button-down, standing tall under the spotlight with sharp features and an easy confidence.
Girls in the audience screamed, one after another.
He spoke into the microphone. "Hey, everyone. I'm Samuel Knight, from the Computer Science department."
His voice was clear and deep, carrying a slight edge of cool detachment. He delivered his entire speech with precision, every word deliberate, not a single one wasted.
Then, at the very end, he paused. "Before I go, I want to take this chance to say something to someone."
The auditorium fell silent.
I sat in the middle of the crowd, and my heart skipped a beat.
Samuel's gaze cut through the sea of faces and landed directly on me.
He said my name. "Leah." Then he smiled. "Meeting you is the luckiest thing that's happened to me in eighteen years."
The entire auditorium erupted. Screams and cheers rolled through the crowd like a wave. Every single person followed his gaze, and hundreds of eyes landed on me all at once.
I froze in my seat, my face burning.
My roommate grabbed my arm and shook it. "Oh my God, oh my God! Leah! He's confessing to you! On stage!"
My mind went completely blank. All I could see was the boy on that stage, smiling at me softly through the crowd. It was a quiet, gentle smile, but it outshone every spotlight in the room.
After the party ended, my roommates practically shoved me out of the auditorium.
Samuel stood under the oak tree by the entrance, the wind catching the edge of his white shirt. Somehow, he had gotten his hands on a bouquet of baby's breath.
He saw me come out and walked over.
The crowd parted on its own.
He stopped in front of me and held out the flowers.
His voice was tight when he spoke. "I didn't know what kind of flowers you liked, so I got these." He paused. "Baby's breath means—"
I took the bouquet and looked at the tiny white blossoms. "Content to be in the background," I said softly.
He nodded. "But I don't want to stay in the background anymore." His eyes held mine. "Leah, I want to be the lead in your story. Will you let me?"
The crowd around us had gone wild. Some held up their phones to record, and others chanted, "Say yes! Say yes!"
But I couldn't hear any of it. All I heard was my own heartbeat, steady and growing louder with each pulse.
I looked into his eyes. They were always so cool and composed, but now they brimmed with cautious hope and a nervousness he couldn't quite hide.
He looked exactly the way he had the night of the graduation party, standing in front of me, asking if I'd be his girlfriend.
Back then, I'd been numb. I said yes only because I needed an escape from the wreckage Lucas had left behind.
But this time was different.
Over the past month, Samuel had shown up outside my dorm every morning without fail, a coffee and a breakfast sandwich in hand.
He'd memorized my entire class schedule, and every time I walked out of a lecture, he was already waiting by the door.
He sat with me through long hours at the library and walked me through calculus problems I couldn't make sense of on my own.
On the nights I jolted awake from nightmares, he answered my texts within seconds and stayed up talking with me until dawn.
He never once asked if I was over Lucas, and he never pushed me about when I'd finally let him in.
He just stayed, quiet and steady, like a shelter I never had to ask for. He waited for me to find my way out on my own, and to finally see him for who he really was.
I looked at Samuel, and my eyes stung with sudden tears.
"Yes," I said. My voice was quiet, but it carried.
Samuel froze for a second.
Then those usually cool, composed eyes blazed with something I'd never seen before.
He smiled. Not the polite, restrained smile he usually wore, but a real one, wide and unguarded and boyish in a way that made him look years younger.
He stepped forward and pulled me into his arms. His hold was gentle and careful, as if I were something precious that might break.
His chin rested on the top of my head, and when he spoke, his voice was warm, threaded with laughter and the faintest tremor. "Thank you, Leah. Thank you for giving me a chance."
I leaned into his chest and breathed in the clean scent of soap on his skin.
The tears came before I could stop them. They weren't from sadness. They came from somewhere deeper, from the ache of finally being held as I mattered after so long of believing I didn't.
So this was what it felt like to be cherished.
It had nothing to do with chasing someone who kept walking away, or tiptoeing around his moods, or handing over everything I had to watch him crush it underfoot.
Samuel crossed through the crowd to reach me. He remembered every small detail about me and looked after every quiet shift in my mood.
And he stood under the spotlight, in front of everyone, and told me that meeting me was the luckiest thing that had ever happened to him.