The school hallways feel different now, as if Damon's presence has somehow altered the very molecular structure of Ravenswood High. Lily navigates through clusters of chattering students with her books clutched tightly to her chest, trying to use them as a shield against the overwhelming memory of silver eyes and electric touches. Her heart still hammers against her ribs with a rhythm that feels foreign to her own body, and every step toward the library feels like swimming through honey—slow, deliberate, and strangely surreal
She needs sanctuary. The library has always been her refuge, the one place where she can disappear into books and let fictional worlds drown out the complexities of real life. But today, even the promise of quiet reading corners and familiar solitude feels inadequate against the chaos that one beautiful stranger has unleashed in her carefully ordered existence.
The memory of his touch haunts her fingertips, making her hyperaware of every surface she brushes against—door handles, locker surfaces, and the smooth banister of the main staircase. Nothing compares to the electric sensation of his skin against hers, that brief contact that somehow managed to rewrite her understanding of what physical attraction could feel like.
"Lily! Wait up!"
The familiar voice cuts through her internal reverie like a lifeline thrown to a drowning person. Lily turns to see Selena Vaughn hurrying down the hallway toward her, weaving between students with the practiced efficiency of someone who's spent four years mastering the art of high school navigation.
Selena is everything Lily isn't—bold where Lily is quiet, outgoing where Lily prefers solitude, and blessed with the kind of natural confidence that draws people like moths to flame. Her auburn hair bounces with each step, catching the fluorescent light in ways that make it seem to glow, and her hazel eyes spark with the intelligence and fierce loyalty that first drew them together as friends three years ago.
"There you are," Selena says breathlessly as she catches up, falling into step beside Lily with the easy familiarity of someone who knows her friend's routines by heart. "I saw you in the courtyard earlier and was going to come say hi, but you looked... occupied."
The word 'occupied' carries undertones that make Lily's cheeks flush with heat. She doesn't need to ask what Selena means—the knowing look in her best friend's eyes makes it clear that their encounter beneath the oak tree had been witnessed and cataloged with typical Selena thoroughness
"I was just reading," Lily says, attempting to inject normalcy into her voice while knowing the effort is futile. Selena has known her too long and too well to be fooled by casual deflection.
"Reading," Selena repeats with the kind of skeptical tone that suggests she's not buying that explanation for a second. "Is that what we're calling it when the most gorgeous guy in school materializes out of nowhere to stare at you like you're the answer to every prayer he's ever whispered?"
Heat floods Lily's face at the accurate description. She increases her pace slightly, hoping movement might help her outrun both Selena's perceptive questions and her own confused emotions. "You're being dramatic. He was just helping me pick up my books."
"Oh, honey." Selena's voice carries a mixture of affection and concern that makes Lily's stomach clench with sudden anxiety. "I watched the whole thing from the second-floor windows. That wasn't just helping with books. That was..." She pauses, searching for the right words. "That was something else entirely."
They've reached the library entrance, but instead of going inside, Selena catches Lily's arm and guides her to a small alcove beside the doors where they can talk without being overheard. The semi-private space smells of floor cleaner and the faint mustiness that accumulates in school corners, but it offers the privacy their conversation clearly needs.
"Who is he?" Selena asks directly, her protective instincts fully activated. She's never been one to dance around important topics, especially when she senses potential danger to the people she cares about.
"I don't know," Lily admits, her voice barely above a whisper. "He's new. I think i heard whispers of his name being Damon."
"Damon," Selena repeats thoughtfully, as if testing the name for hidden dangers. "And he just happened to show up exactly where you always sit, exactly when you're always there?"
The question makes Lily pause, a small frown creasing her forehead as she considers the timing for the first time. She's claimed that she had to spot beneath the oak tree every morning for three years, but today was the first time anyone had approached her there with such obvious intent. The coincidence feels less random when examined through Selena's suspicious lens.
"It could be coincidence," Lily says, though uncertainty creeps into her voice.
"Could be," Selena agrees, but her tone suggests she thinks coincidence is the least likely explanation. "Or it could be that boys who look like fallen angels usually have ulterior motives."
Lily's breath catches at the description. Fallen angel—it's so perfectly accurate it makes her chest tighten with recognition. There had been something otherworldly about Damon's beauty, something that transcended normal human attractiveness and veered into territory that seemed almost supernatural.
"You didn't see the way he looked at me," Lily says softly, her fingers unconsciously tracing the spot where his had touched hers. "It wasn't predatory or calculating. It was like... like he was seeing something wonderful for the first time."
Selena's expression softens slightly at the wistful tone in her friend's voice, but the worry doesn't leave her eyes. "Lil, guys who look like that—guys who move like they're floating, who make every other boy in school look like they're playing in the minor leagues—they don't just appear out of nowhere without complications following close behind."
"What do you mean?" Lily asks, though part of her doesn't want to hear the answer.
"I mean, boys like him usually come with baggage," Selena explains gently. "Ex-girlfriends who look like supermodels, family drama that makes soap operas seem subtle, or worse—they're players who know exactly how to make smart girls forget all their common sense."
The words hit Lily like small physical blows, each one chipping away at the magical quality of her encounter with Damon. She wants to argue, to defend the connection she felt, to insist that Selena doesn't understand what happened beneath the oak tree. But doubt begins to creep in around the edges of her certainty.
"You should have seen him, though," Lily says, her voice taking on a dreamy quality that makes Selena's protective instincts flare even brighter. "When he handed me my books, our fingers touched, and it was like... like electricity. Like everything I've been waiting for without knowing I was waiting."
"Oh, honey," Selena says again, this time with genuine sympathy. "That's exactly what I'm worried about."
She moves closer, placing gentle hands on Lily's shoulders in the way she's done countless times over their friendship—during breakups with boys who weren't worth tears, during family arguments that left wounds, during moments when life felt too overwhelming to navigate alone.
"Listen to me," Selena says seriously, her hazel eyes holding Lily's green ones with unwavering intensity. "I love that you see the best in people. I love that you believe in fairy tales and epic romances and love that conquers all. But boys like him—beautiful, mysterious, too-good-to-be-true boys—they only bring trouble."
"How can you say that?" Lily protests, though her voice lacks conviction. "You don't even know him."
"I don't need to know him," Selena replies with the fierce protectiveness that has made her such a loyal friend. "I know you. I know how your heart works and how's completely give yourself when you care about someone. And I can see that this guy—this Damon—has already gotten under your skin in ways that scare me."
Lily opens her mouth to deny it, but the words won't come. Because Selena is right. In the space of one brief encounter, Damon has managed to upend everything she thought she knew about herself and what she wanted from life.
"Just promise me you'll be careful," Selena continues, her voice softening with genuine concern. "Promise me you won't let those silver eyes and that perfect smile make you forget that some things that seem too good to be true usually are."
As Lily looks into her best friend's worried face, feeling the weight of well-intentioned caution settling on her shoulders like a heavy blanket, she realizes that Selena's warnings might already be too late.
Because no matter how much sense they make, she can't shake the memory of Damon's gentle touch and the way his presence made her feel more alive than she'd ever felt before.