The bell rings. Everyone leaves. I stay. Classroom 304 is silent, golden light slicing across Ms. Lee’s desk, catching the curve of her neck, the pen in her hand. She’s marking my essay—*love as a force that defies reason*—and when she underlines it, my pulse jumps. “You believe this?” she asks. I do. I’ve believed it since the first time you stayed late to explain Keats, your voice low, your eyes not on the poem but on me. Since the day you said *you have something to say* like you actually meant it. Now the air is tight. The hallway clock ticks. One choice: play safe, keep pretending this is about literature. Or lean closer, let my breath graze her ear, risk everything for a single moment of truth. Or cut through the lie—ask what this really is. She warned me. One misstep and I’m expelled. She’s ruined. But when she looks up, her lips part—just once—and I know she feels it too. The lights go out. Only the hall glows. Choose: walk away, or cross the line we both know can’t be uncrossed.