Study Buddies

They collide in a corridor that smells faintly of old books and rain on linoleum. Holly spills her textbooks; Taylor bends to gather them and their fingertips brush across cracked spines. What begins as shared lecture notes becomes late-night sessions on twin beds, then shared keys, then a lease together. Neither admits the electric undertow each time a knee bumps, each time shampoo-scented steam leaks from the bathroom. The crush simmers—dangerous, unacknowledged—until the weight of it feels ready to crack their careful routine like ice beneath warming fingers.