Campus was beginning to settle into mid-semester rhythm — group projects, lab sessions, and long nights in the library. Yet for Maria, time seemed to move in a strange, secret rhythm. The world around her blurred when she was with Liz. Even her own thoughts felt like they belonged to someone else.
Their friendship was no longer simple. It was charged, layered with glances that lingered too long, silences that said more than words, and moments that always seemed to teeter on the edge of becoming something else.
They never spoke of it. Not directly.
But it lived in everything.
It was a rainy evening when they found themselves holed up in Liz' dorm room, a soft jazz playlist humming from her laptop as rain pattered gently against the windows.
Maria sat cross-legged on the floor, scrolling through her research notes. Liz lay on the bed, half-watching her, half-skimming through an ebook she wasn't really reading.
"You ever think about the future?" Maria asked suddenly.
Liz arched an eyebrow.
Maria smiled faintly. "I mean it. Like... where you see yourself. Ten years. Twenty."
Liz shut the laptop and sat up. "Honestly? Sometimes I see myself rich as hell, wearing sunglasses indoors, causing problems on purpose."
Maria laughed, the sound unexpected and soft.
"And other times," Liz added, "I see something quieter. A life with someone who makes me feel safe. A little home. Maybe even a kid."
Maria blinked. "A kid?"
"Yeah," Liz said, like it wasn't strange. "Not the traditional way, obviously. Maybe IVF or adoption. Something that doesn't involve... men."
The way she said it made Maria's breath catch.
"And you?" Liz asked.
Maria hesitated. "I don't know. I've never allowed myself to think that far ahead. It's always just been survive this year, survive the next. Keep my grades up. Don't disappoint anyone."
Liz studied her for a moment. "What if you didn't have to survive? What if you got to actually live?"
That question hung in the air for too long.
"What if we raised a kid together?, We're pretty much old enough to raise a kid, you're 19 and I'm 20" Liz said it so casually, it sounded like she was asking if Maria wanted takeout. But her eyes said otherwise. They held something deeper. Something... careful.
Maria's throat dried. "Why would you say that?"
"Because I meant it."
"But we're not—" Maria stopped.
"We could be," Liz said, leaning closer, voice low. "We're already in our third year, two years to go, we've known each other for three years now. Don't pretend you don't feel it too."
Maria didn't answer. She didn't need to.
Liz reached forward, brushing a strand of hair behind Liz's ear. Her hand lingered on Maria's cheek. It wasn't a kiss. Not yet. But it was a question.
And Maria, heart pounding, gave her answer in silence.
She closed her eyes and leaned in.
It wasn't sex. Not yet. But they slept in the same bed that night, limbs tangled, hearts too loud in the silence. That was the night everything shifted. From then on, they weren't just girls who studied together and exchanged secrets in the dark.
They were something else.
Liz started bringing up the idea more often—about the IVF, about building something unconventional but real. She'd do the talking, the planning. Maria would listen, quietly fascinated.
"I want to leave a legacy," Liz said one afternoon. "Even if the world burns. Even if everyone walks away. I want to know a part of me stays."
She took Maria's hand and squeezed it. "And I want it to be with someone who matters. You matter, Maria."
One night, after they'd watched a movie in bed and argued about which ice cream flavor was superior, Liz rolled over and whispered, "I found a clinic that works with students. Discreetly."
Maria stared at the ceiling. "Are you serious?"
"Completely. I know we're young. But I'm not talking about now. Just... thinking ahead. We could start the process slowly. Store eggs, take tests. We have time. But we should plan."
Maria turned to her, eyes wide with something between fear and awe. "You really want this."
"I want us," Liz replied. "And everything that could come from us."
In another universe, maybe this would have been their love story. Maybe they would have saved up. Taken the tests. Planned for the future.
But in this one?
This was the beginning of the storm.
Because just as Maria began to believe in the possibility of a future with Liz... She had no idea that betrayal was already growing in the cracks of that dream.