Leif dreaded hearing the ring of the video call with his father meant to check in on them. He hated lying to his father, and Jamie had yet again asked him to do so. He should be out there protecting Jamie, but he was sitting in their dorm instead, pretending everything was normal. Everything felt far from normal right now. Leif tried to figure out what else he could have said to Yuri to make him understand they couldn’t be together as their fight replayed over and over in his mind. He’d hoped the pain of the rejection would be enough to make him forget about his desire to be around Yuri and more, but Yuri had refused to reject him. So instead, he lay awake staring at his ceiling, paralyzed by what could be and what never would. Jamie had left not long ago, and Erik would be calling any mom
