"I'm fine," says Ardyn, smiling.
"You can skip class once," Prince urges.
"This the fifth time I've heard you say that," Ardyn shoulders his backpack, "this month."
"This is different, and you know it," Prince says. "You don't have to go."
"I do," Ardyn, softly.
It was the morning after the fight, not even 24 hours since Ardyn's confession and the unraveling events that followed: the sharp words, the tension that hung between Valen and Kahili like a dark cloud, Tristian. And then Ardyn's own feelings, raw and exposed, a swirling mix of anxiety and uncertainty.
Ardyn's professor won't care for a reenactment of the fight. Though it might be entertaining in its own tragic right, it would not grant him an extension for today's exam. Heartache falls far from the list of appropriate excuse
