Lily cradled the final cardboard box with trembling arms as the autumn sun slipped through the tall dorm room windows. Freshman year, a new beginning—yet in her gut churned the familiar cocktail of anxiety and anticipation. She had grown up a bookworm in a small town, always under the gentle safety of routine, and now she was thrown into this bustling university life, this labyrinth of new faces and expectations. Just as...

I never imagined it would happen like that—on a night where everything felt too charged, too heavy with unspoken tension. Jeff had always looked at me like he knew something I didn’t. Like he could see through me—past the soft words, the polite laughs, straight into that hidden place where want lived. We were alone in his apartment. A thunderstorm tapped against the windows, low rumbles echoing through the room. He stood...