Adrian's POV
The campus slept.
Except for her.
Third window from the left in the old art building still glowed—soft, golden, flickering like candlelight. Adrian knew that window better than the walls of his own apartment.
She always forgot to pull the blinds. Or maybe she simply didn't think she needed to.
She was wrong.
He watched. Every night.
From his car, tucked in the darkness across the street, Adrian leaned back against the leather seat and watched Ava move like a secret behind the glass—her fingers stained with charcoal, her braid messy, her body bending forward as if her spine curved just for the canvas.
She painted like it hurt.
And he couldn't look away.
Ava.
He'd learned her name by accident the first week of the semester.
Now, it lived in his chest like a song only he was allowed to hum.
She was a second-year. He was in his final year. She didn't know him. Not really. She probably wouldn't even notice if he passed her in the hallway. But he noticed everything.
She wore the same grey cardigan on Thursdays. She tucked her left foot behind her right when she was anxious. She mixed ultramarine into almost every painting—even when it didn't belong. As if she couldn't bear to create a world without a piece of the ocean in it.
He'd stolen the pencil she dropped in the quad last month.
He still had it.
Still smelled it.
Still touched the place where her fingers had pressed into the wood.
He wasn't ashamed of the obsession.
It was sacred.
Ava wasn't just beautiful. She was untouched. Unaware of how the world leaned toward her when she passed. How her laugh curled around people's throats like smoke. She had no idea what she did to him.
But she would.
Adrian shifted in his seat, jaw tight as he watched her paint. Crimson on the canvas tonight. Like blood. Like a warning. Like an invitation.
He didn't know what she was creating.
But he knew she'd be his masterpiece.
Soon, Ava would know he existed.
And once she saw him—really saw him—
She'd never look away again.
Not because she wanted to.
But because he wouldn't let her.
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