Still Falling UNDER THE LIBRARY
Ashley waved him toward the back stairs before homeroom. Liz was already halfway down, backpack thumping each step. The under-library room sat below the main floor—low ceiling, old bindings in the corners, air that tasted of paper and dust. Someone shelved a textbook two floors up; the sound died before it reached them.
Val dropped onto the spare crate they'd claimed as a second seat. Ashley studied his face before she sat.
"You still hearing the stairwell?" she asked.
"I'm fine."
Liz leaned against the wall. "Mina again?"
He exhaled. "Yeah, the same group basically."
"Mina's still on it," Ashley said.
"Ignore them." Liz kicked his shin lightly. "We've got you down here."
Ashley's grin came back—careful, like she was testing whether he could take it.
"Okay," she said. "If we're cheering you up—living the life. How is it? Dawn on the morning bus, Mei and Xian everywhere else—"
Liz picked it up. "Three girlfriends?"
Color climbed Val's throat. "No—that's not—"
"That's what it looks like from out there," Liz said, and there was envy in it, not poison.
Ashley laughed. Val barked one back that came out too thin.
Liz dropped her voice and leaned in anyway. "How far have you gone?"
"Around the school?"
"Don't." Wicked delight spread across her face. "Have you kissed!"
"No."
"Not once?"
"Not—" He swallowed. "It's not like that."
Ashley doubled over beside her. Val's ears burned. From where they sat the picture really did look that crowded—Dawn, the twins, every hallway between classes. He denied what he could and let the rest knot on his tongue.
"No," he said again, when Liz wouldn't let it go. "Not like that."
The teasing thinned into ordinary talk. Fraser's essay. Who had lab third period. Whether the week would ever end.
Val answered in shorter bursts than usual. Liz told a story about a teacher's wig slipping; he smiled at the right beat and missed the laugh that should have followed hers. Ashley glanced at him once, didn't ask again.
They climbed the stairs when the bell threatened. Ashley shouldered her bag. Liz walked beside him on the way out.
"Same corner Friday?" Ashley said.
"Yeah."
Val left with color still in his cheeks where Liz's questions had landed, shoulders a little looser than when he'd come down the stairs.