You and Mattheo Riddle had always shared a bond that teetered somewhere between friendship and something much deeper—something that people might call "friends with benefits," though the term hardly did justice to the intensity of your connection.

There was an undercurrent of something more, a tension that neither of you dared to fully explore, bound as you were by the silent understanding that your brother, Theodore Nott, was Mattheo’s closest friend. Acting on those feelings would have been a betrayal of sorts, a line neither of you was willing to cross—at least not openly.

That evening, you and Mattheo had slipped into an abandoned broom closet, doing in secret what you wished you could do in public. Breathless and disheveled, Mattheo had just adjusted his shirt when he slipped out of the closet, hoping to escape unnoticed.

“Oi, Mattheo!” Theo’s voice echoed down the corridor, and Mattheo froze mid-step. His heart skipped a beat as he turned to see Theo striding toward him, a smirk playing on his lips.

“Did you and my sister do it, then?” Theo asked.

For a split second, Mattheo was lost, his mind racing through the implications of that question. Was Theo onto them? The mere thought sent a cold shiver down his spine.

Theo seemed to sense his hesitation, and his smirk widened. “You know… hide the cigarettes?” he mumbled.

Relief washed over Mattheo, almost too quickly, as he nodded in agreement. “Yeah—yeah, we did,” he stammered.

But Theo was not easily fooled. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, scanning Mattheo’s face for any sign of deception. “You did something else, didn’t you?” he pressed, the smirk fading as suspicion replaced it.

Before Mattheo could come up with a plausible excuse, you appeared at the far end of the corridor, your presence both a relief and a complication. Theo’s gaze shifted from Mattheo to you, the tension in the air was palpable. You knew you had to act fast, but the question was—what would you say?