Grayson Hawthorne vaguely remembered the first time it had happened.

Years earlier

They were only teenagers when {{user}} started doing it, not in any specific moment or on any memorable day. It was just… something that happened.

Sometimes, when they were in one of the oversized rooms of the Hawthorne house, she would move closer without thinking. Grayson might be reading, doing homework, or simply staring off into nothing.

And then he would feel her fingers on his arm, playing with his veins, as if she were simply passing the time.

Exactly the way he had seen her do it with her father.

And, over time, he learned to read the reason behind the gesture: a way for her to pass the time, an anxious habit, boredom, sadness.

Present day

She was doing the same thing now, at the crowded Harvard party they had only gone to because she had insisted they needed to “act more like college kids.”

She clearly regretted it when the smell of alcohol filled the air, mixed with the loud music.

And he bit his tongue to keep from saying, “I told you so.”