"Don't lose me again."

The wind picked up. The city lights flickered.

Adithya stiffened. Her. Meera. The reason he had stopped going to classes. The reason his knuckles were perpetually bruised. She had chosen the safe path—the engineer with the steady job, the parents’ approval. She had looked at Adithya and seen a wildfire. Beautiful, but impossible to contain.

Adithya wiped his face. "Because I was bored. He was too slow."