the inescapable echo

                                    

                                          
I picked at the edges of my toast, the crispy corners breaking off in crumbles, my focus slipping from the light chatter around me. Avery was talking to one of our friends, Kai - no, more like dramatically reenacting last night's party events with exaggerated hand gestures. Her energy, usually infectious, seemed a bit distant today as if I was on the other side of a glass wall, watching everything from a removed, muffled world.
"...and then Draco just stepped in, like some kind of dark prince out of nowhere," Avery was saying, her eyes gleaming with the thrill of recounting it all. She snapped her fingers for emphasis, drawing a laugh from Kai. "He completely shut Williams down. Like, 'this is right here is my territory' or something."
Kai, grinning, glanced at me. “Pretty sure Y/N could’ve handled him on her own, though. Right, Cat?”
I forced a smile, nodding absently. "Yeah, totally."
But in truth, my mind was elsewhere. The smell of fresh fruit and pastries filled the Great Hall, yet all I could think about was the way Mattheo had looked at me in my dream - how real his hands had felt tracing my skin. I swallowed hard, feeling the phantom sensation of his fingers trailing over my thigh. My breath caught in my throat as my imagination got the better of me. I could almost feel the warmth of his body pressing against mine again, his breath hot against my ear.
Stop it. I pushed the thought away, feeling my cheeks flush with embarrassment. It was just a dream, I told myself. Just a stupid, twisted dream. And yet, here I was, unable to shake the feeling that something had changed, that something was lingering just beneath the surface, waiting to rise again.
Avery snapped me out of my thoughts, her fingers snapping in front of my face. "Hello? Earth to Catalina. You’re spacing out on us."
I blinked, trying to refocus. "Sorry, what?"
"I was saying that Draco stepping in like that was pretty bold, don’t you think? Not that he isn’t always arrogant as hell, but still..." Avery trailed off, her eyebrows raising as she observed my distant expression.
I forced another smile. "Yeah, it was definitely... something."
Kai laughed lightly, oblivious to my inner turmoil. "They really did have their eyes on you, though. All of them. You’ve always drawn attention, but I didn’t think it would be from the slytherin elite."
That comment hit harder than it should have. I could feel my pulse quicken, a knot forming in my stomach. Had they really noticed me? Or was it just my own delusions? Kai’s words mixed with the memory of the dream, feeding the paranoia that had been simmering all morning.
I glanced over toward the slytherin table, trying to keep my gaze casual, but my stomach twisted with a mix of dread and anticipation. They were all there, of course - Draco, Mattheo, Blaise, Theodore, Tom, Lorenzo and a few others whose faces were blurs of sharp features and smirks.
For a second, just a flicker of a moment, Theodore Nott’s eyes met mine across the hall. My heart stuttered. His gaze was unreadable, but there was something in it - something that made my throat tighten. It was over as quickly as it had begun, Theo looking away as if nothing had happened at all. Yet, the brief encounter left me shaken. Had he seen me staring? Or was I just imagining things? Did they somehow know what had been plaguing my dreams?
My paranoia tightened its grip on me, my thoughts spiraling despite my efforts to stay grounded in reality. Theodore’s fleeting glance - innocent or not - seemed to add fuel to the fire, making the lines between dream and reality blur even further.
“You okay?” Avery nudged me with her elbow, pulling me back to the present.
I cleared my throat, forcing a light laugh. "Yeah, just... distracted, I guess. Lack of sleep."