Chapter 97: The Boy Who Said No

Monday morning, Roxanne arrived at breakfast to find Liam unusually quiet, which was strange enough that Jace kept waving a hand in front of his face to check whether he’d fallen ill overnight. Liam swatted him away without much energy. "I’m thinking," he said. Jace looked genuinely alarmed. "Should we call someone?" he asked.

Roxanne laughed and sat down across from them. Liam tried to pick his usual teasing back up, but his attention kept drifting toward a notice pinned to the academy’s main bulletin board near the cafeteria doors.

The notice announced that the academy was looking for student volunteers to represent Moonstone Academy at an upcoming inter-academy cultural exchange. It wasn’t a competition or a training exercise, only an ordinary exchange where selected students would visit another school, attend classes there, and join in whatever activities the host students had planned.

Everyone had simply assumed Liam would volunteer, since he was sociable, charming, and comfortable around strangers in a way most students weren’t. Instead, his name was conspicuously absent from the growing sign-up list. Roxanne asked him why. "Didn’t feel like it," he said. "You never turn down an opportunity to talk to strangers," she said. "Maybe I’ve finally developed standards," he said, and before she could press him further, he’d already steered the conversation somewhere else entirely.

Throughout the day, students kept approaching Liam to ask why he hadn’t signed up. Some assumed he was joking, while others guessed he was simply waiting for the academy to offer him some special position instead. One boy remarked, within easy earshot, that Liam was wasting an obvious opportunity. Liam laughed it off in front of everyone, making a joke about being far too handsome to travel, but Roxanne noticed his smile vanish the instant the other student walked away.

She didn’t confront him in front of the group. Instead, later, she asked quietly whether he was actually upset. "I’m not upset," he said. "You’ve made that face three times today," she said. "What face?" he asked. "The one where you’re pretending something doesn’t bother you," she said. Liam gave her a sideways look. "Careful, Silver," he said. "You’re getting good at noticing things." She told him, simply, that if he didn’t want to talk about it, she wouldn’t push him to. For once, he didn’t answer with a joke at all.

She found him alone later that afternoon in an empty classroom, staring down at the cultural exchange information sheet spread across a desk. He admitted he’d considered applying, but the program’s schedule would have kept him away from the academy for several weeks straight. He didn’t want to go, and not because he was afraid of missing out on something, but because everyone around him had already decided for themselves that he should want it.

Lucien thought it would be good for his public image, Serena assumed he’d enjoy meeting new people, and Jace was already convinced Liam would turn the whole trip into some legendary story worth retelling for years. Liam knew they all meant well, but he was tired, he admitted, of being the person everyone expected to entertain a room on command. "I like people," he said. "I like making them laugh. That doesn’t mean I want every decision I make to become another performance."

Roxanne listened without rushing to cheer him up or talk him out of the feeling. She asked whether he was worried his brothers would think he was wasting his potential. "Maybe," he admitted. "Then tell them what you just told me," she said. "And if they disagree?" he asked. "You can disagree back," she said. Liam looked at her for a long moment. "You make that sound easy," he said. "It isn’t," she said. "But it’s still allowed."

That afternoon, Liam went to speak with Lucien and Serena directly, and Roxanne didn’t accompany him or try to intervene on his behalf, since the decision belonged entirely to him. She heard the details later from Jace, that Liam had explained himself honestly, that Lucien had questioned him at first but eventually accepted the exchange was genuinely optional, and that Serena had admitted she’d simply assumed he would enjoy it without ever actually asking him.

Liam didn’t volunteer for the exchange in the end. Instead, he signed up to help run the academy’s student radio hour, a small extracurricular activity he’d apparently wanted to try for a long time but never quite admitted to anyone.

When Roxanne spotted his name posted on the radio schedule, she raised an eyebrow at him across the common room. "Student radio?" she asked. "Try to contain your excitement," he said. "You’re going to talk into a microphone for an hour?" she asked. "It’s a natural gift," he said. "Will anyone else get a word in?" she asked. Liam grinned. "That’s what the mute button is for," he said. The choice was small, but it was entirely his own, and that seemed to matter more to him than anything else about it.

Roxanne happened to be passing the student radio room during his first afternoon broadcast, and she slowed to listen as he began smoothly announcing the day’s events.

Partway through, he accidentally read a club meeting time incorrectly, and someone in the room corrected him, loud enough to pick up on the microphone. He started laughing instead of hiding it, admitting the mistake on air and correcting the announcement himself. Students listening from the cafeteria laughed with him rather than at him, and Roxanne found herself smiling in the corridor outside, listening as he moved on to music requests and ordinary school news without missing another beat.

When the broadcast ended, Liam found her still waiting in the corridor. "You heard that," he said. "Unfortunately," she said. "I was brilliant," he said. "You told the entire academy the debate club meets at midnight," she said. "They might have enjoyed the mystery," he said, and she laughed, and he laughed along with her.

Then he admitted, more quietly than before, that he’d enjoyed the broadcast more than he expected to. "Because nobody told you what you were supposed to be?" Roxanne asked. "Because I got to decide what I wanted to do," he said. "Good," she said, smiling. He studied her for a second before adding, more sincerely, "Thanks for not trying to talk me into anything." She shrugged. "It was your decision," she said. "I know," he said. "That’s why it mattered."

That evening, Liam sent her a message asking whether she planned to listen to his next broadcast. She replied that she’d consider it, and he responded with a dramatic complaint about her lack of support. She told him she’d listen if he promised not to announce any meetings at midnight again. He agreed, then added one more line. I might dedicate a song to you. She typed back immediately. Do that and I’ll deny knowing you. He sent back a laughing emoji and left it there.

Roxanne set her phone aside, quietly amused. She hadn’t solved a problem for him, and she certainly hadn’t become responsible for his happiness. She had simply given him room to make his own choice without turning it into some test of his worth.

The next morning, a new announcement appeared on the student bulletin board. The academy was looking for volunteers to help run a student radio advice segment, where students could submit anonymous questions about school life, friendships, and relationships. Liam’s name was already listed as the host.

Underneath a heading that read First Topic, someone had written a single question in small, careful letters. How do you know when you like someone? Roxanne stopped in front of the board, staring at it.

Behind her, Liam’s voice carried down the hallway. "Before you accuse me," he said, "I didn’t choose that question." She turned slowly to face him. "Then why are you smiling?" she asked. "Because the academy has excellent taste," he said, and she couldn’t quite stop herself from smiling back at him, shaking her head as she walked away.