Impact

Oliver scrambled down the fire escape, sliding the last ten feet into the snowbank.

Bex was waiting for him. She was covered in snow, shivering, and grinning like a lunatic.

"You adjusted the vector," she said as he stumbled toward her. "In your head. In a blizzard."

"I accounted for the drag," Oliver panted, wiping snow from his glasses. "It was... a calculated risk."

Bex laughed. She grabbed the lapels of his coat and pulled him down.

"Shut up, nerd," she said.

She kissed him.

It was cold, and wet, and chaotic. It tasted like snowflakes and adrenaline. Oliver didn't pull away this time. He surrendered. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight, anchoring her to the earth.

A flashlight beam cut through the snow.

"Hey!" A security guard shouted. "You two! Stay right there!"

Oliver broke the kiss, but he didn't let go of Bex. He looked at the guards running toward them. He looked at the Dean, who was surely watching from a window somewhere.

He knew what was coming. Probation. Maybe expulsion. Definitely the loss of the grant.

"We're in so much trouble," Oliver said, smiling.

"Massive," Bex agreed, resting her forehead against his. "Was it worth it?"

Oliver looked at the Clock Tower, looming above them in the storm. He looked at the girl who had made him fly.

"Statistically speaking?" Oliver said. "100%."

\---

**Epilogue**

The disciplinary hearing was brutal. Oliver lost his grant. Bex was suspended for a semester.

They spent the spring working at a coffee shop downtown.

Oliver sat at a corner table, napkins spread out in front of him. He was drawing a schematic.

"Okay," Oliver said, pointing to the diagram with a sharpie. "If we want to rappel off the suspension bridge, we need to account for the tidal pull on the support cables."

Bex leaned over his shoulder, placing a fresh coffee on the table. She kissed his cheek, leaving a smudge of blue dye.

"Tidal pull," she mused. "That’s a new variable."

"I can solve it," Oliver said, looking up at her. "I just need the specs."

"I'll get the lockpicks," Bex winked.

Oliver watched her walk away. His future was uncertain. His bank account was empty. His life was chaos.

And he had never been happier.