The air in the room still carried the weight of everything they had just talked about. It was not anger and it was not fear, but the kind of emotional heaviness that lingers after difficult truths have been spoken aloud. The silence felt thicker than usual.

  Lena pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a slow breath. “God… my mind is racing.”

  Izzy had already leaned back across the bed, stretching her arms above her head like someone surrendering to exhaustion. “Well… I’m kind of tired of sitting up,” she said, shifting comfortably against the pillows.

  Lena gnced at her. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll go now.”

  Before she could step away, Izzy reached out and caught her wrist.

  “Nah,” she said with a small grin. “We both don’t need to be alone tonight. Come on. Lay with me for a while.”

  Lena hesitated. “Izzy… I’m not—”

  Izzy immediately groaned. “Oh, geez. Not wanting that at all. Rex.” She rolled onto her side and looked up at Lena. “Didn’t you ever have sleepovers with your girlfriends when you were younger? Stay up too te, whisper about stupid things, fall asleep halfway through a conversation?”

  Lena ughed softly despite herself. “Yeah… I did.”

  She stepped closer to the bed, but before she could sit down Izzy lifted a hand.

  “Hold on.”

  Lena stopped. “What?”

  “I gotta give you something first.”

  Before Lena could ask what she meant, Izzy leaned forward and gave her a quick, gentle kiss on the cheek.

  It was brief and simple, but warm.

  Lena blinked in surprise. “What was that for?”

  Izzy shrugged a little, suddenly looking less pyful. “For all the help you gave me after… the… uh… incident.”

  She didn’t say the word fully, but both of them knew what she meant.

  Lena studied her for a moment and then nodded quietly. “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “Yeah,” Izzy said softly. “I did.”

  With that, Lena kicked off her shoes and sat down on the edge of the bed before carefully lowering herself beside her.

  There was a moment of mild awkwardness as both of them became aware of the closeness. Izzy solved the problem immediately by grabbing an extra pillow and pcing it between them.

  “There,” she said with satisfaction. “Middle pillow. Sacred w of sleepovers.”

  Lena snorted. “You are impossible.”

  “And yet,” Izzy replied, settling back against the pillows, “here you are.”

  The room grew quiet again, though the silence now felt far more comfortable. The ceiling fan hummed softly above them, and somewhere down the hall a door closed as the house settled into the night.

  After a minute Izzy turned her head slightly. “You still thinking?”

  “Yes.”

  “Want to talk about it?”

  “No.”

  Izzy nodded. “Okay.”

  A few seconds passed.

  Then she whispered, “Did you ever pretend to fall asleep first so the other person would start talking about you?”

  Lena stared at the ceiling for a moment before answering. “Yes.”

  Izzy smiled. “Same.”

  They both ughed quietly. It was a small ugh, but it carried away some of the tension that had been sitting in the room.

  Lena shifted slightly and pulled the bnket up over herself. Izzy adjusted it on her side as well without thinking.

  A few minutes ter Lena spoke again.

  “Thank you.”

  Izzy didn’t turn her head. “For what?”

  “For not making tonight heavier than it already was.”

  Izzy thought about that for a second and then shrugged into the pillow. “Sleepovers are sacred. Everyone knows that.”

  Lena turned her head slightly toward her. “You’re ridiculous.”

  “Probably.”

  There was a short pause before Izzy added quietly, “But you’re not alone.”

  The words settled gently between them.

  Izzy’s breathing slowed first as she drifted toward sleep.

  Lena stayed awake a little longer, her thoughts still moving but no longer racing. Eventually she turned slightly onto her side, settling into the mattress as the quiet of the room finally wrapped around her.

  For the first time that night, the air didn’t feel so heavy anymore.