The Boy Upstairs
Ruben had always been the golden boy of his high school—athletic, handsome, and comfortably dating a beautiful girl named Marta. He lived his life with a certain predictable confidence until the day Jaime arrived. Jaime was everything Ruben wasn’t: ethereal, with piercing green eyes and a soft, youthful grace that seemed to hypnotize every girl in the hallway. The jealousy was instant and visceral. To make matters worse, fate played a cruel joke when Ruben discovered that Jaime had just moved into the apartment directly above his.
For days, Ruben nursed a silent grudge, fueled by the way Marta whispered about the new boy. However, the tension snapped one evening in the claustrophobic silence of the apartment elevator. As the doors slid shut, Jaime leaned in, his voice a low murmur that sent an unexpected shiver down Ruben’s spine. Before the doors opened at Ruben’s floor, Jaime’s hand grazed his arm, a touch that felt like an electric current. The rivalry Ruben had cultivated was suddenly replaced by a magnetic pull he couldn’t explain, turning his hatred into a desperate, hidden longing.