He politely declines Aria

Miles glances at the keys in Aria's hand, then back at her. For a half second he lets himself actually consider it, the two of them in her car, whatever that conversation would look like. It isn't a difficult image to conjure.

But thirty feet down the hall, Janice is still standing there.

"That's a kind offer," Miles says, and he lets his voice drop just slightly, warm enough to land. He takes a small step closer to Aria, close enough to be deliberate without being obvious. "Genuinely."

Aria's chin tilts up a fraction. She noticed the step. Of course she noticed.

"But?" she says.

"But I've got some things to sort out tonight." He holds her gaze a beat longer than strictly necessary, long enough to make sure she reads it correctly. That this isn't a brush off. That he is aware of exactly what she just offered and exactly what it meant.

Her expression doesn't collapse. Aria is too composed for that. But something behind her eyes shifts, a flicker of something that lands somewhere between disappointment and quiet resolve. She spins her keys once around her finger and takes a small step back.

"Sure," she says, easy and unbothered, the way only someone actively working to seem unbothered can manage. "Some other time."

"Some other time," Miles agrees.

She holds his gaze for one more second, then turns and heads toward the exit without looking back. Miles watches her go just long enough to be honest with himself about it.

Janice had not moved.

She was close enough to have seen all of it. The step forward. The conversation that ran longer than a simple no should have. The way Aria left without the easy energy she arrived with.

Beside her, her friend Maya leaned in.

"Okay," Maya said quietly, eyes still tracking Aria's exit. "Are you actually sure you don't want to just say yes to him?"

Janice kept her expression neutral. "I said I'd think about it."

"You've been thinking about it since October."

Janice didn't answer that.

Maya glanced sideways at her. "I'm just saying. Aria's not exactly sitting around lighting candles and waiting. Whatever that just was?" She nodded toward the now empty corridor. "She's moving. Quickly."

Janice watched the hallway for a moment longer than she needed to, her jaw set in that particular way she had when something was bothering her and she had decided not to let it show.

"I heard you, Maya."

"I know you heard me," Maya said, already turning toward the exit. "I just want to make sure you're actually listening."

Janice thinks for a second, then quickly takes her phone out and sends Miles a text, "Hey. So I've been thinking. And my answer is yes. If you still want to go to prom together, I'd really like that."