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Part 32 – A Perfect Lie
From the outside, everything looked perfect.
Anna walked through the school hallways hand in hand with Ethan, his arm often slipping protectively around her waist. He made sure everyone saw it. To the other students, she seemed like the luckiest girl alive—the one who had won the attention of the most confident, bold boy in school.
Nick noticed too.
Whenever his eyes landed on them, Anna's laugh looked easy, her smile bright, her eyes warm when she looked at Ethan. To Nick, it seemed like she had finally moved on, chosen her happiness, and found it in Ethan.
And because Nick cared for her deeply—even now—he let himself believe it. If she's happy, that's all that matters. That's what he told himself every single day.
But what no one else saw… was the truth.
Behind those practiced smiles, Anna carried a storm inside her. The memory of that night—the girl kissing Ethan, his reckless kiss back, and her own angry mistake of kissing a stranger—burned like a scar in her heart.
She tried to laugh, tried to pretend, but inside the cafeteria, during classes, in the quiet of the library, her silence gave her away. She wasn't truly happy. Not the way Nick thought she was.
Sometimes, when she caught Nick's eyes from across the room, her chest ached. She wanted to scream the truth: I'm not happy. I only said yes to Ethan because I was afraid. But fear tied her tongue.
Nick, however, didn't know this. All he saw was her smiles when Ethan teased her, the way she leaned close when he whispered, the way she allowed herself to be held. Nick thought she had found her place, her peace.
And because he wasn't selfish, he stepped back.
But he hadn't forgotten his words. That little note he gave her on her birthday still meant everything: "We're always friends."
One day, he promised himself, he would talk to her again. Not as a boy in love, not as someone jealous, but as the friend who knew her better than anyone else.
Because even if Anna pretended forever… Nick believed he would be able to see through the mask.
And deep inside, he wondered if that day would come sooner than either of them expected.
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