"Avoidance became survival."
Day one was the hardest.
Silver woke up to thirty-seven unread messages from Eli. She deleted them without reading. Then she deleted his contact information. Then she blocked his number entirely.
It felt dramatic. It also felt necessary.
Maya showed up at her door with coffee and questions. Silver accepted the coffee and deflected the questions. She wasn't ready to talk about it. Wasn't sure she'd ever be ready.
"You have to eat something," Maya said around noon.
"I'm not hungry."
"You're also not functioning. Those aren't mutually exclusive." Maya set a bagel on Silver's desk. "Eat. Then we can sit here in silence if that's what you need."
Silver ate half the bagel. It tasted like nothing.
Day two was Economics.
She almost skipped. Almost convinced herself that her GPA could handle one absence, that facing Eli across a lecture hall was asking too much.
But Silver Valentine didn't skip class. Never had. So she went.
