Chapter 11: The Morning After
The morning crept in too quickly.
The first thing I noticed when I woke in Yvette's pink cocoon of a room was the quiet. The usual buzz of boarding life, the shuffle of feet in the hallways, the chatter spilling through thin dorm walls, felt distant, muted, as if the whole world had decided to let me linger in my thoughts.
But my thoughts were on one person only, Mateo.
His face replayed in my mind over and over again: the way his jaw tightened when I lashed out, the way his eyes clouded, it hadn't been fair, what I said. I know that now, especially after what he did last night.
The boy's confession, his bruised face, his stammered apology. If it hadn't been for Mateo, would the truth have ever come out? Probably not. Mateo didn't need to confirm it for me to know. He had that quiet, relentless way of dealing with problems, of forcing the truth out without needing credit.
And I'd accused him of not trusting me.
I pressed my palms over my eyes, groaning.
Yvette stirred beside me, mumbling something incoherent before rolling over and snuggling deeper into her blanket. I envied her ability to just… switch off.
I couldn't. Not today. Not with this guilt clawing at me. By the time breakfast rolled around, I decided to find Mateo.
The dining hall was its usual chaos, students packed at long wooden tables, trays clattering, voices echoing against the high ceiling. The smell of scrambled eggs and burnt toast clung to the air.
I spotted him instantly.
Mateo sat with a few of his friends near the middle of the room, posture relaxed but his face unreadable. He had that strange ability to blend in and command attention at the same time. Some part of me wanted to watch from a distance, just to study him, but another part, the braver, guilt-ridden part, pushed me forward.
My tray rattled slightly as I walked over.
One of his friends, Jonah noticed me first and raised an eyebrow. "Oh look, it's Isabella, here to kiss me good morning?" He asked.
I ignored him. My eyes were only on Mateo.
"Can we talk?" I asked softly, standing by his side.
He just looked up at me, a steady, assessing gaze that made my heart stutter. Then, without a word, he stood.
We left the hall together, silence stretching between us. I could feel eyes on my back, students curious, whispering, but I didn't care.
Outside, the morning air was cool, crisp enough to sting my lungs. Mateo stopped under one of the trees lining the courtyard and crossed his arms. "So? Talk."
I bit my lip, suddenly wishing I'd rehearsed this. "About yesterday… I shouldn't have snapped at you."
His expression didn't change.
"I was overwhelmed," I continued quickly. "I let my paranoia get the better of me, and I took it out on you. That wasn't fair."
Still nothing.
"Mateo…" My voice cracked, softer now. "I'm sorry."
Finally, something flickered across his face. His jaw tightened, his eyes narrowing slightly as if weighing the sincerity of my words. "You think sorry fixes everything?"
The words cut sharper than I expected. "I didn't say that."
"You accuse me of treating you like a child, of not caring enough, of being condescending and now think a simple apology can fix everything?" he asked me.
I swallowed hard. "I wasn't thinking straight. Those notes…"
"Those notes were pathetic," he interrupted. "And the second you got another one, your first thought was me…"
"I never thought you were the one who wrote it."
"But you took your anger out on me."
"And that's because you were being dense about the whole situation."
"How was I being dense? I was trying to help you."
"You were asking me if I saw…"
"So we could narrow down the suspects! I wasn't trying to make it seem like you were just being paranoid." He argued.
The silence that followed was thick.
I hated this. Hated the space between us, the coldness in his tone. My chest ached with the need to bridge it.
"I know that now and I'm sorry for lashing out at you like that." I told him truthfully.
He stared at me for a long moment, and I forced myself not to look away. His gaze had always been intense, but now it felt like it was peeling back layers, searching for truth beneath my apology.
Finally, he exhaled. "Don't do it again. Just let me help you if I want to."
Relief washed through me so fast my knees almost buckled. "I won't."
A faint smirk tugged at his lips, though it didn't reach his eyes. "You better not. Because next time, I won't just walk away."
I blinked at him. "What does that mean?"
"You'll find out if it happens," he said simply, turning away.
I reached out without thinking, fingers brushing his sleeve. "Mateo, wait."
He paused, glancing back.
I hesitated, then forced the words out. "Thank you. For… making that boy confess. For protecting me even when I didn't deserve it."
Something like confusion passed his eyes but it disappeared quickly. "You don't need to thank me."
"I do," I insisted.
He held my gaze a beat longer before finally pulling his arm free. "Then don't waste it. Be smarter next time."
And just like that, he walked back toward the hall, leaving me standing under the tree with my heart tangled between relief and frustration.
Classes dragged.
No matter how many times I replayed our conversation in my head, I couldn't decide if we'd actually mended things or just slapped a bandage over a wound still bleeding beneath.
Every time I glanced at him in class, he was focused, his expression unreadable. Not ignoring me exactly, but not reaching for me either. A wall still stood between us, one I wasn't sure how to break.
Yvette, of course, noticed. At lunch she leaned across the table, whispering, "So? Did you apologize?"
"Yes," I muttered.
"And?"
"And… he's still mad. Kind of."
She arched her brow. "Of course he is. Mateo's not the forgive-and-forget type. He probably wants you to crawl on your knees before he lets it go."
I glared at her. "Helpful."
She grinned, unrepentant. "You're welcome."
Still, as annoying as she was, she wasn't wrong. Mateo wasn't easy. He wasn't the type to sweep issues under the rug. He held onto things until he was sure they were resolved.
The problem was, I wasn't sure if I knew how to resolve this.