Alisha POV
Life didn't fall apart the way I expected it to.
That was the strange part.
Morning still came.
Classes still dragged.
People still laughed in the hallways like nothing had ever been wrong.
The world kept breathing…
even when something inside me had stopped.
Alex was gone.
Not gone in the dramatic sense.
No rumors. No accidents. No explanation.
Just—
absence.
The kind that settles quietly, like dust on untouched furniture.
I noticed it on Monday morning.
I was early for class, like always. Sitting by the window. My bag at my feet. My fingers tapping against my notebook in a rhythm I didn't realize I'd memorized for him.
I waited.
Five minutes passed. Ten.
The seat beside me stayed empty.
I told myself he was late.
Then that he'd skipped class.
Then that maybe I was overthinking it.
But when the lecture ended and I walked out into the hallway—
I didn't see him.
Not leaning against the lockers.
Not watching from a distance.
Not pretending not to look.
Nothing.
By the third day, it was no longer a coincidence.
Alex wasn't around.
And somehow… everyone else seemed fine with that.
Mandy was back to herself.
Laughing. Joking. Complaining about food and assignments like nothing had ever happened. Like she hadn't gone quiet for weeks. Like fear hadn't once lived behind her eyes.
It unsettled me more than if she'd stayed broken.
I watched her carefully from across the cafeteria, wondering if this was healing…
or hiding.
"You're staring again," Andrew said, dropping into the seat across from me.
Andrew.
He hadn't been around much lately. Not after everything that happened. I had forgiven him, finally.
Forgiven him for the anger, the distance, the way he had let me go so easily when I needed him.
It wasn't love—not fully—but I had let go of the resentment. And in that letting go… he returned.
I hadn't realized how much I'd missed his presence until it was suddenly there again—familiar, warm, safe in a way that didn't ask questions I couldn't answer.
"Sorry," I murmured. "Just… thinking."
He studied me the way he used to. Like he was trying to read between lines I wasn't writing anymore.
"You've been doing that a lot lately."
"I've had a lot to think about."
"About him?"
I stiffened.
Andrew noticed. He always did.
"You don't even have to say his name," he added softly. "I know."
I forced a small smile. "There's nothing to know."
That was a lie.
And we both heard it.
Alex didn't text.
Didn't call.
Didn't pass by accidentally.
It was as if he'd erased himself from my life with surgical precision.
And the worst part?
I didn't know why.
I replayed every conversation.
Every look.
Every moment I might've said too much—or not enough.
Did I cross a line?
Did I scare him?
Did I mean something… or nothing at all?
The questions followed me everywhere.
At night, I lay awake staring at the ceiling, listening to the sound of my own breathing, wondering if he was doing the same somewhere else—or if I'd already been forgotten.
The first time I felt real fear wasn't when I realized Alex was gone.
It was when I realized how deeply his absence affected me.
I reached for my phone more times than I could count—
then stopped myself every single time.
Because what would I even say?
Why are you avoiding me?
Did I imagine everything?
Did I matter at all?
No.
Silence felt safer.
But silence has teeth.
*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*★*
A week passed.
Then another.
Andrew walked me back to my dorm one evening, the sky bleeding into purple and gray.
"You don't have to pretend with me, you know," he said quietly.
"I'm not pretending."
"You are," he replied.
"You just don't realize it yet."
We stopped walking.
I looked at him. Really looked.
Andrew was steady. Real. Here.
And still… my chest ached for someone who wasn't.
"You already have," he murmured.
"By just being… here. Right here… where I can't touch you."
I swallowed hard.
His words dug deep.
I wanted to tell him I didn't care—
but I did. I did care, in a way I couldn't explain.
The wind shifted.
Something moved in the shadows behind the trees lining the pathway.
I froze.
My stomach clenched.
A figure.
Tall. Silent. Watching.
Not Andrew. Not Mandy.
Alex?
I wanted to think it was him.
But the way it lingered, still, deliberate… it wasn't him.
And then it vanished.
Just like that.
I gasped.
The night felt alive.
Eyes on me. Waiting.
I turned to Andrew.
He followed my gaze.
His jaw tightened.
Something dark passed through his eyes—a warning, a storm held back.
I wanted to ask.
I wanted answers.
I wanted him.
But the figure was gone.
And I knew, deep down…
It hadn't left.
It was waiting.
Watching.
Smiling.