Every love has a story. How you first met. Who said the first word.
Even mine does.
Seven o'clock is not the time anyone will think of falling in love. But as our worlds collided, we did just that. In a moment...
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Chapter 24
Aftermaths were tedious to handle, because the changes that came along usually put a strain on the relationships that had been established before. With one clumsy move, our group quietly broke off.
Ariel was the first one to stay away. During recess and after school, she started hanging out with Nora and her friends from the school paper club. I had tried to approach her several times, but she always kept her distance. That was why I'd let her be for now.
Maybe we needed some time apart, too. That we were just tired of the whole thing. It was one thing to seek forgiveness, and another to understand.
In this state, we couldn't make sense of what we were feeling, or act based on what we were supposed to do. The right thing seemed to drift on another shore. It would take a lot of work to get there, and nobody wanted to do it. We had our excuses and sweet escapes, unknowingly giving way for us to heal, just enough to start again.
There was one less person at our table that following Monday. As for the rest, they were all there, but no one spoke a word. Whenever we were in class, we had our stopgaps. A quiz. An exam. An advanced reading material. But here in the cafeteria where we sat at one table, unsaid words got more pronounced.
That event had sealed away Stephen and Laurine's relationship in our school. But in our eyes, Stephen's intention had been clear. Jane got mad at Stephen, so she refused to talk to him. She couldn't forgive him for doing that to spite me.
So after we had finished our meals in silence, everybody reacted along, like the way they should, as if those unspoken words had been uttered. On Tuesday, Jane and Brooks sat at another table, leaving behind Stephen and Athan. I went along with them.
And the day after? Our usual spot became empty. Stephen sat with the members of the track team. I didn't see Athan in the canteen during lunch.
No one occupied those barren seats at first. For each school year, lunch tables also had their designations. But after a few days, a student started eating at our usual spot. It was a different group every time until the science club sat there for three consecutive days and took it as theirs.
∞♡∞
We didn't talk about it. If Brooks and Jane did, I never knew. I became a third-wheel to them. They were the ones who knew each other like the back of their hands, and I was someone who just tagged along.
This had its drawbacks. But I didn't mind feeling left out, because this was their thing before it became like this. I saw their efforts in including me into the conversation all the time. However, at one point, I would still miss a beat. After all, they had spent years creating this flow, and it was hard to catch up.
Eventually, I drifted away.
"I'll go back to the classroom," I quietly told them, while we were walking in the hallway after lunch. We were almost near our classroom's door, and I knew they were heading to the restroom. It was included in their daily routine. They really just spent the rest of the lunch break talking about random things in the restroom, while Brooks was fixing up her makeup and Jane tying up her hair.
