A week had passed since the bus ride back from the mountains, since the awkward silences and unspoken truths that followed Kofi's disastrous bonfire confession. The trip felt like a strange dream now, something that had somehow reset their group's dynamics. The truce held, everyone silently agreeing to pretend the emotional mess had never happened, and school had settled back into its usual boring rhythm.
Tuesday afternoon was quiet, the kind of day that felt like it was waiting for the week to end. Kofi walked home from the library with a stack of history books under his arm for a research paper. He'd spent two hours in a corner reading about the Peloponnesian War, a conflict that felt refreshingly simple compared to the social warfare of his own life.
Turning the corner onto his street, he saw her.
