Chapter Two
The life in school always feels longer on days like this. The kind where the clouds lean heavy and the air forgets how to move. People rush by with somewhere to be, Something to prove. I just walk. Head down, hood up, like I'm trying to vanish into the shadows.
The school hummed with life I didn't feel part of. Footsteps with Distant chatter. It all blends into a single sound, the kind you stop noticing after a while. Like static between radio stations. Like me.Even the air here felt stricter, like it's watching you. Judging and follows every step I take.
I move through the crowd like smoke. No one notices. I prefer it that way.
In the halls, the voices return.
Not to me, around me. Above and Past me. Laughter and Shouting. The high-pitched rhythm of teenage survival. Some people are good at it. Wearing masks. Playing parts. I never learned how.
Someone bumps into me.
No apology.
I don't look back.
My locker is near the stairwell — a quiet corner where light falls in slices and the hum of the school dims. I open it slowly. Books, papers, folded drawings I never finished. The inside smells like old ink and something almost warm. Almost.
A voice drifts toward me, too loud to ignore.
"Did you hear about Isaac? He got suspended. Again."
Laughter.
"He punched that guy in class 4C. Just snapped."
I close the locker, fingers tight around the edge.
Isaac.
That name settles in my mind like dust. We weren't close. But he used to sit two rows behind me in biology. Always sketching storms in the margins of his notebook. Sometimes I wondered if he noticed I saw them.
He used to glance at me when we were in class. Not much just enough to mean I see you.
And now he's gone. Just like that. Another thread cut loose.
I make it through the first few periods like a ghost. Eyes on the board, ears full of noise that never really reaches me. Teachers talk like radios. Students laugh in codes I don't understand.
By lunch, the sky outside has darkened. Thunder rumbles low like something ancient was stirring in its sleep.I sit alone. Same table. Same corner. Same untouched food. It's not that I don't want company. I just don't know how to need it.
Across the courtyard, someone's staring. Not in a cruel way. Just… watching.
A boy. I don't know his name has a
Dark hoodie. Hair that falls into his eyes like he's hiding behind it.
He doesn't look away.
Neither do I.
Something passes between us a flicker. Not quite curiosity. Not yet recognition. But something.
Then he turns. Just like that. Gone into the crowd.
The bell rings, cutting through the silence like glass.
Another class. Another mask. Another hour of not feeling anything loud enough to matter.
But in that brief moment, when the boy looked at me like he might understand-something shifted.
Only slightly.
But I noticed.
I always do.