-Julien Grayson:
I felt it before I even looked.
That shift.
That subtle, suffocating change in the air—like something invisible had wrapped itself around the room and squeezed just a little too tight. The warmth from a second ago, from all the hugs and the relief and the voices overlapping, it all just… thinned out.
Faded.
I followed their gaze without thinking.
Ezra.
He was sitting on the edge of my bed, exactly where I had left him when they all rushed in. His posture had changed, though. His shoulders were slightly hunched forward now, his hands resting on his thighs, fingers curled just a little—like he didn't know where to put them.
Like he didn't know what to do with himself.
Like he was trying, in the smallest ways, to take up less space.
It would've been funny if it didn't hurt.
