The next week at school felt like walking through a fog that never lifted.
Damian moved through the hallways like a ghost. Lockers slammed around him, laughter echoed, friends called out to each other, but none of it reached him. Everything felt wrong, twisted. The air itself seemed thicker, heavier, like the whole building knew what had happened and was waiting for the next shoe to drop.
Amanda wasn't speaking to him.
She walked past him in the corridor without a glance, eyes fixed straight ahead, earbuds in, shoulders tense. When their paths crossed in the cafeteria line, she turned away and sat at a different table. No text. No wave. No sad smile. Just silence. The kind of silence that hurt more than any shout ever could. Damian had tried once, a quiet "Hey" in the hallway, but she had kept walking like he wasn't even there. He didn't try again. He understood. He had broken something between them, and apologies wouldn't fix it overnight.
Ethan didn't show up to school at all.
