SHIFTS
341 Words
Damon didn’t like changes.
He liked routines. Predictability. Knowing exactly how a day would unfold. It kept things controlled. Safe.
But something had shifted.
He felt it the moment he walked into school and spotted her down the hallway. Aria was laughing softly with her friends, head tilted slightly, eyes bright with something easy and unforced. He slowed without meaning to.
Annoying.
He told himself it was nothing. Just curiosity. Just a passing distraction.
It wasn’t.
In class, he couldn’t focus the way he usually did. His attention drifted, catching small details he didn’t care to notice before—the way she tapped her pen when she was thinking, the way her expression changed when she understood something, the quiet confidence she carried without effort.
She wasn’t loud. She wasn’t trying.
That was the problem.
Mason noticed. Of course he did.
“You’re distracted,” Mason said later, leaning against the lockers beside him.
Damon shrugged. “You’re imagining things.”
Mason smirked. “Sure. And I suddenly can’t read people.”
They walked together toward the courtyard, Damon’s hands shoved deep into his pockets. He felt restless. Like something was pulling at him, testing the walls he’d spent years building.
“She’s different,” Mason said casually.
Damon stopped walking. “Don’t start.”
“I’m serious,” Mason continued. “She doesn’t look at you like everyone else.”
That unsettled him more than he wanted to admit.
Everyone else either feared him or wanted something from him. Respect. Attention. Control.
Aria just… looked.
No expectations. No fear.
Later that afternoon, their paths crossed again near the stairwell. This time, neither of them spoke. They didn’t need to. The air between them felt thick, charged with words left unsaid.
Damon held her gaze a second longer than necessary.
And for once, he didn’t look away.
As he walked off, his chest felt tight—not uncomfortable, just unfamiliar.
He didn’t know what this was.
But he knew one thing for sure.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t leaving him alone
- Writer
