POV: Chloe Lopez
He kept his word.
The coffee stopped. The window seat was empty at lunch. In the library, the chair across from mine stayed pulled out at an angle, like someone had just stood up and not yet come back.
He was still in all the same places. Same hallways, same classrooms, same school. When we passed each other he'd nod—polite, unhurried, the way he was with everyone—and say, "Lopez," and keep walking.
Not Chloe. Not anymore.
Zack had indeed disappeared. Word was he'd pulled a training injury and was on two weeks' medical leave. Nobody connected it to the stairwell. I wasn't going to correct them.
My life was exactly what I'd been asking for since September.
It's fine. This is fine.
I stopped putting cilantro in my own food.
That's unrelated.
On Friday afternoon I w
