Empty seats and heavy silences
407 Words
---
Chapter 9 – Empty Seats and Heavy Silences
The first thing she noticed was the silence.
Adrian’s seat—second row from the front, just left of center—was empty.
It shouldn’t have mattered. Students dropped classes all the time. Personal issues. Schedule conflicts. Lack of interest. But the void he left behind felt deliberate, like someone had reached inside the room and pulled the air out.
She kept her voice steady as she lectured on postmodern realism, but her eyes flickered toward the gap he’d once filled. No one took his place. It was just… there. A missing piece.
After class, she lingered longer than usual, pretending to organize her notes, waiting for a voice that wouldn’t come.
It never did.
---
The campus looked different in the late afternoon light—warmer, softer, almost forgiving. Elena walked the stone pathways with her head down, hoping to avoid running into him, but wanting it more than she wanted to breathe.
And then, fate—or cruelty—delivered.
He was by the library steps, laughing with someone. His face turned slightly toward the sun, shadows catching in his lashes. For a second, he looked younger. Free.
He didn’t see her.
She watched for too long before turning away.
---
Back home, the house felt too quiet. She poured a glass of wine she didn’t want and stood in the kitchen with the glass untouched. Her phone lay face down on the counter. She hadn’t heard from him. Hadn’t reached out either.
It was for the best.
It had to be.
She opened her laptop to grade the latest batch of essays. One name was missing.
Adrian Vale.
Her fingers hovered over the keys, then dropped into her lap. She closed the laptop.
She should have felt relieved. He wasn’t her student anymore. The rules no longer held. But instead of feeling free, she felt like she was drowning in the space he left behind.
---
That night, she dreamt of him.
He stood at the edge of her lecture hall, staring at her—not the way students look at professors, but the way a man looks at a woman he knows he shouldn’t love. The lights flickered. The room emptied. Only he remained.
She walked toward him, but no matter how close she got, she couldn’t touch him.
When she woke, the wine glass was still full.
And the silence, somehow, louder.
---
- Writer
