🖤 Chapter 11 – The Distance
306 Words
After that night… something shifted.
Not loudly. Not in a way anyone else would notice.
But I felt it.
In the silence that filled the house.
In the way he stopped lingering in the same room as me.
In how his eyes—once sharp and always watching—now avoided mine completely.
It was like he had drawn an invisible line between us.
And this time… I wasn’t allowed to cross it.
Days passed like that.
Cold. Quiet. Unbearable.
Until I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Why are you avoiding me?”
My voice broke the silence of the living room one evening. He stood by the window, phone in hand, the city lights reflecting against the glass behind him.
He didn’t turn.
“I’m not.”
The answer came too quickly.
Too easily.
“You are,” I insisted, stepping closer. “You barely speak to me anymore. You don’t even look at me.”
A pause.
Then a slow breath.
“It’s better this way.”
The words hit harder than I expected.
My chest tightened.
“Better for who?” I asked, softer now.
This time, he turned.
His expression was calm. Controlled. Distant.
“For both of us.”
I shook my head immediately.
“No. Don’t decide that for me.”
His jaw tightened slightly, like he was holding something back.
“You don’t understand,” he said.
“Then explain it to me.”
Silence.
Heavy. Thick. Unmoving.
For a moment, I thought he might.
That he might finally say something real.
But instead—
He walked past me.
Just like that.
Like the conversation didn’t matter.
Like I didn’t matter.
And that’s when it hit me.
This wasn’t distance.
This was fear.
He was pulling away…
Because something had changed.
And whatever it was—
It scared him.
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