Silence & Smoke

Chapter 3: Unlucky

Adrian's POV

Life had a way of testing me, but lately, it felt like the universe was just playing a cruel joke.

It started small. A spilled drink here, a forgotten assignment there. The kind of minor annoyances that everyone deals with, but for some reason, they seemed to happen to me with alarming frequency. And it wasn’t just the usual mess-ups. It was the way everything seemed to compound at once, as if I had suddenly become a magnet for bad luck.

Like the day I was walking to class, lost in thought, when I felt a sharp tug on my sleeve. I glanced over just in time to see a large cup of coffee splatter across my shirt, soaking through the fabric and leaving a dark stain.

“s**t! I’m so sorry!” A voice — familiar but distant — echoed in my ears. I looked up to see Sienna, holding the now-empty cup, her eyes wide with concern. “I didn’t mean to—”

“It’s fine,” I muttered, already shrugging off my jacket to try and keep it from staining. “It’s not a big deal.”

But it was. My jacket was ruined, and I could already feel the sticky sensation of the coffee on my skin. I tried to walk it off, but my mind was elsewhere, simmering with the irritation of the day.

Sienna wasn’t done, though. She grabbed a napkin from her bag, practically throwing it at me. “Here, I’m really sorry. Let me help.”

I stared at the napkin for a beat longer than I needed to, before taking it from her, giving her a half-hearted nod.

“I didn’t expect to ruin your whole morning,” she added with a sheepish smile. “I swear, I have the worst luck.”

I didn’t respond. I was too busy trying to keep my annoyance under control. My mind kept wandering back to the string of other little things that had gone wrong in the past week. The forgotten homework, the missed bus, the unlucky step on the edge of the sidewalk that twisted my ankle. All these tiny little things, like they were conspiring against me.

Sienna watched me for a moment longer, almost as if waiting for me to say something more. But I wasn’t in the mood for small talk.

“Thanks for the napkin,” I said quietly, my tone flat. “But I’ve got it.”

She blinked at me, her smile faltering for just a second before she nodded and walked off. I didn’t watch her leave. I was already on my way to the restroom to clean up my jacket.

The next incident was a few days later, during our chemistry lab.

I had been paired with Sienna for the experiment. She wasn’t a terrible partner, but it was clear she wasn’t as focused as she needed to be. I didn’t mind, I wasn’t a perfectionist. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off that day.

We were supposed to measure and mix chemicals for the experiment, but somehow, when I turned to check the measurements, I found the beaker overflowing, the contents spilling over the table and onto my notes.

"Great," I muttered, watching the liquid spread, smudging the ink.

Sienna’s laugh was light, almost nervous. “I swear, I can’t do anything right today.”

Her words hit me in a way I hadn’t expected. They felt like a weird kind of déjà vu. The sense that she was somehow involved in the little mishaps that seemed to be happening to me more frequently.

“No harm done,” I replied. But my voice had an edge to it that I hadn’t planned. I wasn’t sure why I felt frustrated. Maybe it was because it felt like I was constantly cleaning up messes, both literal and figurative, in my life.

I wiped my notes as best as I could, glancing back at her. Sienna looked genuinely apologetic, but there was something about the way she carried herself that rubbed me the wrong way. She was always just a little too cheerful when things went wrong. Like she wasn’t actually as bothered by the misfortunes as she should’ve been.

By the end of the class, she’d offered to help me with the cleanup again. But I had no intention of accepting.

“No need,” I said, gathering my things. “I’ve got it.”

It wasn’t the first time things had gone wrong in the past week, and it definitely wasn’t the last.

The final straw came a few days later, when I was late for class. Again.

It was stupid, really. I’d overslept, but I wasn’t even worried about being late. After all, who cared? I never had to deal with people asking where I’d been or why I was tardy. No one noticed if I showed up five minutes late, but today — for some reason — it felt like everyone was waiting for me to show up.

I rushed through the hallways, heart pounding, desperate to make it on time. My footsteps echoed louder than usual as I turned a corner, rounding the hallway in my haste. That’s when I saw it — or rather, her.

Sienna. Standing right in my path, talking to some guy, her back to me. I barely had enough time to react before I collided with her.

“Watch where you're going!” I snapped, instinctively reaching out to steady her.

Her face lit up when she recognized me. “Oh, sorry! I didn’t see you there,” she said, grinning as she brushed herself off.

I didn’t know what it was, but I could feel the anger building up again. I had to suppress the urge to snap at her. My mind kept flashing back to the last few days — the coffee stain, the lab mess, the accident in the hall. It was like everything was piling up, one after another, and I couldn’t stop it.

“Maybe it’s me,” I muttered under my breath.

“What?” Sienna tilted her head, her eyes wide in confusion.

“Nothing,” I said quickly, brushing past her, my anger suddenly feeling out of place. “It’s just... never mind.”

I didn’t look back.

The rest of the day passed in a haze. I couldn’t shake the feeling that things were just… off. That somehow, the universe was gunning for me, setting up every little mistake, every little mishap to make my life just a little more inconvenient. And I couldn’t ignore it any longer. It wasn’t normal.

Was it just bad luck? Or was there something more to it? Something I wasn’t seeing?

And then, as I was heading to the exit at the end of the school day, I saw her again. Sienna. Standing by the gate, looking at me as if she had been waiting for me.

For a second, I froze. And then it hit me. The constant accidents. The constant interruptions. The fact that they seemed to follow me, like a trail of misfortune.

It couldn’t just be coincidence.

I stopped in my tracks, my heart pounding.

Sienna watched me, her expression unreadable. She hadn’t said anything yet. She didn’t need to.

I had the strange, unsettling feeling that she knew exactly what was happening.

But why?.... why??