đ Chapter 9: The Quiet Between Us
346 Words
The second term had arrived with the scent of rain still clinging to the air, and Harizon Ochieng felt the shiftânot just in the weather, but in the way time moved around him. School resumed with its usual rhythm: the clatter of desks, the hum of morning assemblies, and the occasional burst of laughter from Form Four corridors. But beneath it all, something quieter stirred in him. Something Clarion had left behind.
She hadnât spoken to him since the end of first term. Not directly. Not in the way she used to, when her words curled around his thoughts like warm smoke. Now, she passed him in the hallways with a nod so faint it could have been mistaken for a blink. And Harizon, unsure whether to chase or retreat, chose silence.
He buried himself in books, in the comfort of routine, in the safety of not feeling too much. But Clarion was everywhere. In the way the wind tugged at the classroom curtains. In the way the girls giggled near the water tank, their voices echoing hers. In the way his heart paused whenever he heard her name.
Rumors swirled, as they always did. That she was seeing someone from another school. That she had changed. That she had grown colder. Harizon didnât believe any of them. Not really. But he didnât know what to believe either. All he had was the memory of her hand in his, and the ache of its absence.
One afternoon, as the sun dipped low and painted the schoolyard in amber, Harizon sat alone beneath the jacaranda tree. Its blossoms had begun to fall, carpeting the ground in violet. He watched them drift, slow and deliberate, like thoughts he couldnât quite hold onto.
Clarion walked past, her steps light, her gaze forward. For a moment, he thought she might stop. Say something. But she didnât. And he didnât call out.
The quiet between them had grown thick, like Nairobi dust after a long dry spell. And Harizon, unsure whether it was waiting or forgetting, let it settle.
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