chapter 10 Echoes of goodbye
698 Words
The semester ended not with silence, but with noise.
The halls of Westbridge University buzzed with laughter, rolling suitcases, and promises spoken too loudly to be real. Students crowded the courtyard, hugging tightly, swearing they would text, call, visit—knowing deep down that most of those promises would dissolve with time.
From her dorm window, Olivia watched it all unfold.
Mia sat cross-legged on her bed, folding clothes with dramatic sighs, while Tasha shoved shoes into an already overstuffed suitcase. The air in the room smelled faintly of rain and nostalgia, like endings disguised as beginnings.
“You look like someone who’s leaving her heart behind,” Tasha said, glancing at Olivia with a knowing grin.
Olivia scoffed, though her smile was faint. “Don’t be dramatic.”
Mia raised an eyebrow. “Ethan or Ryan?”
“None of your business,” Olivia muttered—but the words didn’t land with conviction. Her chest felt tight, heavy with thoughts she couldn’t untangle.
That evening, she found Ryan near the edge of campus, standing beneath a flickering streetlamp as rain misted the pavement. His expression was calm, but his eyes were cold, unreadable.
“You don’t have to explain anything,” Olivia said quietly. “I never asked you to stay.”
He studied her for a long moment, then nodded slowly. “You’re right. I crossed a line.”
“Ryan—”
“No,” he interrupted gently. “You don’t owe me anything. You never did.”
There was something final in his tone. Before she could respond, he turned and walked into the rain.
This time, he didn’t look back.
For two weeks, there were no messages, no chance encounters, no trace of his familiar black jacket drifting through the cafeteria or library halls. It was as if he had never existed at all.
Ethan tried to return to normal.
He sat beside Olivia in class again, walked her partway back to the dorm, made casual conversation like nothing had fractured between them. But Olivia felt it—the distance, subtle and deliberate, like a wall he refused to climb.
One night, as they lay sprawled across their beds, Mia finally said it. “He’s avoiding you.”
Olivia stared at the ceiling. “Both of them are.”
Tasha frowned. “Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. You’ve had enough drama to last a lifetime.”
Olivia smiled weakly, but her heart disagreed. She missed Ryan more than she expected—the way he teased her, the way he noticed things no one else did, the strange sense of safety she felt around him.
Just when the chaos seemed to settle, something shifted again.
Friday morning, Olivia walked into class and froze.
Vanessa Hale sat in the front row, flawless as ever—perfect hair, sharp eyes, red lips curved into a smile that never reached them.
“Oh my God,” Mia whispered. “She’s back?”
Vanessa turned slowly, her gaze locking onto Olivia. “I hope there are no hard feelings,” she said sweetly.
“Hard feelings?” Olivia echoed.
Vanessa shrugged lightly. “You know how rumors spread.” Her eyes flicked briefly toward Ethan before she looked away. “People say things.”
Olivia’s stomach twisted. Vanessa hadn’t returned to make peace. She had come to reclaim control.
And that afternoon, as Olivia left class, she saw him.
Ryan stood at the corner of the courtyard—hands in his pockets, rain-dark jacket clinging to his shoulders. For a single heartbeat, their eyes met.
His gaze held apology… and warning.
He gave a faint nod, then turned and disappeared once more.
That night, Olivia couldn’t sleep.
The rain had stopped, but her thoughts thundered louder than ever. Ryan’s sudden return. Ethan’s silence. Vanessa’s perfectly timed reappearance.
None of it felt accidental.
As the campus clock struck midnight, Olivia sat by the window, staring into the darkness beyond the glass. Her reflection stared back—older, sharper, no longer the girl who arrived at Westbridge unaware of its games.
She hugged her knees to her chest and whispered,
“Something’s coming. I can feel it.”
- Writer
