I waited.
The silence of Damian’s room was heavier than the air itself, weighing down on me until it felt like my chest couldn’t rise enough to breathe. The books sat untouched on the desk, my notes scattered neatly across the page, but my pen had long since stilled. Every tick of the clock against the wall scraped against my ears, each second stretching into something unbearable.
Twenty minutes.
That’s how long I stayed, telling myself he would come back. That he’d walk through the door with his usual air of irritation but maybe, just maybe, soften at the edges. That he’d say he didn’t mean those words, not really, that he’d been angry or tired or annoyed, but not cruel.
But the door never opened.
My fingers clenched tightly into fists, knuckles turning white with the effort of keepi
