WHISPERS AT MIDNIGHT

Chapter 2 - His friends

Chapter 2 – His friends

Ella

By the second week back at school, I noticed it.

The stares. The quiet nudges. The way whispers followed me when I walked past.

At first, I thought I was imagining it. I’d been through this before—his friends talking behind my back, laughing when they thought I couldn’t hear.

But then I heard his name with mine.

“Sam keeps staring at her.”

“Do you think he likes her?”

“No way. He’s just bored. Why else would he look at her?”

I kept my head down, heart racing. The walls of the classroom suddenly felt smaller, louder, unbearable.

Sam

I caught the whispers too.

Honestly, if it were just about me, I wouldn’t have cared. People always had something to say. But when Ella’s name slipped into their jokes, I felt my jaw tighten.

She sat perfectly still, like she didn’t hear it. But I saw the way her fingers gripped her pen too tightly, the way her shoulders stiffened.

I wanted to shut them up. To tell them they didn’t know her at all. But I stayed quiet. If I said something, it would only make things worse for her.

Ella

That evening, I didn’t open my window.

I couldn’t. Not after the things I’d heard. Not when every look from him now felt like proof for them.

I told myself it was safer this way. Distance. Silence.

But sitting there, behind the curtain, listening to the faint sound of his laughter drifting across the street…

It hurt more than I expected.

Sam

Her light was on. I could see her shadow moving against the curtain. She was there. But her window stayed closed.

For the first time since she’d spoken to me, the night felt empty.

And I didn’t know how long I could take that silence.