(Aria)
I noticed it before anyone said anything.
Not a look. Not a word.
Just a shift.
The house had been tense since the attack, but this was different. Sharper. Focused. Like something fragile had finally cracked and everyone was pretending it hadn’t.
People stopped meeting my eyes as easily. Conversations ended when I entered a room—not abruptly, but deliberately. Like a door closing softly instead of slamming.
I felt it most in the silence.
When Alice walked past me in the corridor, she didn’t slow.
She didn’t acknowledge me at all.
No nod. No glance. Nothing.
It shouldn’t have mattered. I barely knew her. But the absence of recognition felt intentional, like a decision made and enforced.
I stood still long after she’d gone, listening to the echo of her heels fade.
That was
