CHAPTER 21
You can try to outrun the truth. You can drown yourself in schoolwork, in friendships, in silence. But the heart keeps score in ways the mind can’t control. That morning, as I tried to keep my world steady, it was the smallest things that betrayed me—the flutter in my chest when my phone buzzed, the way I avoided certain spots around campus, like the table under the mango tree where he once waited for me.
Chen hadn’t texted since that night. And somehow, that made it harder.
I wanted to believe that space was good—that silence meant peace. But silence also left room for the kind of thoughts that sneak in at midnight when the lights are off and the room feels lonelier than usual.
Steph burst into my room just as I finished brushing my hair. Her energy was its usual bright cha
