CHAPTER 2: THE GIRL WHO FIT PERFECTLY
1244 Words
I told myself I wasn’t going to think about it.
About earlier.
About the way Nikolai stood in front of me like he always did, and yet somehow felt a little further away than usual.
About Vivienne Collins and the way her hand had rested on his arm so naturally, like she had never had to wonder whether she belonged there.
I told myself it didn’t matter.
But the problem with thoughts is that they don’t disappear just because you decide to ignore them.
They stay.
Quietly.
Patiently.
Until you’re forced to notice them again.
⸻
The classroom was loud in the way all classrooms are when the teacher hasn’t arrived yet. Chairs scraping, students talking over each other, paper being passed around for no real reason. I sat at my desk pretending to organize my things, even though everything was already in place.
I didn’t need to look up to know where Nikolai was sitting.
I had memorized his presence the same way I memorized everything else about him.
Two rows away.
Near the window.
Always near the window.
I had never asked why.
I just assumed it suited him.
Someone laughed behind me, pulling me slightly out of my thoughts. I turned just a little, not enough to make it obvious I was paying attention, and that was when I saw her.
Vivienne Collins.
She was walking into the classroom like she had never been unsure of anything in her life. Her uniform was neat in a way that looked effortless, not forced. Her hair fell perfectly even when she moved, like nothing about her could ever look out of place.
People noticed her immediately.
That was the kind of person she was.
Not loud.
Just impossible to ignore.
⸻
“Vivienne,” someone called from across the room. “You’re late.”
She smiled slightly, the kind of smile that didn’t feel like it was trying too hard. “I had to help a teacher,” she said simply, as if that explained everything.
A few people nodded like that made sense.
And maybe it did.
Because that was how people reacted to her. Like she always had a reason. Like she always belonged exactly where she was supposed to be.
My eyes moved before I could stop them.
Nikolai had looked up.
Not dramatically. Not suddenly.
Just naturally.
Like his attention had already been waiting for her.
Vivienne walked toward him without hesitation, stopping beside his desk as if it was the most obvious place in the room for her to be.
“Hi,” she said softly.
Nikolai nodded. “You’re late.”
She tilted her head slightly. “You noticed?”
A faint pause.
Then, “It’s noisy without you.”
I didn’t know why that sentence bothered me.
It was small.
Normal, even.
But it landed somewhere I didn’t expect.
Vivienne smiled like she had heard something familiar instead of something new. “That’s sweet,” she said, like it was nothing unusual.
Then she leaned slightly closer and placed her bag beside his chair without asking.
Like she always did.
Like she belonged there.
⸻
I looked away before I could watch any longer.
It wasn’t jealousy.
At least, I kept telling myself it wasn’t.
It was just… awareness.
Of something I didn’t fully understand yet.
The teacher walked in, breaking the moment into something more structured. Lessons began, voices quieted, notebooks opened. The room settled into a rhythm that helped me stop thinking.
At least temporarily.
But even as I wrote notes I wasn’t fully processing, my mind kept drifting back to earlier.
To Nikolai’s voice.
To Vivienne’s smile.
To the way they existed in the same space without ever needing to explain anything.
It was like they already understood each other in a way no one else needed to be part of.
Including me.
⸻
Lunch came too quickly.
Or maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.
I found myself sitting in my usual spot under the shade of a tree near the courtyard. It wasn’t because I liked it. It was just where I always ended up.
Familiar places are easier to exist in when you don’t want to think too much.
I opened my food slowly, even though I wasn’t really hungry.
That was when I saw them again.
Nikolai and Vivienne.
Walking together.
Not rushed.
Not awkward.
Just… natural.
They were talking about something I couldn’t hear, and Vivienne laughed softly at something he said. It wasn’t loud or exaggerated. It was quiet in a way that made it feel more real than anything else around them.
Nikolai glanced at her while she laughed.
And for a second—
Just a second—
His expression changed.
Not into a smile.
Not fully.
But something softer.
Something I wasn’t used to seeing on him.
Something I had never seen directed at me.
My grip on my spoon tightened slightly before I realized it.
I looked down quickly at my food.
This time, I didn’t tell myself it didn’t matter.
I told myself I didn’t have the right to make it matter.
⸻
“Amielle.”
I almost dropped my spoon.
Nikolai was suddenly in front of me again.
I blinked. “When did you—”
“With Vivienne,” he said, as if finishing the sentence for me.
Of course.
I nodded once. “I saw.”
That wasn’t what I meant to say.
But it came out anyway.
There was a brief pause.
Nikolai studied me again, like he was trying to figure out something that wasn’t visible on the surface.
“You’ve been quiet,” he said.
“I’m always quiet.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
I looked away slightly. “Then what do you mean?”
He didn’t answer immediately.
That silence again.
The kind that made me more aware of everything I usually ignored.
Finally, he said, “Never mind.”
And just like that, he let it go.
That should have made me feel better.
It didn’t.
⸻
After that, the day passed in fragments.
Lessons. Conversations I didn’t fully listen to. The sound of chairs moving and pages turning. Everything blurred together into something I could function through without actually being present in.
But every time I stopped thinking too hard, my mind went back to the same image.
Vivienne standing beside Nikolai like she belonged there.
And Nikolai not correcting it.
Not once.
⸻
After school, I waited near the gate like always.
The sky was slightly darker than usual, the kind of gray that meant the day was ending without making it feel like anything had changed.
I checked my phone twice.
No messages.
That wasn’t unusual.
Still, I found myself looking up every time I heard footsteps nearby.
And then I saw him.
Nikolai.
Walking toward me the same way he always did.
Like nothing in the world had shifted.
“Sorry,” he said when he reached me. “Vivienne needed help with something.”
I nodded before I could think. “It’s fine.”
But it didn’t sound fine.
Even I could hear it.
Nikolai looked at me for a moment. Longer than usual.
Then he said, “Let’s go.”
And we started walking.
Side by side.
Like always.
But this time, it didn’t feel like always anymore.
It felt like something was slowly changing.
Even if neither of us was ready to say it out loud.
- Writer
