Chapter 3-THAT ONE BOY
428 Words
By their third meeting, Tara had started to count on him showing up.
She didn’t say it out loud, of course.
Not to her classmates, not to herself.
But her eyes drifted to the almond tree at lunch.
Her ears half-listened for the sound of paperback pages turning.
Her chest quietly hoped for that one person who never asked her for anything except her company.
He came.
Of course he did.
Same book. Same seat.
But something felt different today.
His fingers were fidgeting with the edge of a worn bookmark, flipping it back and forth like he was trying to stop them from shaking.
Tara sat beside him, unwrapping a pack of chin-chin.
“You okay?” she asked, gently.
He paused.
Then looked at her.
“I hate Thursdays.”
She blinked. That was unexpected.
“Why?”
He didn’t answer right away.
He took the chin-chin she offered, chewed slowly. Then ,
“My brother died on a Thursday.”
The world seemed to mute around her.
It wasn’t the answer she was prepared for.
She didn’t even know he had a brother.
Tyler never talked about himself , never gave more than needed.
But now, he was looking at her like… he wanted her to know.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He gave a half-shrug. “It’s been three years. People think you move on.”
She stayed quiet.
Because she knew that tone.
The quiet resentment. The ache that hides in calmness.
“You don’t move on,” she said softly. “You just learn how to carry it without spilling.”
That made him look at her.
Longer this time. Deeper.
“You’ve lost someone too?”
She hesitated.
Then nodded. “Myself. A little bit. Over and over.”
They sat in silence after that.
But this time, it wasn’t the kind she used to fill with smiles and favours.
It was a silence that let her breathe .
* Later that night…
Tara opened her journal like it was a wound that needed air.
"Dear you,"
Today you said something real.
Something that hurt you to say. And somehow, it made me feel like I wasn’t alone in the quiet I live in.
You lost your brother. I lost my voice.
Different stories. Same ache.
It’s weird ,how just sitting next to you makes my heart feel like it doesn’t have to pretend.
If this is what friendship feels like, maybe I want
it. Maybe I need it.
And maybe, just maybe, I want it to be with you."
- Writer
