WHAT WE LOST

Chapter Fourteen —Slowly Drifting

Weeks passed.

At first, nothing seemed different.

Amara and Ethan were still together. They still talked. They still cared about each other. They still had those moments when everything felt exactly the way it used to.

But somewhere between the examinations, schoolwork, busy schedules, and everything happening around them, something began to change.

It didn’t happen all at once.

There was no particular day when Amara woke up and suddenly felt different about Ethan.

It was gradual.

A missed conversation here.

A late reply there.

A day when Ethan seemed too busy to notice that she needed him.

Then another day.

And another.

Before Amara realized it, she had become used to waiting for Ethan.

She would check her phone, hoping to see his name.

Sometimes it came.

Sometimes it didn’t.

And when they did talk, their conversations weren’t always the way they used to be.

The warmth was still there somewhere, but it was buried underneath irritation, misunderstandings, and little arguments that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Amara tried to ignore it.

She kept telling herself that Ethan was probably just busy.

She reminded herself that people had bad days.

She reminded herself that relationships couldn’t be perfect all the time.

But deep down, she was lonely.

She missed the version of Ethan who seemed to notice everything about her.

The Ethan who could tell when something was wrong without her explaining.

The Ethan who made time for her.

The Ethan who made her feel like she mattered.

She still loved him.

That was the most confusing part.

Even when she was angry with him, she still loved him.

Even when she told herself she was tired of everything, her heart still wanted him.

But loving someone didn’t automatically make the loneliness disappear.

Then someone else started giving her the attention she had been missing.

His name was Ryan.

He wasn’t someone Amara had planned to become close to.

It started innocently.

They talked at school.

Then they started messaging sometimes.

Ryan listened when she spoke.

He noticed when she wasn’t in a good mood.

He asked about her day.

He gave her the kind of attention she had been wishing Ethan would give her.

At first, Amara didn’t think much of it.

She told herself they were just talking.

Nothing more.

But eventually, she started looking forward to his messages.

When Ethan took hours to reply, Ryan was there.

When she felt ignored, Ryan gave her someone to talk to.

When she was frustrated after another argument with Ethan, Ryan made her laugh.

And slowly, without even intending to, Amara began giving Ryan more of her time.

She knew it wasn’t completely right.

Somewhere in her mind, she knew Ethan would probably be hurt if he knew how close she was becoming to another boy.

But she was hurt too.

She felt like Ethan had already left her emotionally.

So a part of her wondered why she should keep waiting for someone who didn’t seem to be waiting for her.

Still, every time she looked at Ethan, something inside her softened.

No matter how much attention Ryan gave her, it wasn’t the same.

Because Ethan was Ethan.

He was the person she had fallen in love with.

The person whose presence had once made ordinary days feel special.

The person she still thought about before going to sleep.

The person whose messages could change her mood with just a few words.

She couldn’t simply stop loving him because things had become difficult.

Ethan noticed the change too.

He noticed that Amara wasn’t always available anymore.

He noticed how often she was on her phone.

He noticed the new name appearing on her screen.

Most importantly, he noticed Ryan.

He saw them talking at school one afternoon.

There was nothing obviously wrong about it.

They weren’t doing anything that could prove Amara had betrayed him.

They were simply talking.

Laughing.

Spending time together.

But Ethan’s expression changed when he saw them.

He didn’t walk over.

He didn’t ask questions.

He didn’t confront Amara.

He simply looked away.

Something inside him told him that he had no right to complain.

After all, he knew he hadn’t been giving Amara the same attention he used to.

Maybe this was what happened when someone got tired of waiting.

Maybe she had found someone who gave her what he wasn’t giving her.

So Ethan kept quiet.

And his silence only made things worse.

Amara noticed that he had seen them.

She expected him to say something.

She expected him to ask who Ryan was.

She expected some kind of reaction.

But Ethan said nothing.

That hurt more than she expected.

She wanted him to care.

She wanted him to show that he was jealous, even if she knew jealousy wasn’t necessarily healthy.

She wanted him to ask why another boy had become so important to her.

Instead, he acted like it didn’t matter.

And Amara began wondering if maybe it really didn’t.

That evening, when Ethan finally messaged her, their conversation started normally.

But it didn’t stay that way for long.

One small misunderstanding turned into another.

A simple question became an accusation.

An explanation sounded like an excuse.

Before long, they were arguing again.

It had become almost predictable.

Every time they talked lately, something went wrong.

Amara would feel like Ethan wasn’t listening.

Ethan would feel like Amara was blaming him for everything.

They would both get frustrated.

They would both say things they didn’t necessarily mean.

And eventually, one of them would stop replying.

This time, it was Amara.

She placed her phone beside her and stared at the ceiling.

She hated that they couldn’t talk anymore without fighting.

She hated how far apart they had become.

Most of all, she hated that even after everything, she still loved him so much.

She picked up her phone again.

There were two notifications waiting for her.

One was from Ethan.

The other was from Ryan.

Amara stared at both names.

For a moment, she didn’t know which message she wanted to open.

That realization frightened her.

Because there was a time when Ethan’s name would have been the only one she wanted to see.

But things were different now.

Not because she had stopped loving Ethan.

She hadn’t.

She still loved him deeply.

She simply didn’t feel loved in the same way anymore.

And that difference was slowly creating a space between them that neither of them seemed to know how to close.

The following days continued the same way.

Amara and Ethan spoke less.

When they did speak, they argued more.

Ryan became a bigger part of Amara’s everyday life, even though she still refused to admit to herself exactly what that meant.

Ethan continued noticing.

He continued saying nothing.

And every time he saw Amara with Ryan, he felt something tighten inside him.

But instead of asking her about it, he pulled back even more.

Amara interpreted his distance as proof that he didn’t care.

Ethan interpreted her closeness with Ryan as proof that she had already found someone else.

Neither of them said what they were really feeling.

Neither of them admitted how scared they were of losing each other.

So they continued drifting.

Two people who still loved each other deeply.

Two people who still wanted things to work.

But somehow, they were becoming strangers while standing right beside each other.

And neither of them knew how much longer they could keep pretending that everything was okay.