CHAPTER FOURTEEN
641 Words
Mira didn’t cry.
Not in her room.
Not in the bathroom.
Not even when she looked in the mirror and saw how tired her eyes were.
She just… shut down.
Ang weird kasi:
Hindi naman sila.
Hindi naman dapat masakit.
Pero the image of Lance smelling like perfume that wasn’t hers…
the way he couldn’t even look her in the eye…
the silence…
It all settled in her chest like a stone.
So she did the only thing she could do to survive:
She acted normal.
“Good morning,” she said at breakfast, voice calm.
Her mom smiled. “Morning, sweetheart.”
Lance looked up — startled, almost tense — like he expected her to ignore him.
But Mira didn’t look at him.
Not once.
Not even when their gazes almost met.
It was worse than anger.
Worse than tears.
It was distance.
Real, intentional distance.
The kind Lance wasn’t ready for.
HE watched her.
Every movement.
Every small, quiet action.
How she didn’t avoid him…
But she didn’t look for him either.
How she answered everyone at the table…
Except him.
How she tied her hair, checked her bag, grabbed her notebook —
all without acknowledging his existence.
“Mira,” he said before he could stop himself.
She paused at the doorway.
Turned halfway — not towards him, but just enough to be polite.
“Hmm?”
He swallowed.
“Ma… may ihahatid ako today. Sabay ka na?”
“No, thanks,” she said simply. “May kasabay ako.”
A beat.
Then she left.
And Lance felt something inside him collapse.
Kasabay?
Sino?
He already knew the answer.
CALIX met her by the gate, waving when he saw her.
“Good morning, Mira!”
She smiled — small, genuine, relieved.
And Lance, watching through the window upstairs, felt heat rise up his neck.
Calix took her bag.
Carried it.
Talked animatedly.
Mira laughed a little.
Not the same laugh she had before.
But still—
she laughed.
And if jealousy had a sound,
it would’ve been the breaking noise inside Lance’s chest.
EVEN in school, Mira was quieter.
Trixie noticed first.
“Girl, okay ka lang?”
“Yeah,” Mira said, scribbling notes. “Pagod lang.”
Andre frowned. “Sure?”
She nodded.
But Calix noticed everything.
The way her eyes dulled.
The way she spaced out.
The way she shut her phone off when Lance’s name flashed on the screen.
So he sat beside her.
“You don’t have to tell me anything,” he said softly. “Pero… I’m here.”
And the worst part?
Mira felt safe.
Not understood.
Not swept away.
Just… safe.
A kind of safety she desperately needed after last night.
LANCE tried to focus at work.
He couldn’t.
He tried to ignore her laughter with Calix in the hallway.
He couldn’t.
He tried to convince himself it didn’t matter.
He failed.
Everything reminded him of her.
Her mug in the sink.
Her shoes by the door.
Her hair clip on the couch.
Her quiet footsteps upstairs.
She was everywhere.
But she wasn’t his.
And now… she wasn’t even looking at him.
That night, he waited by the dining table — pretending he was checking emails.
Mira passed by quietly.
“Hey,” he said, too softly.
“Hi,” she replied, not stopping.
She walked straight to her room.
Door clicked shut.
And that tiny sound made Lance bury his face in his hands.
He wanted to apologize.
He wanted to explain.
He wanted to tell her the truth:
Na nasaktan siya.
Na nagselos siya.
Na nalasing siya.
Na hindi niya iyon gusto.
Na siya yung nagkamali.
But she wasn’t giving him any opening.
And for the first time,
Lance realized something terrifying:
He wasn’t losing her to another guy.
He was losing her because of himself.
- Writer
