The second week was harder than the first.
The first week had the novelty of adjustment, the idea of getting used to something, of trying to fill the absence with routine.
The second week didn't have that.
The second week was just the absence, familiar now, sitting in everything without the buffer of it being new.
I went to my classes. I ate with Lia and Nolan. I did my reading. I was present in my life in every practical sense and somewhere underneath all of it, I was aware, constantly and without being able to stop it, of the fact that he wasn't here.
I checked my phone more than I liked.
And made myself go to bed early just to make the time go by faster.
~0~
Tuesday's lecture was with the same professor again. I sat in the front row beside Nolan and wrote my notes. I stared at
