CHAPTER FOUR_Dinner Table Silence
795 Words
CHAPTER FOUR
Dinner Table Silence
LILY POV
I told myself I would get used to it.
That was what I kept repeating in my head as the days passed.
New house. New school. New family.
Just… new everything.
But the truth was, the mansion didn’t start feeling less overwhelming.
I started getting used to feeling overwhelmed inside it.
That was the difference.
Breakfast was the hardest.
Not because anything bad happened.
But because nothing did.
And somehow, that made it worse.
Mom had already started falling into a rhythm with Elias. I could see it in the way she smiled more freely now, the way she didn’t hesitate before speaking, the way she looked lighter when she thought no one was watching her.
And I was happy for her.
I really was.
But sometimes happiness for someone else comes with this strange quiet ache you don’t know how to explain.
I sat at the long dining table one morning, picking at my food while the house felt too quiet around me.
Too expensive to be loud.
Too perfect to feel lived in.
Elias was already gone for work.
Mom was upstairs getting ready.
Which left—
Asher.
I didn’t see him at first.
Then I did.
He walked into the dining room like he hadn’t decided whether he wanted to be there yet.
Dark hoodie today instead of uniform blazer.
Hair slightly messy.
Same emerald eyes.
Same unreadable expression.
He didn’t say good morning.
He didn’t even look at me at first.
Just poured himself coffee and sat at the far end of the table like distance was something he preferred naturally.
I told myself not to look at him.
I really tried.
But I kept noticing small things without permission.
The way he didn’t touch the food immediately.
The way he leaned back in his chair like he didn’t belong to the space but controlled it anyway.
The way silence around him didn’t feel awkward—it felt intentional.
At one point, my spoon tapped lightly against my plate.
It wasn’t loud.
But in the quiet room, it felt like it echoed.
I froze slightly.
Immediately self-conscious.
I looked up quickly, expecting nothing—
But Asher’s eyes were already on me.
I stopped breathing for a second without realizing it.
He didn’t say anything.
Just watched me.
Like he was registering something small.
Then he looked away again.
Slowly.
Like I had passed a test I didn’t know I was taking.
My chest felt weird after that.
So I focused very hard on my food.
Very, very hard.
---
School was worse in a different way.
Not because it was difficult academically.
Because it was socially loud.
The kind of loud that felt like it was aimed at you even when it wasn’t.
People stared when I walked in.
Whispered.
Looked again.
I heard his name before I even fully understood the school system.
Asher Vale.
Like it was a warning and a status at the same time.
Girls smiled at me like they were trying to decide if I was competition or irrelevant.
I chose to be irrelevant.
It felt safer.
But that didn’t last long.
Because by lunchtime, I saw him.
And I understood immediately why everyone reacted the way they did.
He wasn’t surrounded.
He was followed.
Not physically close, but emotionally present in every direction.
Like people naturally oriented toward him.
He sat with a group of boys near the back of the cafeteria.
Laughing occasionally.
Not loudly.
Just enough to make people notice.
And then—
his eyes lifted.
Straight to me.
Across the room.
I didn’t know how long we held eye contact.
Probably not long.
But it felt like it stretched.
Like something had paused in the middle of the world.
Then he looked away first.
Like always.
But this time, my heart didn’t go back to normal immediately.
It stayed slightly off rhythm.
I hated that.
---
When I got home that afternoon, I tried to go straight upstairs.
But I stopped halfway through the hallway.
Because I heard voices.
Asher’s friends.
I didn’t mean to listen.
It just… carried.
“I’m telling you, she’s different,” one of them said.
I froze slightly behind the wall.
Asher’s voice followed after a pause.
“Don’t start.”
It was calm.
But something about it made me still completely.
Another voice laughed. “You noticed her though.”
Silence.
Then Asher, quieter:
“No.”
But it didn’t sound convincing.
Not even a little.
And I stood there in the hallway for a second too long after walking away.
Because I didn’t understand why hearing that bothered me.
Or why I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he said it.
Like even denying it… didn’t fully work.
- Writer
