Amy's POV
I noticed the distance before I could name it.
That was the thing about Lia she was never subtle in her warmth, which meant she was never subtle in the withdrawal of it either. She was the kind of person who filled a room when she entered it, not loudly but completely, and so when she began to quietly remove herself the absence had a shape to it. A texture.
It started small enough that I almost convinced myself I was imagining it. She was slower to reply to my messages not by much, not enough to point to directly, but enough that I noticed. She'd be mid-conversation with Mia when I arrived at the locker bay and something would shift slightly, a door easing shut that I couldn't quite see. She laughed at my jokes the way you laughed at things that weren't quite funny enough po
