Chapter 7 — The Way They Looked At Me
1045 Words
I didn’t stay long after he left.
The library felt different once he was gone.
Not quieter.
Just… empty in a way it hadn’t been before.
Like something had been removed from the space without leaving a trace behind.
I closed my notebook without writing anything.
There was no point pretending.
I hadn’t come there to study.
And now, I couldn’t even convince myself otherwise.
I packed my bag slowly, giving myself time to settle whatever this feeling was.
It didn’t settle.
It stayed.
Low.
Persistent.
Uncomfortable in a way I couldn’t explain.
By the time I stepped outside, the sky had already started to dim. Evening had settled over the campus, soft light stretching across the walkways, shadows forming in corners that had felt normal just hours ago.
Everything looked the same.
But it didn’t feel the same.
I started walking.
No direction at first.
Just movement.
Because standing still made it worse.
“You’ve been quiet.”
The voice came from behind me.
I turned.
Olivia.
She walked up beside me easily, like she had always been there.
“Long day?” she asked.
“Something like that.”
She studied me for a second.
Not obvious.
Just enough.
“You saw him again,” she said.
It wasn’t a question.
I didn’t answer immediately.
Didn’t want to make it real by saying it out loud.
“That’s not a good sign,” she added.
I glanced at her.
“What does that mean?”
“It means it’s not just coincidence anymore.”
I exhaled slowly.
“That’s what everyone keeps saying.”
“Because it’s true.”
We walked in silence for a few seconds.
Students passed by us, laughing, talking, living inside something that still felt distant to me.
Normal.
Simple.
Uncomplicated.
“You should be careful,” Olivia said quietly.
I stopped walking.
Not because I meant to.
Just… because something in her tone made me.
“I’m not doing anything,” I said.
“That’s the problem.”
I frowned slightly.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does,” she replied. “You think you’re just letting things happen. But you’re not. You’re letting him happen.”
That hit.
Not hard.
But enough.
“I didn’t go looking for him,” I said.
“I know.”
“Then how is this on me?”
She hesitated.
Then—
“Because you’re not walking away.”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
Not one I liked.
We started walking again.
Slower this time.
Like the conversation had changed something between us.
“He doesn’t do this,” she added.
“Do what?”
“Show up for people.”
That made me look at her.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “he doesn’t just sit and talk. He doesn’t go out of his way to be around anyone.”
The words echoed quietly in my head.
Library.
“You’re sure about that?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Everyone knows that.”
That didn’t match what I had seen.
Or what I had experienced.
And that—
that bothered me more than it should have.
“Then why me?” I asked before I could stop myself.
Olivia didn’t answer immediately.
That silence said more than anything else.
“I don’t know,” she said finally.
“But I don’t think you should find out.”
We reached the main walkway.
More people here.
More noise.
More life.
But something had changed.
Not around me.
Inside me.
Because now—
this wasn’t just something happening.
It was something being noticed.
Not just by me.
By everyone.
I could feel it.
The way a few people glanced at me longer than they should have.
The way conversations shifted slightly when I passed.
The way something unspoken seemed to follow just behind me.
“Do you feel that?” I asked quietly.
Olivia didn’t pretend not to understand.
“Yes.”
“What is it?”
She looked ahead.
Not at me.
“At the people walking past.
“At him,” she said.
That didn’t make sense.
“He’s not even here.”
“You don’t have to see him for people to notice.”
I slowed again.
The words settled differently this time.
Not like a warning.
Like a fact.
“And they’re noticing me?” I asked.
“They’re noticing you with him.”
That was worse.
Because it made it real in a way I hadn’t allowed myself to think about yet.
This wasn’t just between me and Jace anymore.
It was visible.
Observable.
Something people could see.
Something they were already forming opinions about.
“That’s ridiculous,” I said.
“It is,” she agreed. “But that doesn’t change it.”
We stopped near the entrance gate.
Students moving in and out.
Cars passing slowly outside.
Everything normal again.
Except—
I wasn’t.
“Just… be careful, Isla,” Olivia said.
“You keep saying that.”
“Because you’re not listening.”
I looked at her.
“I am.”
“No,” she said softly.
“You’re just not stopping.”
That stayed.
Longer than anything else she had said.
She gave me a small nod, then turned and walked away, disappearing into the crowd without waiting for a response.
I stood there for a moment.
Watching people pass.
Listening to nothing in particular.
Thinking about everything.
Then—
I felt it again.
That shift.
That awareness.
Slow.
Familiar.
I didn’t turn immediately.
I didn’t need to.
Some things don’t change.
Even when everything else does.
Still—
I looked.
Across the street.
Near the dim edge of the campus lights.
There he was.
Jace.
Standing like he had always been there.
Like he had never left.
Like distance didn’t matter.
Like time didn’t matter.
His gaze met mine.
Not searching.
Not surprised.
Just… waiting.
And for the first time since all of this started—
I didn’t look away.
Because now I understood something.
This wasn’t just something I had stepped into.
It was something that had already started—
before I realized I was part of it.
And whatever this was…
It wasn’t letting go.
- Writer
