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Samayra pressed her books tighter to her chest as she walked thru the Year 9 corridor. The noise of laughter and gossip spilled from every corner, but she moved through it like a ghost, half there, half somewhere else.
It wasn’t that she was invisible people noticed her she was very popular actually. They always did. But she never leaned into the spotlight the way some girls did. She didn’t crave it, not like Leo.
Leo was awkward. Everyone knew it. His jokes he never actually meant to make his hair was never quite in place, and he always was always late, Yet, somehow, he was there quiet enough to be noticed, desperate enough not to fade away.
Alexander, though… he was different. Once, he had been part of Samayra’s world. Back in Year 7, he would follow and chase her, he gave her flowers on the feild and messaged. But things had shifted. She blocked him. Alexander hadn’t kept up. His grades bad, his confidence shattered, and he wore the label everyone else pinned on him: loser.
Still, he loved her. He never said it outright, but it was written all over the way his eyes found her in crowded classrooms, the way he didnt ever speak to her. Samayra knew. And she wished she didn’t.
Because she wasn’t that girl anymore the one who belonged to nights messaging him. She had stepped forward, and Alexander had stayed behind.
Today, in the dinner hall, Leo made a, clumsy attempt at pulling out a chair for her. Half the table giggled. Samayra gave him a polite smile, more out of habit than warmth, and sat. Across the room, Alexander sat alone, headphones in, staring at nothing.
For just a moment, her chest ached.
Samayra looked at Leo’s grin, heard the buzz of the table around her, and then glanced back at Alexander. He didn’t notice her. Maybe that was for the best.
But somewhere deep inside, she wondered if he always would.