18

18 ~Velma’s POV I stared at my phone like it had betrayed me. Dylan’s name was still on the screen. Missed calls. Too many of them. Messages stacked one after the other, all saying the same thing in different ways. Please. Just talk to me. Let us meet. Just friends. Friends. My chest tightened painfully. I felt heat rise to my face, then to my eyes. Not tears. Anger. Pure anger. “How dare you,” I whispered to the empty room. I scrolled through the messages again, even though I knew I should not. Each word felt like an intrusion, like he had reached into a space I had locked on purpose. I did not answer. Instead, I turned off my phone completely. The silence that followed was heavy but also calm, like shutting a door against noise I did not ask for. I lay back on the bed, staring