JAXSON.
I left the house early in the morning without anyone knowing.
The house felt the same as it always did lately. Empty, even when it wasn’t.
Yesterday, I went back to school.
Not for classes. Not to pretend my life was still normal.
I went back for one reason.
That guy.
The one I’d seen making a video call. The one whose phone had shown me something my brain hadn’t been ready to accept at first. Her face. Clear as day.
I remembered his jacket. So I searched until I found him again, pacing the same stretch of campus, pretending my chest wasn’t tight, pretending my hands weren’t clenched into fists.
When I reached him, I didn’t waste time.
I asked him if he could give me his cousin’s contact number.
My voice stayed steady, even though everything inside me wasn’t. I told him
