Chapter 192

The hallway feels different without him in it.

I noticed it the moment I walked through the main entrance this morning, this low, ambient wrongness, the kind you feel before you can name it. It took me until I reached my locker to identify it properly: I kept almost turning around, because after four months of him being a constant presence at my back, my body apparently hasn’t received the memo that he’s gone, and every few steps some muscle memory fires and expects to find him there.

Standing as always.

It’s infuriating. The one upside of him being out of my life should be not having to look at his face every day and feel my chest do that stupid complicated thing, and now I find out my nervous system has apparently developed an attachment entirely without my consent.

I am busy being annoyed about this when Chloe appears.

“So where’s your shiny bodyguard?” she asks, falling into step beside me.

I keep walking. “Good morning to you too, Chlo. I