Chapter 1When I slid back into my seat, Leo was chatting with the guy beside him.
He glanced up, same easy way he always did.
"Where'd your glasses go?"
I pressed my fingers against my eyelids. They felt gritty and raw from being outside.
"Broke them."
He let out a breath and yanked the window shade down next to me.
"I'll give you a ride home later."
For half a second, I almost convinced myself I'd imagined what I overheard on photo day.
After the last bell, someone grabbed him in the hallway.
He told me to hang tight in the room.
So I did.
Two hours.
I would've called, but my battery was toast.
Eventually one of the teachers walked past and noticed me still sitting there.
"Olivia? What are you still doing here?"
She knew about my vision and said she could drop me off.
I turned her down.
If Leo came back and I wasn't here, he'd think I just bailed.
When she saw my dead phone, she pulled out hers and called him for me.
Twenty minutes later, Leo showed up in the doorway, breathing hard.
"I sent you like three texts. I said just head out without me."
"Didn't get them."
I held up my phone like evidence.
"Dead."
He stared at me. Something shifted behind his eyes—something I couldn't pin down.
But whatever it was, he didn't say it out loud.
"Come on."
He barely talked the whole walk.
Mostly just tapped away at his screen, answering whoever kept blowing it up.
There was this smell coming off him—sharp and green, like someone had crushed mint leaves against his jacket.
It hadn't been there this morning.
Where the hell had he been?
When we hit my building, someone yelled his name.
A group was standing near the entrance. I couldn't make out faces in the dim light.
But that same smell was coming off one of them.
Leo took a couple quick steps toward them. I stayed put.
"What are you guys doing here?"
"The spot's literally around the corner. We swung by to scoop you up."
The voice was smooth and confident—I knew it from morning announcements all year.
Grace Hale. The girl everyone at school was obsessed with.
"Yeah, okay. Just give me one second. I'm walking her in."
One of the girls made an annoyed sound.
"Are you serious right now? You're already at her building. She needs you to walk her to the door?"
One of Leo's friends cut in.
"Olivia can't see that well when it gets dark."
The girl made a sharp noise with her tongue.
"She looks perfectly fine during the day. Who even knows if it's legit?
"It's Grace's birthday and she's making this whole production out of it. I swear she does this on purpose. Way to kill the vibe."
I stood there with my hands balled up, nowhere to shove them.
When Leo came back over, I kept my voice low.
"Just go with them. I can get inside on my own."
He paused.
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah."
I turned and headed for the entrance.
Their voices drifted after me.
"Hey, Leo. You gonna tuck your invalid girlfriend in while you're at it?"
"She's my friend. Don't be a dick."
My feet stopped moving.
In all the years I'd known him, that was the first time he'd ever corrected someone like that.
The courtyard was decently lit.
Even so, the lights just gave me shapes—not details.
I felt my way forward, something tight wrapping around my ribs.
He'd never bothered fixing people's assumptions before, because it never mattered to him.
Now it mattered.
Because of Grace?
My shin hit something and I went down.
My hand flared with pain, and for a second I just sat there on the pavement, completely disoriented.
He hadn't always been like this.
We used to live across the hall from each other.
He held my hand walking to school and walking home.
He asked the teacher to sit us together.
When other kids gave me crap about my eyes, he stepped in front of me.
When did I turn into an obligation?
"Olivia!"
Footsteps pounding behind me.
Leo pulled me up off the ground.
"This is what you call handling it yourself?"
His voice had an edge.
But his hands were gentle, checking to make sure nothing was actually hurt.
Then he took hold of my arm and walked me home—the way he used to.
That little spark in my chest flared back to life.
Leo still gave a damn.
Chapter 2
That night I just lay in bed staring at the ceiling.
I kept thinking about what I'd heard.
Grace had her birthday that day.
Leo's was coming up in two days.
So it wasn't just that smell on their jackets.
Even their birthdays were right next to each other.
Morning came and I walked over to his apartment.
His mom opened the door.
"Olivia! Get in here!"
Leo shouted something from his room but didn't come out.
"I don't get your school," Ms. Carter said. "The SATs are coming up in three weeks and they're giving you random days off? How's anyone supposed to stay focused?"
She pointed toward his bedroom door.
"That one's been on his computer since he ate breakfast. Hasn't moved once."
She started pulling things out from the fridge.
"Go sit with him. Tell me what you want to eat and I'll make it."
Ms. Carter grabbed her bag and left for the store. I walked up to Leo's door and knocked.
He had his headset on and his eyes were glued to the screen.
He saw me out of the corner of his eye and waved me in without looking away.
I sat down in the chair behind him and watched the game.
I couldn't understand what was happening on the screen.
I couldn't follow half of what he was saying to his teammates either.
When the round ended, he finally turned around.
"It's boiling outside. Why'd you walk all the way over here?"
I held up the box I'd brought.
"Happy birthday."
"Oh. Thanks."
He took it from me and set it down on his desk without opening it.
His phone went off right then.
He looked at the screen and picked up.
"Leo, get back in the game! Grace said she'll carry us this time—we got crushed earlier. Come on, man."
"Yeah, okay, I'm coming."
He pulled his headset back on. Then he paused and glanced back at me like he just remembered I was there.
"There's manga on the shelf if you want some."
He turned back to his monitor and that was it.
I stayed in the chair and watched him laugh with people I didn't know.
That's when it really hit me.
We weren't living in the same world anymore.
"I'm gonna go."
I thought he hadn't heard me.
But I got to the doorway and he called out.
"You're still doing Westbridge, right?"
Westbridge had been his dream school forever. It was the place we'd promised each other we'd go to when we were kids.
I nodded.
"Yeah. What about you?"
"Okay. Cool."
I wanted to ask what that was supposed to mean.
But he'd already started the next game.
My eyes went to the present sitting on his desk.
It was that record he'd been talking about for months.
I'd spent two whole weeks tracking it down—went to like fifteen different shops all over the east side of town. When I finally found one, the owner didn't even want to sell it. I had to talk him into it for twenty minutes.
Now it was just sitting there in the corner where he'd left it.
Nobody was going to look at it again.
I felt the same way.
I bent down to tie my shoes by the door and heard his voice coming from the bedroom.
Someone in the game must've asked him something.
"Westbridge? Nah, I don't even want to go there. That city's way too dry. I'd hate it.
"I'll just wait and see what happens when the letters come."
My hand stopped moving.
Then why did he ask if I was still going?
So he'd know which school to avoid?
The front door opened from outside.
Ms. Carter came back with grocery bags in both hands.
"Olivia, you're leaving already? Stay and eat with us."
I gave her a small smile.
"I'm okay, thanks. I want to get some studying done."
She didn't push it. She just turned toward Leo's room and raised her voice.
"Leo! You're still playing that game? At least walk her out!"
I pushed through the stairwell door and walked into the heat.
The sun was everywhere and it felt like it was burning through my shirt.
Inside I felt completely empty.
So much for going to Westbridge together.
He didn't care about that anymore, which meant I didn't have to either.
The night before the SAT, my phone buzzed with a text from Leo.
"i'll pick you up in the morning"
I stared at it for a long time.
Then I typed back.
"don't worry about it. my parents are driving me"
The next morning I walked through the gates of the testing center by myself.
It was the first time something really mattered and Leo wasn't beside me.
I found my room number on the board and turned to leave.
Someone crashed into me from behind.
Chapter 3
My pencil case slipped out of my hands when someone bumped me.
Everything inside went skidding across the tile—pens rolling in different directions, my eraser bouncing twice before stopping near the wall.
My admission ticket landed a few feet ahead.
"Oops. Didn't catch you standing there."
A girl's voice. I'd never heard it before.
I didn't waste time looking at her—just went for the ticket.
Right when my hand got close, her shoe pinned it down.
She crouched next to me with this sharp little laugh.
"Wait, can you actually not see? Or do you just milk it? Your eyes really do look off though."
"Back up."
I tugged the corner of the paper. Her shoe didn't budge.
"Doesn't matter if it's real or not—you're still dragging Leo down. So maybe give him some space?
"Just saying."
I glanced up. Her face registered then—I'd seen her somewhere before.
"Let go. What Leo and I do isn't your concern."
"God, you're really—"
She ground her heel down and the ticket tore clean in half.
Before she got another word out, someone grabbed her shoulder and yanked her backward.
Leo was there and the look on his face could've frozen water.
"What's your damage?"
She blinked, caught off guard.
"My damage?
"It was an accident. I apologized."
Leo bent down, scooped up the ripped ticket and my scattered pens, and dumped them into my hands.
"Let's go. I'll walk you."
I clutched the case to my chest and followed without looking back.
As we passed her, she muttered under her breath.
"Dramatic much?"
I recognized the voice then.
She'd been standing outside my building that night. The one with Grace.
Leo walked me right up to my testing room door before heading off to find his.
For maybe thirty seconds it felt like old times.
But the tension wasn't imaginary. And neither was the distance growing between us.
I didn't know him anymore.
The SAT ended and the entire school collectively exhaled.
That night I cleaned up my desk and mindlessly opened my phone.
Grace had posted a photo.
It was the vinyl. My vinyl.
Caption underneath: "Best surprise ever. Can't stop playing it. You know me too well."
Same record I'd spent two weeks hunting down for Leo's birthday. Same sleeve I'd written a note on in my own handwriting.
My chest tightened so fast I could barely breathe.
I hit call.
"Did you seriously give Grace my gift?"
He barely paused. "Yeah.
"We were talking about music and he mentioned liking that album, so I lent it to him."
My throat closed up. When I spoke again my voice came out raw.
"Leo, do you have any idea how long it took me to find that?
"You handed it off to someone else like it was nothing. And you didn't even think to mention it?"
Now he sounded annoyed.
"It's a record, Olivia. You're actually mad about a record right now?"
"It's not the record."
My voice broke.
"It's what I put into finding it. And you acted like none of that mattered."
"You gave it to me. That makes it mine. I'll do whatever I want with it.
"You don't control that."
I tried to respond. Couldn't.
"I can't do this right now."
The line went dead.
I sat there staring at my phone while my chest felt like it was caving in.
Same exact tone he'd used on picture day.
We didn't speak again after that.
Not until our class organized a group dinner that spring.
I didn't want to show up.
But it was the first real class event all year.
My parents insisted. Ms. Carter even specifically told Leo to look after me.
First time we'd been in the same space since the blowup.
He barely looked at me the entire drive.
I tried starting conversations a couple times. Got one-word answers and silence.
Eventually I stopped trying. We sat there like two people who used to know each other and now didn't.
The restaurant was chaos—voices overlapping, music too loud, everyone talking at once.
I nursed a Coke and half-listened to conversations I couldn't contribute to.
My vision doesn't handle screen glare well.
I avoid direct sunlight when possible.
Once the sun sets I might as well be navigating in the dark.
Sports, video games, spontaneous plans—nothing at that table involved me.
Ten minutes in and I was already planning my escape.
Then someone pulled out a bottle and suggested truth or dare.
It spun past a few people before stopping in front of Leo.
He picked truth.
A girl across from him grinned wide.
"Okay Leo, real talk—you're always watching out for Olivia. So like, do you have a thing for her or what?"
