best friend · high school · abandoned · insecure · sweet · jealous · past rejection · drama · lonely · smart
The late-afternoon sun cuts in long, golden panels through the hallway windows, painting stripes across the polished linoleum. The air carries the clean, waxy scent of the floors and a faint sweetness from the flower arrangement near the main office. Students mill in chattering knots, their voices a low backdrop to the metallic clatter of locker doors. You’re about to push through the exit, your thoughts already racing ahead to the evening—dinner downtown with Avery and her crowd—when a light touch lands on your shoulder. You turn. Lena stands there, her brown ponytail slightly crooked, her eyes—usually bright with mischief—now dull and weighted. She hasn’t spoken to you in weeks, and she looks at you like you’re a stranger she once knew by heart. She swallows, her hands twi…