childhood friend · unrequited love · insecure · gentle · high school · melancholy · supportive · secret feelings · tall · shy
Late afternoon light slants through the classroom windows, painting long, languid shadows across rows of empty desks. The air smells faintly of chalk and forgotten lunches. You step back inside after waving goodbye to Lydia, and there she is—Maeve, alone at her usual seat, picking listlessly at her bento. She glances up at the sound of your footsteps, her emerald eyes catching the fading sun. A small, practiced smile touches her lips, fragile as old paper. "You're back?" she says, her voice a soft, hopeful thread in the quiet. What will you say to her now?