Chapter 13
I saw him before he saw me. That was new.
It was Tuesday, second period, and I was at my locker on the right wall. The green metal was cold against my shoulder. My backpack hung off one shoulder, the strap digging a little, not clutched to my chest like before. I’d stopped doing that last week. I didn’t realize I’d stopped until that morning.
The hallway was loud in the normal way. Lockers slamming, sneakers squeaking, someone laughing by the water fountain. I was trying to get my algebra book out, and my hands weren’t shaking. Then the noise shifted a little. People got quieter near the stairwell and I looked up without thinking.
Tyler was standing at the end of the hall.
He didn’t have his phone in his hand. His hands were in the pockets of his dark jacket, the one with the patches. His hair was the same, cut short, but his face wasn’t. The smirk was gone. He just stood there for a second, looking down the row of lockers at me, and then at everybody else, like he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to walk.
Jace wasn’t with him. He’d come back last Thursday but we hadn’t had classes together. Tyler had been out for five school days. I’d counted.
He started walking my way. Slow. He hesitated halfway, like he might turn toward the bathrooms instead, but then he kept coming. A couple of kids moved out of his path without looking at him.
I didn’t move. I left my backpack on one shoulder. I felt my fingers want to pull it around front, to hold it like armor, but I kept them on my locker handle. I breathed in. The fluorescent lights hummed the same cool tone they always had.
He stopped about three feet away. Too far to be threatening, too close to pretend it was an accident.
“Hey,” he said. His voice was quieter than I remembered. He cleared his throat. “Maya.”
I nodded. I didn’t say hey back right away.
He glanced down at the floor, then at my locker, then back at me. “Can I… can I talk to you for a sec?”
I shut my locker. The metallic thud echoed the way it always did in that hallway. “Okay.”
He pulled his hands out of his pockets and then didn’t know what to do with them. He rubbed the back of his neck. “So I had to do counseling. Like, it was required. To come back. And they told me I had to apologize. So… I’m sorry for what I did in the hallway. For filming you and saying that stuff. It was wrong and it won’t happen again.”
It came out rehearsed. Flat, like he was reading a line someone wrote for him. I watched his eyes while he said it. They didn’t quite meet mine.
Then he paused. His breathing got a little faster, and he looked actually at me for the first time.
“But I was trying to be funny,” he added, quieter. “Not… I didn’t think you’d be that scared. I thought you’d just laugh or whatever. It was stupid.”
That part didn’t sound rehearsed. It sounded awkward and real, and it made my chest tighten.
I felt the strap on my shoulder and I adjusted it, just once. “I was scared,” I said. My voice was small but steady. “Not entertained.”
He flinched a little. Just his eyebrows.
“I know,” he said.
“I don’t want you to film me again. Or talk to me like that,” I said. I kept it short on purpose. I’d practiced that boundary in my head last week, not knowing I’d actually get to say it. “You can walk past me. That’s fine. But we’re not friends.”
He nodded quickly. Too quickly. “Yeah. Okay. I get it. I’m not gonna.” He took a half step back, giving me more space. “I just wanted to say it in person. Not just in the office with everyone there.”
From my left, I saw Ms. Delgado standing in her doorway. She hadn’t said anything. She had her arms crossed but not in a mean way, just holding her coffee. She was watching us. I realized she’d been there the whole time Tyler was walking down the hall. She didn’t come closer. She didn’t need to.
Tyler saw her too and glanced away.
“Okay,” I said again.
He stood there another second, like he thought I might say more, or forgive him. I didn’t. I just looked at him, and then I turned and started walking toward my algebra class. My backpack stayed on one shoulder, bumping lightly against my back.
May you like
I heard his footsteps go the other way. He didn’t follow. He didn’t call after me. The hallway stayed a hallway, green lockers on the right, fluorescent lights overhead, kids moving around us.
It wasn’t friendly. It wasn’t fixed. But it wasn’t a trap anymore either. I could walk that line of lockers without holding my breath the whole way, and when the bell rang, I kept walking.
