Val's pov
One week later
I haven't cried since the airport.
I told myself, if I kept moving—if I laced my skates tighter, practiced longer, smiled harder—then I wouldn't feel the silence he left behind.
So I did.
I skated like my body was nothing but muscle memory. Every spin faster. Every jump higher. I stayed at the rink until the sky bled pink and the lights went off without warning.
Ashley said I looked good. "Like... toned," she said, eyes narrowing. "Are you eating?"
I smiled and nodded.
Lie.
Emma hugged me tighter these days. She didn't say much, just held on like she knew something had gone missing. Like she missed Theo too.
I never told her that the goodbye was harder than I made it seem.
It's funny.
I thought the days would drag, but they slipped by in a blur of sweat, homework, and hollow laughter. I didn't want to admit it, but even when I felt stronger, I didn't feel like me. Just a shinier, emptier version of the girl he left behind.
Some nights, I swore I could still hear his voice in the hallways. Or see that annoyingly perfect smirk flash by a classroom door. I'd turn my head, breath caught, and realize it was just my own shadow being stupid.
Still, I believed he'd come back.
I had to.
---
It was lunch when it happened.
I was sitting next to Ash and Avi—he had brought her fries and was lowkey flirting, which would've made me laugh any other day. My tray sat untouched, a salad wilting in the corner. I poked at a tomato and sipped my water.
Then Ash gasped.
Not loud. But sharp. Like someone had hit her lungs.
"What?" I asked, not caring.
She just tilted her phone toward me.
It was Theo's post.
Fresh. Just uploaded.
"Having the best time of my life."
The caption sat under a picture of him and Nicole.
He looked happy. Effortlessly happy.
Like he belonged in that beautiful Russian backdrop. Like I hadn't begged him at the airport. Like I didn't exist.
Nicole was laughing. His arm slung around her waist like it was always meant to be there.
My lungs forgot how to work. My stomach twisted, and not in that hungry way.
In the heart-crushed, soul-ripped-out, I-want-to-scream-but-can't kind of way.
I clicked "read more."
"Came here for a different purpose, but ended up traveling, finding pieces of myself I thought I'd lost. Sometimes you leave to escape, and you end up finding something worth staying for."
I didn't realize I was gripping the table until my knuckles went white.
Ash was watching me carefully, like I might shatter.
I didn't.
Not here. Not now.
But something inside me cracked.
I got up. Slowly.
"Val—" Ash tried.
I didn't answer.
I walked out of the cafeteria with a calm I didn't feel, footsteps soft, breath even.
But inside?
I was breaking.