*Chapter 4 — The Walls He Builds*
It happened slowly, the way a room fills with smoke. You don't notice it at first — the air just gets a little heavier, a little harder to breathe.
That's what being around Eli feels like now.
He knows everything — when I wake up, when I leave the house, what time I eat lunch. If I forget to text, he notices. If I go quiet, he calls. If I don't answer, he *finds me*.
He says it's because he worries.
I tell myself that too, sometimes. It's easier than admitting the truth — that worry isn't love. It's control.
Yesterday, he showed up outside my class again. I hadn't told him where it was.
"Just wanted to surprise you," he said, grinning, but his eyes never stopped scanning the people around me.
When one of my classmates — a guy named Drew — waved and said hi, Eli's whole expression shifted. He smiled back, but it wasn't friendly.
After Drew walked away, Eli leaned closer, his voice calm but hard. "I don't like him."
"You don't even know him," I said.
"I don't need to," he replied. "I can tell."
And that was the end of it. He didn't raise his voice or argue. He just *decided*, and somehow that decision felt final.
Later that night, I noticed something.
My social media — the one I barely use — had been logged into from another device. My messages with Drew were gone. The only people left on my friends list were family, and Eli.
When I asked him about it, he didn't deny it.
He just looked at me, expressionless.
"You shouldn't have things that make you anxious," he said. "I'm helping you."
He said it like he believed it — like he was doing me a favor by cutting everyone else out.
And maybe that's the scariest part.
Because when he says, *"I'm helping you,"*
a small, trembling part of me still wants to believe he's right.
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