Wednesday – Campus Quad, 3:33 PM
Leon stood by the fountain where he'd once promised Evelyn he wouldn't wait too much.
But he had been.
Every hour. Every day. He counted the time zones between their lives like scars.
When Clara found him there, he wasn't surprised.
"You're always here," she said softly.
"It's quiet here."
"You're not."
He smiled faintly.
She offered him half of her sandwich. He took it without thinking.
They talked. For too long. About nothing. But it filled the time like rain fills silence.
Until she asked—
"Have you talked to her?"
Leon paused. Then lied.
"No. Not really."
Clara looked at him.
He felt it.
The first crack.
The first flicker of something forming in a space that didn't belong to her.
Later that night, Evelyn texted him.
Evelyn: Missed your reply. Everything okay?
Leon stared at the message.
Then locked his phone.
He didn't know why.
But he didn't reply.
And somewhere deep inside him,
he knew he just changed something
he couldn't undo.