it was a monday afternoon, school was about to be over. It was 1:45, i was going to my last class. Earth Science, the period before, had wore me out for 80 minutes, i just needed a break. The constant talk about rocks and sediments made my mind numb, the teacher's bipolar outbursts, the lack of communication with my fellow peers, i needed to hear and do something else. I was walking slowly to the stairs, hoping maybe i'd at least pass him. Him, the boy I had thought i'd fallen in love with. My ex-boyfriend, the one I broke up with just 10 days ago, Jesus, it's been 10 days already. The boy I was supposed to keep in my life but fights happened and I had nearly forgotten why we'd even broken up. The boy who filled the void who is gone now, who I can only remember fondly. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through Instagram when I was walking down the stairs, minding nobody but myself. I had come across a post with a lengthy caption, so I was invested in what this caption had to say. I was very slowly descending the stairs when I was coming close to the end, and I snapped out of my focused mindset to make sure I didn't trip, or bump into anyone. I had quickly looked up and there I met the eyes I had only gazed in just two weekends before, eyes that were so foreign to me now. Just the two of us in that empty stairwell, horrifying to me because usually foot-traffic was heavy right about now. Maybe now thinking back on it, we were supposed to lock eyes in that moment, maybe the stars aligned just right then, the two of us in that moment, with nobody else around to disturb the tension. I had felt angry butterflies through my stomach and a cold rush through my veins, I nearly froze at the sight. The feeling was rather familiar, I had remember the feeling from when I had just started texting him, when I first made eye contact with him in the hallways. But that was a positive feeling. Now this is a negative feeling, wondering why these eyes were so different from those ones if it was the same person. As I was looking at him, his tall figure, his arms I wanted to pull around my shoulders, I was quickly trying to read his facial expression. Was he mad to see me? Was he relieved like I was? Was he startled? Did he not care? I cared. I wanted so badly to crack just a grin his way to show I am not the enemy anymore, but all that I could do in that moment was shift my eyes from his and go back to my phone, and check if I had a message from the person that wasn't him, the person replacing him that could barely fill the void.
