The rejected crown (book 1)

The silence between us

Andrea
The year 2024,
Right after she texted ezra....

Andrea's phone buzzed, and she smiled as Ezra's name popped up. She opened the message, rolling her eyes at his apology about getting detention—again. "Seriously? Ugh, I was looking forward to getting out for a bit," she typed back, hoping he'd at least try to sneak out later to see her. His reply came in almost immediately.

"Yeah, me too. This sucks. But I'll make it up to you," he wrote.

She sent back a quick, "Okay, just don't keep me waiting forever!" and waited a few minutes, expecting him to say something else. But nothing more came through. She figured Mrs. Harper must've confiscated his phone or maybe he'd just decided to focus on whatever punishment they'd given him.

The next morning, Andrea woke up and checked her phone, expecting to see his usual "Good morning" text or at least something funny or random he might send after detention. But her messages were empty. She shrugged, telling herself he was probably grounded for the weekend, and waited.

But by the end of the second day, her patience was running thin. She sent a quick, "Hey, you okay?" But it sat unread, no reply coming. When the third day came and went without a word from him, worry settled heavily in her stomach, mixing with a growing irritation.

Finally, on the fourth day, she texted again: "I'm serious, Ezra. Where are you? Call me."

Still nothing. It wasn't like him to go this long without responding.

Frustrated and worried, Andrea finally decided to go to his house. She knocked, half-expecting him to open the door with some lame excuse about his phone being broken. Instead, it was his sister, Mia, who answered, looking surprised to see her.

"Hey, is Ezra here?" Andrea asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

Mia blinked in confusion. "I thought he was with you. He hasn't been home for days."

Andrea felt her chest tighten. "He hasn't texted me since he said he was in detention," she said slowly, a chill running down her spine.

Mia glanced around nervously. "I... thought he was just staying at your place or something."

Andrea forced a smile, trying to reassure Mia even as her own panic grew. "Yeah, maybe. I'll, uh, keep looking," she said, but she could barely hold her voice steady.

That night, she lay awake, phone clutched in her hand, hoping it would buzz with a message from him. But as each hour passed, the screen stayed dark, and the quiet house around her felt heavier than ever.

Days stretched into a week, and the gnawing feeling in her gut grew into a consuming terror. She tried to go about her routine, to tell herself that he was probably off somewhere, maybe even pulling some elaborate prank, but she knew Ezra too well. This wasn't like him. She decided to do what she had been dreading—she went to the police.

They took her report, but Andrea could see the apathy in their eyes. To them, Ezra was just another runaway, another statistic, another kid who'd slipped through the cracks. She tried to convince them otherwise, describing his grades, his ambitions, how much he cared about his sister. But it made little difference. They filled out some paperwork, nodded mechanically, and told her they'd "look into it."

Weeks turned into months, and months into years. The seasons changed, the world went on, it was the year 2029, but Andrea remained frozen, caught in the terrible mystery of his absence. She watched Mia grow up, heard little pieces about how she had finally moved out, trying to make a life for herself. She even found herself visiting the house every once in a while, looking for any sign that he might have returned, that he might come back.

Eventually, her friends stopped asking her about him. They stopped mentioning his name around her, stopped suggesting she "move on." She tried to date again, but every new face felt like an intrusion, every date like a betrayal. No one else was Ezra. No one understood the dreams they'd had together, the inside jokes, the look they'd share across the table that only they understood. How could she possibly love someone else, when half her heart was still out there, lost in a world that refused to give her any answers?

Years passed, and though she kept her life moving, her heart remained trapped in the memory of him, in that moment when she'd first realized he was gone. The hope she clung to—the chance that he might still walk through her door one day—never fully faded. He was out there somewhere, she was sure of it, lost to her but still alive in the smallest, most stubborn corner of her mind.

And so, Andrea lived on, one foot in the present, but her heart forever in the past, tied to a boy who had vanished without a trace.