The air after detention didn't feel like air. It felt stale and damp, like an old cloth left wet for too long.
I walked out of the school building slower than everyone else, not because I was tired, but because moving felt slightly disconnected from me.
Like my body had decided to leave before my thoughts caught up.
Kellan's voice was still there.
Not loud anymore.
Just… stuck.
What did you do to me?
I exhaled through my nose.
People don't get affected by other people like that.
Words don't do anything.
Thoughts definitely don't.
That part mattered.
I held onto it the way you hold onto something in your pocket just to remind yourself it exists.
Because if I didn't—
then I didn't know what I was standing on anymore.
Probably stress.
Probably the hit.
Probably my brain doing that thing where it fills silence with meaning.
That explanation should've worked.
But it kept slipping.
Like it didn't want to stay shaped properly.
The grocery store was the first place that felt far enough away from school to breathe.
Bright lights.
Too many shelves.
Too much normality stacked neatly into rows.
I pushed the cart slowly.
Milk.
Bread.
Rice.
Simple things.
Things that didn't look back at me.
That was what I needed.
Something that didn't react.
But my mind didn't stay with the list.
It kept replaying fragments.
Kellan on the floor.
The moment before everything went quiet.
That strange tightening feeling in the air.
I stopped near a row of canned goods.
Just for a second.
And the thought came again.
Small.
Careless.
What if I can actually do it?
I frowned slightly.
That wasn't mine.
Or it didn't feel like mine.
I looked at my hand.
Nothing.
No sensation.
No change.
Still.
I focused anyway.
Not hard.
Not dramatic.
Just the idea of something responding.
If it was real, it would react.
If it wasn't, nothing would happen.
Simple.
A test.
I stood there too long.
Waiting.
Nothing.
Of course nothing.
I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.
Then—
A sharp metallic crash broke the aisle.
Cans dropped.
Not in front of me.
From the opposite aisle.
My body froze before I even turned.
For half a second—
I didn't breathe.
Did I—
No.
Impossible.
I turned quickly.
A man stood there, half-turned, his elbow slightly too close to the shelf edge, a shopping basket hanging loosely from his hand.
He looked startled.
Like he had accidentally bumped the stack without thinking.
"Oh—sorry," he muttered under his breath, already crouching to fix the mess.
Normal.
Careless accident.
Nothing more.
My chest loosened slightly.
Right.
Of course.
Just timing.
Coincidence.
But—
"You didn't do that… right?"
Gwen.
She was already there.
A few steps down the aisle, holding a basket, having clearly seen the entire thing unfold.
Her voice wasn't sharp.
Not accusing.
Just careful.
Like she was trying to match reality to what she had just seen.
I blinked once.
"I didn't do anything."
A pause.
She studied me for a second longer than necessary.
Then exhaled softly through her nose.
"…Yeah. Okay."
She stepped forward, crouching to pick up a can that had rolled near her foot.
"Probably just bad stacking," she said.
Simple explanation.
Normal world reasserting itself.
But her eyes flicked to me once while she said it.
Quick.
Measuring.
Not scared.
Not convinced either.
Just… aware that something in that moment didn't fully sit right.
"You coming or are you just going to stand there interrogating gravity?" she asked lightly.
I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.
"Yeah. I'm coming."
We walked out of the aisle together.
The automatic doors opened with that soft mechanical sigh.
Outside, the air felt different again.
Not lighter.
Not heavier.
Just… stretched.
Like I was still slightly out of sync with the world.
Gwen walked beside me without rushing.
Not too close.
Not distant.
Just there.
"You're weird today," she said after a while.
"I'm always weird."
"Not like this," she replied.
I didn't answer.
Because I didn't know what "this" meant.
We kept walking.
Traffic passed.
People moved.
Everything looked correctly assembled.
But I kept noticing small things.
A man standing too still near a crossing.
A flicker in someone's movement like they skipped half a second.
I told myself I was imagining it.
That was getting easier and harder at the same time.
Gwen glanced at me once.
"You're doing that thing again."
"What thing?"
"The thinking too loud thing."
I huffed a small breath.
"That's not a thing either."
"It is when you do it," she said.
Then, after a pause:
"You're still coming to the circus, right?"
I hesitated.
Not because I didn't know the answer.
Because something in me hesitated before I did.
"…Yeah."
She nodded.
"Good."
A softer pause.
"Don't disappear on me before then."
I looked at her.
"I'm not going anywhere."
She didn't smile this time.
Just studied me briefly.
Like she was deciding whether to believe that.
Then:
"Okay."
We walked a bit further.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable.
But it wasn't clean either.
It had texture.
Like something underneath it wasn't fully settled.
Eventually, we reached the corner where our paths split.
Gwen stopped first.
"This is me."
I nodded.
"Right."
She looked at me for a second longer than usual.
Then turned slightly.
And before leaving:
"Try not to break physics again on your way home."
A faint smile.
Then she walked away.
I stood there for a moment watching her leave.
Then turned toward home.
The feeling started halfway down the street.
Not fear.
Not certainty.
Just awareness.
Like something had shifted behind me without making sound.
I didn't turn immediately.
I kept walking.
Waited.
It stayed.
Not closer.
Not farther.
Just present in a way I couldn't locate properly.
I turned.
Nothing.
Street empty.
Normal movement.
No answer.
I kept walking again.
But the feeling didn't disappear.
It adjusted.
Like it had learned I was checking.
A few minutes later, I passed a shop.
A woman stood near the entrance.
Completely still.
Phone in hand.
Not using it.
Not moving.
Paused mid-action too long.
I slowed slightly.
She blinked.
Then resumed like nothing had happened.
I kept going.
By the time I reached my street, the feeling had faded.
Not gone.
Just quieter.
Like it had decided not to be obvious anymore.
I stopped outside my house.
Looked back once.
Nothing there.
Just road.
Just normal evening air.
I turned.
And went inside.
Late in the night, just as I was about to fall asleep, my phone buzzed.
The sound dragged me back up from that edge where everything starts to blur.
A text.
you wanking?
I blinked at the screen, then typed back immediately.
no
I had only told him once about that. Once. And he never let it go.
Another message came through.
you wanking
Not a question this time.
I exhaled through my nose.
no i am not
Then—
Adrian.
i didn't catch you after school. what gives?
I shifted slightly in bed, thumb already moving.
detention
oh right
A short pause.
Then another text:
after?
i went shopping
The reply came almost immediately.
me too
A pause.
Then:
i didn't argue
I frowned slightly at the screen.
The silence between messages stretched just long enough to feel like something was being decided on the other end.
Then—
what you doing tomorrow
My fingers hovered for a second before moving.
i am going to the circus
Three dots appeared.
Disappeared.
Then—
realy
Another pause.
Shorter this time.
Then, almost immediately:
you knw you dont go to these things
I exhaled quietly.
gwendolyn invited me.
The response hit fast.
whhhhat
Another one right after—
a date?
I stared at the word for a second longer than I meant to.
no..
The dots came back.
Stayed longer this time.
Then:
its so a date
I didn't reply.
Didn't need to.
I set the phone down on my chest, staring back at the ceiling.
I didn't want to think about it too much.
Didn't want to pull it apart the way everything else had been getting pulled apart lately.
But my heart—
it wasn't quiet.
It was jumping.
Unsteady.
Alive in a way the rest of the day hadn't been.
And for a moment—
just a moment—
it felt like maybe things were shifting.
Like maybe, for once—
something was going my way.