The table still felt off after lunch.
Mia still felt unsettled when she returned to class, sat down, took out her notebook, and stared at the blank page, hoping it might help.
Next to her, Caitlin shifted in her seat while the room buzzed with noise before the next teacher arrived. Books stayed closed. Chairs scraped the floor. Blake and Mason argued at the back, getting louder whenever anyone paid attention. Dylan kept correcting them, but he didn't seem interested enough to explain why he was even part of it.
A few rows away, Ray sat with one arm on his desk, looking out the window with his fake glasses still on. He barely reacted to the trio.
Mia noticed him before anything else.
Caitlin leaned an elbow on Mia's desk.
"Tell me again."
"I already did."
"You rushed it."
"I did not."
"You absolutely did." Caitlin narrowed her eyes. "You told me what happened. That is not the same thing."
Mia looked down at the empty page in front of her.
"I told you enough."
"You told me lunch got weird and then Ray left. I know that part. What did it feel like?"
Mia hated questions like that.
She looked at Ray again.
He still had not moved much. Blake said something with both hands flying around. Mason reacted like he had taken it personally. Dylan added something from his seat. Ray listened the way people did when they were only being polite enough not to walk away.
Caitlin followed her gaze.
"He's really quiet."
Mia nodded.
Not his usual kind of quiet either. Not dry. Not distant in the ordinary Ray way. This one had more weight to it, and she knew that because she had seen it before, back when they were younger and he used to shut himself in so completely she had to keep knocking until he let her back in.
"He got like this sometimes in elementary," she said.
Caitlin looked at her.
"Because of what?"
Mia hesitated.
That part always felt like stepping too far into something that was not hers to explain.
"I don't know," she said. "Stuff at home, probably."
Caitlin's expression sharpened.
"Or because you've been disappearing on him."
Mia turned to her.
"What?"
"You have."
"I've been busy."
"I know. He knows that too." Caitlin lifted one shoulder. "That doesn't mean he can't still feel it."
Mia looked at Ray again.
He had leaned back a little farther now, still listening to the trio in that distant way of his, like he was only giving them enough attention to stop them from doing something stupid.
"I don't think it's that," she said.
"You don't know that."
"I think it's probably house stuff."
Caitlin made a face.
"That does not cancel my theory."
Mia pressed her pen against the desk, then let go before she broke it.
"I just want to cheer him up a bit. At least until he's back to normal."
Caitlin's mouth twitched.
"And how is that going?"
Mia glanced at Ray one more time.
"Bad."
Caitlin nodded, like she had made up her mind, then stood.
Mia looked up at once.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm going over there."
"No."
"Yes."
"Cait."
Caitlin bent just enough to murmur, "You keep trying from across the room. I don't respect that strategy."
Then she went anyway.
Mia watched her cross the room with a sinking feeling that had nothing to do with lunch and everything to do with Caitlin deciding confidence could solve this.
Caitlin stopped by Ray's desk and set a hand on the empty chair in front of him.
Ray looked up.
From where Mia sat, she could not hear the first thing Caitlin said. She only saw Ray answer in a few clipped words. Blake noticed first and went quiet. Mason noticed Blake going quiet and immediately looked interested. Dylan lifted his eyes from his desk, which for him already meant the situation had become important.
Caitlin said something else.
Ray gave her a flatter look than usual.
Then Caitlin pointed over her shoulder without even trying to be subtle.
Straight at Mia.
Mia looked down at her desk at once, which only made it more obvious that she had been watching.
The room stayed busy around her. Someone at the front dropped a pencil case. Two girls by the windows argued over a charger. None of it helped. Caitlin was talking to Ray, and Mia was obviously involved now.
Then Caitlin raised her voice on purpose.
"Well, then tell her yourself."
Mia's head came up.
Ray was still sitting there, already looking like he regretted whatever he had said.
Caitlin folded her arms.
"Don't make me do your work."
Ray muttered something Mia could not catch.
Caitlin said, louder this time, "Fine. Then we're walking together later."
That made Mia blink.
Ray looked at her then. Not Caitlin. Mia.
"I thought you had club," he said.
Caitlin tossed her head.
"Not later."
A short pause passed.
Then Ray nodded once.
"Okay."
Caitlin smiled like she had just won something.
"See. Easy."
Ray looked like it had not been easy at all.
Before any of them could make it worse, the teacher walked in and the room shifted. Chairs straightened. Blake scrambled back to his seat badly. Mason still looked like reality owed him an explanation.
Caitlin slid into her chair beside Mia just before attendance.
Mia leaned toward her.
"What did he say?"
Caitlin kept her eyes on the front.
"He said sorry."
Mia went still.
"For lunch," Caitlin added.
Mia looked toward Ray again. He was already writing the date at the top of the page like none of that had happened.
The teacher started talking before she could keep staring.
The period dragged on. Mia tried to pay attention, but soon realized she had missed the last few minutes. By the end, she felt that special kind of school-day tired where even sitting still felt exhausting.
When the final bell rang, she packed her bag and looked up just in time to see a boy from another class lingering by the door.
He found her almost immediately.
Mia knew what it was before he even opened his mouth.
"Can I talk to you for a second?"
She looked at Caitlin first.
Then at Ray.
Caitlin's face said oh, for God's sake. Ray's expression barely changed, but the quiet around him sharpened.
Mia went with the boy because there was no version of refusing that would not make the whole thing worse.
The hallway he picked was quiet. Too quiet. He got to the point quickly, which Mia appreciated. Third-year. Nervous. Wanted to say it properly.
Mia turned him down as gently as she could.
He took it better than some. Worse than others. Then he bowed and left.
When she came back, Caitlin and Ray were waiting near the stairs.
"Another one," Caitlin said.
Mia adjusted her bag higher on her shoulder.
"Please don't sound cheerful."
"I'm not cheerful. I'm tired. There's a difference."
Ray said nothing.
They started walking.
By then, the school grounds had mostly cleared out, but there were still enough students around so it didn't feel empty. The sun was lower, and Caitlin walked between them for a minute before deciding the silence had lasted long enough.
"So," she said, "I've decided something."
Mia looked at her.
"That's never comforting."
"Coach should recruit Blake for endurance training."
Mia blinked.
"What?"
Caitlin pointed vaguely behind them.
"He has the stamina to listen to himself for that long. That's athletic."
A laugh slipped out of Mia before she could stop it.
Caitlin looked at Ray.
"Do you think he'd survive basketball tryouts?"
Ray glanced at her.
"Physically?"
"Yes."
"Nope."
Mia looked at him.
"Emotionally?"
"Still nope."
Caitlin nodded.
"Fair."
They kept walking.
That helped a little.
"Mason would survive," Mia said. "He'd treat drills like performance art."
"He'd narrate his own collapse," Caitlin said.
"He already does that without exercise," Ray said.
Mia smiled despite herself.
For a few steps, the conversation held.
Caitlin started talking about a teammate who forgot both her water bottle and her jersey. That led Mia to joke that athletes were helpless when left alone. Caitlin defended sports with more energy than the topic needed. Ray stayed quiet for most of it, but not in the same closed-off way as before. He was quiet, but Mia kept checking, and each time, he was still there with them.
A cluster of students near the front gate turned as they passed.
Mia caught the whisper before she could pretend she had not.
"That's the vice president."
Another voice, lower this time.
"Who's the guy with her?"
"No clue."
Mia kept walking, then muttered, "I hate this school."
Caitlin snorted.
"You hate being observed by this school."
"I hate both."
She looked at Ray.
"Do I really look that interesting?"
"No," he said.
Mia narrowed her eyes.
"That was fast."
"You asked."
Caitlin grinned.
"He does care. He's just insulting you efficiently."
That nearly got a smile out of Ray.
The path curved past the side court. The gym was on the left, the outer gate ahead, and the footbridge farther beyond. Groups of students walked by. A few bikes rolled past. Behind them, someone shouted a name too loudly and got told to be quiet.
Caitlin adjusted her bag on one shoulder.
"You know what I think?"
Mia sighed.
"That is also never comforting."
"I think the two of you are terrible at acting normal when something's wrong."
Mia opened her mouth.
Caitlin lifted a hand.
"No, listen. I'm not doing the whole speech again. I'm tired. But Mia keeps throwing topics at you, and you keep answering like every word costs money."
Mia stared at her.
"That's your observation?"
Ray let out a quiet breath that was close enough to a laugh for Caitlin to catch it.
She pointed at him.
"See. That's the most alive you've looked since lunch."
Mia looked at Ray too quickly.
He looked down, one hand on his bag strap, his mouth starting to form that quick, almost-smile he never wanted anyone to notice.
Caitlin looked between them once, and something in her face shifted. Less teasing now. More done with both of them.
"Okay," she said. "I'm bored."
"You started this," Mia said.
"Yes, and now I'm ending it."
Caitlin stopped walking so suddenly Mia had to slow too.
"What now?" Mia asked.
Caitlin slapped a hand to her forehead.
"Club."
Mia stared at her.
"You said you didn't have club."
"I lied."
Ray laughed then, and even though it was quiet and tired, it was real.
Caitlin pointed at both of them.
"Good. You still can."
"You are unbelievable," Mia said.
"I know."
Caitlin took a step backward, then another.
"I am also late, which means if coach kills me, both of you share legal responsibility."
"That is not how that works," Mia said.
"It is now. Talk to each other like people."
Then Caitlin turned and ran toward the gym before either of them could stop her.
They both watched her go.
Mia let out a breath through her nose.
"She's annoying."
Ray nodded once.
"Mhm."
Neither of them sounded convincing.
They started walking again.
With Caitlin gone, the silence felt even heavier.
Mia tried anyway.
She asked whether Dylan really talked like that all day or only when there was an audience. She asked if Mason had always been dramatic. She asked whether Blake ever got tired of hearing himself.
Ray answered.
His answers were still short, still ending a bit too quickly.
By the time they reached the footbridge, Mia was tired of how hard she was working to keep things moving.
The bridge was mostly empty. Two students at the far end were walking close enough together to obviously not be discussing homework. City noise drifted up from below, uneven and far away, mixing with traffic from the road.
Mia was halfway across when she realized Ray had stopped.
She turned.
"What?"
He stood in the middle of the bridge with one hand still on his bag strap, the other hanging loosely at his side. Late light cut through the railing and fell across his uniform.
The look on his face made Mia's stomach sink.
She recognized that look. It reminded her of every hallway or stairwell confession, every time someone decided to give her something she never asked for but still had to accept.
Except this was Ray.
Mia tightened her grip on her bag.
"What's wrong?"
Ray looked past her shoulder once, toward the far end of the bridge, then back at her.
He took his glasses off.
Her fingers tightened around the strap.
"I have something to say," he said.
"Ray."
He looked down briefly, then back up.
His amber eyes were clear and far too familiar.
"I'm glad you're my friend," he said.
Mia did not move.
Ray swallowed once.
"And I know things are changing."
He stopped there.
Mia waited because there was nothing else to do.
Ray looked at her properly then, no fake glasses between them, no easy way for her to pretend she was reading him wrong.
"I wanted to say it before you drifted farther away from me."
The bridge, the railing, the noise below, even the strand of hair the wind kept blowing into her face—all of it suddenly felt too sharp.
Ray said, "I like you."