chapter lll

Chapter 3: Love in Shadows

Claire felt hollow in the days following her conversation with Lucas. She replayed his words over and over in her mind. “I don’t feel the same way.” Each syllable carved a deeper wound, leaving her raw and broken.

Her friends noticed the change, but Claire refused to open up. Sophie begged her to talk. “Whatever it is, Claire, we’ll get through it together. Please don’t shut me out.”

But Claire couldn’t find the words to describe the darkness that had taken root inside her.

She stopped drawing. She stopped eating. She skipped school more often than she attended. Her parents grew concerned, but when they asked what was wrong, Claire would only shrug and say, “I’m just tired.”

In truth, she wasn’t just tired. She was unraveling.

One rainy evening, Claire found herself sitting on the edge of the bridge that overlooked the river. The water below churned, reflecting the stormy sky. She thought about Lucas—his smile, his laugh, the way his eyes lit up when he talked about his favorite band.

She had loved him so much, given him every piece of her heart, and it had meant nothing.

For hours, she sat there, staring at the water and letting the rain soak her to the bone. She clutched her notebook filled with sketches of Lucas and the unsent letters she had written to him. The words felt like ghosts now, haunting her with what could have been.

Before leaving the bridge that night, she tore the letters from the notebook and let the wind carry them away, scattering her unspoken feelings into the void.

The next day, Claire didn’t show up to school. Sophie tried calling her, but the calls went unanswered. By evening, worry had taken over. Sophie convinced Claire’s parents to check her room, where they found her curled up in bed, pale and unresponsive.

She had taken an entire bottle of sleeping pills.

Claire was rushed to the hospital, but it was too late. The overdose had been too severe, and despite the doctors’ best efforts, Claire slipped away that night.

The news spread quickly through the school. Whispers filled the halls, students exchanging looks of shock and sadness.

Lucas found out the next morning. He was sitting in the cafeteria with Emma when Sophie stormed in, her face red with anger and grief.

“This is your fault!” she screamed, throwing one of Claire’s sketches at him. It was a drawing of Lucas, his smile captured in painstaking detail. Beneath it, Claire had written: “You’re the only light in my life.”

Lucas stared at the sketch, his heart sinking. “What are you talking about?”

“She loved you!” Sophie shouted, tears streaming down her face. “She loved you so much it killed her, and you didn’t even care!”

Emma tried to intervene, but Lucas held up a hand to stop her. His mind raced as he pieced everything together—the notes, the drawings, the coffee. It had all been Claire.

He thought back to the last time he saw her, standing in the rain after he’d rejected her. The look in her eyes had been one of quiet devastation, but he had brushed it off, assuming she would move on.

Now, the weight of his indifference crushed him.

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