Shadows and Silence

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Raveena had always believed that love was a fragile thing—easily broken, just like the family she came from. She had learned early on that promises were temporary, affection could be a weapon, and the people who were supposed to love you unconditionally often didn’t.

Her home had never been a sanctuary. The apartment she shared with her mother was small, filled with the echoes of things unsaid. The walls were thin enough that she could hear the neighbors arguing, but even thinner when it came to the silence between her and her mother.

It hadn’t always been this way. There had been a time when her mother smiled more, when laughter wasn’t such a foreign sound in their home. But that was before her father left. Before he packed his bags and walked out of their lives as if they had been nothing more than a passing phase.

Since then, love had felt like a trick—a cruel illusion designed to make people believe in something fleeting.

At seventeen, Raveena had made peace with the idea that some people weren’t meant for love. She kept her head down at school, avoided friendships that required too much vulnerability, and built a life around solitude. It was easier that way. Safer.

Until Damien.

He was new. That alone was enough to make him stand out. People at their school rarely transferred in the middle of the semester, and when they did, they usually tried to blend in, to find a place where they belonged.

Damien didn’t.

He moved through the hallways with an air of quiet confidence, as if he didn’t care whether he fit in or not. His dark hair was perpetually tousled, his uniform slightly unkempt, and he had the kind of gaze that made people uneasy—sharp, observant, like he was always thinking about something deeper than what was in front of him.

Raveena noticed him before he ever spoke to her.

And that was dangerous.

She first saw him during lunch, sitting alone at the farthest table, absently spinning a pen between his fingers. He didn’t seem to mind being by himself. If anything, he looked like he preferred it.

She didn’t expect him to notice her. Most people didn’t.

But then, one afternoon, he sat across from her in the library, unbothered by her silence.

“You always sit here,” he said.

Raveena blinked, taken off guard. It wasn’t a question. It was a statement, like he had been paying attention.

“And you don’t,” she replied cautiously.

Damien smirked slightly, tilting his head as if studying her. “I do now.”

She should have ignored him. She should have given a clipped response and buried herself back in her book. But something in his expression—calm, steady, interested—made her hesitate.

People usually left her alone. And yet, here he was, acting like her silence wasn’t a barrier but an invitation.

For the first time in a long time, someone wasn’t just looking at her.

They were seeing her.

And that terrified her more than anything.

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