Elijah Ward
Tuesday, 5:45pm, September 11, 2025
People thought they knew me. They saw what they wanted—smiles, charm, a good student, a good friend. But none of them ever asked why I kept it all together so perfectly. No one ever wondered what I might be hiding underneath the surface.
Not even them.
Not Rosa, who watched me like I held the answer to a question she couldn't ask.
Not Maddie, who flinched when I looked too long.
Not Cat, who pretended to laugh off the silence.
Not Simon, who said nothing but always knew.
And definitely not Nathaniel. God, especially not him.
I didn't mean for it to happen with Bella. It wasn't supposed to be real. It was a mistake—one of those blurred lines you think you can control until it's too late.
I wanted to tell him. I should have told him. But the longer I waited, the more impossible it became. Every time he joked with me, every time he gave me that brotherhood grin—it made the truth feel like a blade I couldn't unsheathe.
Wednesday was went supposed to fix things.
I thought, maybe if we were all together again, it would remind me who I was before I started unraveling.
The six of us. Back where it all started.
I wanted to look Rosa in the eye and finally see her.
I wanted to show Maddie that I knew. That I'd kept her secret, too.
I wanted to ask Simon about that sketch he drew of me last semester—the one with the cracked reflection.
I wanted to see if Cat could still tell when I was lying.
And I wanted to say something—anything—to Nathaniel before he found out the wrong way.
But the thing about secrets is… once they start stacking, you don't know which one will be the last straw.
I felt it. This tension, like the walls were closing in. Like time was running out.
They looked at me like I was still holding us together.
But I wasn't.
I was the one tearing us apart.