Page 138 of Wreckage

Chapter 49

Adrian

One Year Later

Iadjusted my black-rimmed glasses, exhaling as I scanned the rows of books.

Another year.

Another semester.

Another day without her.

It had been over a year since Elena left.

It was a year of silence, except for the small breadcrumbs Dad gave us.

"She’s doing well."

That’s all he ever said. There were no details, no location, and all we could do was hope she was happy. Zara said Elena never gave her a location, so I wasn’t sure if she was being a true blue friend or being honest.

Troy and I had learned to live without her—but not really. We still sent messages to our old group chat, even though they never delivered.

They weren’t for her. They were for us.

"Had the worstclass today. You would have rolled your eyes so hard at this professor."

"Miss you. Hope you’re safe."

“I saw a blue butterfly today. It reminded me of you…”

"Tried to cook something. Burned it. You’d probably laugh at me. The house was filled with smoke. I heard sirens in the distance. I thought someone called the fire department on me…”

She never saw them, but it helped to send them anyway.

Neither of us had been with anyone else either.

We couldn’t. We didn’t want to.

Troy had taken time off from school, which set him back, but now he was finishing his final year.

We were better about sleeping apart, though sometimes, on bad nights, one of us still ended up in the other’s bed.

Neither of us mentioned it. Neither of us judged it. It just was.

I pulled a book from the shelf, flipping through the pages absentmindedly.

Troy was going out with his frat brothers tonight.

After everything, he’d slowly fallen back into his social life, and I was glad.

He seemed happier now, or at least, he was good at pretending to be.

On the other hand, I cut ties with Rachel long ago. She had been pissed, but I told her I wasn’t into it anymore.

These days, I preferred a quiet night with a book over a party.

I stuffed the book I was looking at back onto the shelf and kept going. I ran a fingertip along the book spines, looking for something new.

---