Page 29 of The Spark

She let out a soft hum, and I already knew what was coming next.

“Amaya, sweetheart, you do realize I know you better than you know yourself, right?”

I stayed quiet.

“You’ve been in love with that boy since you were fifteen.”

My throat tightened.

“Mom.”

“What?” she asked, feigning innocence. “You think I didn’t notice how you used to follow him around? How you always managed to be where he was? How you wrote his name in your notebooks?”

Heat rushed to my face, embarrassment and frustration mixing.

“We were kids,” I muttered.

“Exactly,” she said. “And now you’re adults. You’re not the same people you were back then.”

We weren’t.

But I had spent so long holding onto that hurt, that moment I had realized he didn’t see me the way I saw him, that I never gave myself the chance to acknowledge that things had changed.

That maybe, we had changed.

I dideverything I could to stay busy. To keep my hands moving and my mind off him. I played music—loud at first, then soft. Straightened up the apartment, trying to undo the chaos I’d made while working on the commission.

I took my everything shower—washed my scalp, exfoliated, stood under the steam until my skin went pruny and my thoughts softened. Let soul music spill from the speakers until it felt like my heart was leaking through my chest.

I stayed in motion, clinging to distraction, until one glance at the clock told me it was already past eleven.

Amir was always home by now.

Not that we had a schedule or anything, but since he moved in, we had fallen into a rhythm. He’d get home around dinner, we’d eat, talk, or watch something on TV. And then there was always that moment—that lingering, unspoken tension that neither of us dared to acknowledge.

But tonight, he wasn’t here and I didn’t know how to feel about that. I hesitated before grabbing my phone and calling him.

It rang.

And rang.

And then went to voicemail.

My stomach tightened.

A second later, my screen lit up with a text.

Amir: You okay?

I frowned. He always called.

Something was off.

Me: Yeah, I’m good. Just checking in.

Amir: I’ll be late. Don’t wait up.

That was it.

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