BREATHE AND LISTEN

Lunch had mostly cleared out of Highschool A, plastic trays clattering onto the return carousels as voices thinned and the warning bell began pressing everyone toward class. Xian followed Mina through the double doors and into the relative quiet of the corridor, where the crowd loosened enough for two girls to walk shoulder to shoulder without getting bumped into the lockers.

For a stretch, the conversation stayed light. Mina clutched her notebook against her side, complaining about a math assignment with fractions that made no sense on the page.

"Who assigns that much this week?" Mina asked.

"The ones who hate students, duhh," Xian said.

Mina pulled her flip phone out, tapping the screen before angling it toward Xian. "And look at this. John sent me a message halfway through lunch. I don't even get it."

Xian glanced at the screen. "That's his whole personality."

They tossed loose weekend plans back and forth, drifting between the mall and doing nothing at all. But somewhere past the water fountain, the easy rhythm began to drag. Xian couldn't pin the exact second the chatter stopped being simple, but Mina's stride had slowed. The ambient noise of the hallway seemed to fall back, leaving only the sound of their sneakers against the linoleum.

Mina lowered her head, her voice dropping so low Xian had to tilt her chin to catch it.

"I don't think I'm actually in love with John," Mina said, blunt as an unexcused slip. "It's more... something to fill time. Rebound stuff. Habit. Comfortable. Not-" She shook her head, staring at the floor. "Not sure."

Xian kept pace beside her, waiting for whatever else Mina needed to get out.

"He's fine. I'm fine." Mina's voice dropped another notch, tentative, like she was trying out the words to see if they sounded true. "It's just... not love. And maybe he's been distant lately too. I don't know."

Mina glanced sideways, searching Xian's face. Neither of them tried to joke it off.

Her brow creased, a deeper frustration surfacing. "I still don't get why he's so cold now. We were close." She hesitated, looking down the empty stretch of lockers. "He won't even look at me in the hall. Like I did something wrong."

Xian knew who she meant without asking. Before she could answer, Mina turned to her.

"That merged lunch. You didn't hear?"

"Hear what?" Xian asked.

"Emily wouldn't let him sit." Mina's jaw set hard, secondhand anger sharpening her tone. "Karen and Sel were tucked in together. Nobody shifted on the bench. Chris had been right there too. The whole table just... closed."

Xian's pulse jumped, but Mina wasn't done.

"And when he walked away, John yelled it." Her voice went tight with disgust. "'Yeah, go back to the other girls, you ugly creep.' Right there in front of everyone. I was sitting at that table, Xian. I wanted to crawl out of my skin."

A spike of heat surged up Xian's neck, hot and sudden enough to derail her thoughts entirely.

"What????" Xian stopped, staring at her. "What?"

"You were sitting right there," Xian said, the words coming out sharp before she could rein them in.

Mina's hands came up, defensive. "It happened so fast. The whole room was watching."

"That's not-"

"He's not usually-" Mina started, her voice shrinking, but the excuse collapsed before she could finish it. Her mouth stayed open a second too long, catching on the realization that there was nowhere honest for the sentence to go.

Her stomach tightened, dredging up a memory that had nothing to do with this hallway. She remembered another lunch weeks ago: the clatter of trays, cruel voices, a circle of girls tearing into Val while she sat frozen, staring down at her food and letting the metal handle of her fork bite into her palm. She had stayed silent then. She hadn't said a single word to defend him. She was never doing that again.

Mina held both palms outward, keeping them steady where Xian could see them.

"Breathe. Listen."

The heat in Xian's veins didn't break on command.

"Breathe," Mina repeated, softer this time, staying right where she was. "Listen to me."

"John's a hateful person," Xian said, her breath still tight, every syllable deliberate. "Honestly, he isn't worth being together with."

Xian met her gaze directly, refusing to soften it. "I'm actually your friend. I can talk to Val about what's wrong between you, but there's no point if you're still with John."

Mina stayed rooted in place, her jaw working as though searching for words that weren't there. She looked like she had a dozen things to say, but no clean way to say any of them.

Xian didn't wait around for an answer. She turned and walked down the corridor before either of them could pretend they had settled anything, the anger still coiled sharp and hot in her stride.