When Mia and Noah, along with the rest of their friends got back to school after the winter break, they were met with a shog surprise.

  Their cssmate, and sometimes friend, Zenith Bck, was not at school.

  At first, they just assumed that he was sick or something, which was not out of the realm of possibilities.

  But when Mia tried to ask if she should take the csswork he missed over to his house, itempt to both be a good student and friend to him, and to talk to him again, she was told the truth.

  “Oh, I assumed he would have told you. Zenith is no longer a student at our school” the teacher told her.

  “What do you mean?” she asked, getting a horrible feeling in her chest.

  “I mean, the school always khis ossibility, for any of our top students. Over the break, Zenith turned 16 and took the test to skip the rest of highschool.” they expined.

  “But, he wouldn’t do that. He liked sia said, trying to rationalize this in her head.

  She was right, for the st 12ish years, Zenith had enjoyed ing to school. He had told her that himself.

  The truth was that every school he had ever attended had tried to vince his parents to move him up in school. They had all agreed he was too smart to be there, only for him to say that he wao stay, mainly to have friends like Mia.

  So he stayed all this time.

  But he is gone now.

  “I don’t know what to tell you Mia” the teacher says, then walks away, leaving Mia aloo think about this.

  Not uanding what to do from there, she moved through the rest of her day, not really feeling anything.

  She had lunch with her friends, but if asked, she would not be able to tell you what they talked about.

  She kind of just went through the motions during the day.

  And when the day came to an end, she mindlessly walked not home, but to Zenith's home.

  ?

  “What in the hell are you doing at our house” Aria asked Mia, who had just knocked on their door.

  “Um, is Zenith here” Mia said, shyly. She had often talked with Aria before, but they never got along. But this was the first time she was directly hostile to Mia.

  “He's ht now” Aria said.

  “When is he going to be back?”

  “Normally, he gets back around …” Aria started. “Wait, why should I tell you”

  “He is my friend and I o talk to him” Mia started. “And he has been ign my texts all day”

  “Ha. That's all you have to say?” Aira said, getting annoyed with Mia being there.

  “What else is there. My friend randomly stopped ing to school, after he spent years staying when giveion to leave. I just want to know why”

  “Why?” Aira said, ughing at her. “The reason why is clear. The only reasoayed was because he had friends at school. And now he doesn't”

  This gets Mia pletely off guard. “What do you mean by that? What could have ged between me and him that I wouldn’t be his friend anymore”

  “I’m getting really annoyed by this, but do you really not know?” Aira asked.

  “Know what? What is it that I'm missing”

  “How all your friends treat him? How your boyfriend treats him?” Aria asked her.

  “I don’t… Noah ah are friends” Mia says, defiant at Aria's insinuation.

  “Maybe once, but not for a long time. I’ve seen how he talks to Zenith, and Noah is definitely not his friend anymore”

  “What…”

  Mia thought back then. At any iion her new friends had had with Zenith. How Noah had started to treat him.

  And it all became clear to her.

  They never bullied him in front of her, but it was never what she would have called nice.

  As she started to realize these things, she slowly walked away from the bck household, in plete silence.

  ?

  By the time she got home, it was already getting dark. It was the middle of January and she took her time to get bae.

  Walking into her home, she found her family waiting for her, on her face.

  “Mia, is everything alright? You didn’t e right home?” her mom asked her.

  “Its fine. I just had something to do before I came home” she said, f a smile. “I’ll be in my room”.

  Walking up to her room, she thought about what she was going to do the day.

  She was looking at her life with a new light, and her as, as well as the as of her so-called friends, pletely disgusted her.

  She lied down on her bed to think, only for a few mier, she heard a kno her door.

  “e in” she said to whoever knocked.

  Willow, Mia’s younger sister, then walked into her room and sat dowo her.

  “What is it Willow?” MIa asked her.

  “You tried to go talk to Zenith right?” Willow asked Mia.

  “How… Yeah, I did” Mia said.

  “Did you actually see him?”

  “No, he wasn’t home”

  “Did you talk to his family?”

  “Yeah”

  “Do you know why he wasn’t at school”

  “I khat without talking to his family. He’s done”

  “He took the test to skip?”

  “Yep. Or at least that is what my teacher suggested”

  “Then why did you go to see him?”

  “Because I wao know why he took the test”

  “And?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it”

  “Mia”

  …

  “Mia”

  …

  “ you tell me, please”

  And Mia broke. “Its my fault” she said, tears filling her eyes. “He left because of me”

  And willow didn’t know how to respond. She had knowruth for a while, since she had speime followih around. She had seen how Mia’s friends treat him, both with her around and without.

  The only reason she old her sister was because of the selfish truth, she wanted Mia to move on. She wouldn’t make a move uhat happened.

  And she had that for a few days.

  But then it went a little too far. Willow hoped to now be able to spend time with Zenith at school, only for him to not show up when school started again.

  “What are you going to do?”

  “... Break up with Noah for one. But after that”

  “And what about Zenith?” Willow asked her.

  “Who knows what I will even be able to do”

  ?

  The m, the retionship between Mia and Noah pletely ended, with no ce that they will ever recile.

  The same would go for the retionship between Mia and the rest of her hunting group, but with less of a frontation.

  And Mia would miss the week of school.

  NamelessAlter