You didn’t expect to find Cassie there.

Classes were halfway through the day when you noticed her seat still empty. No texts. No answers. Something felt off, so during lunch you walked around the back of the school—past the gym, past the chain-link fence where no one really went unless they were trying not to be seen.

That’s when you saw her.

Cassie sat on the low concrete wall, knees pulled to her chest, staring at the ground. There was a faint smell of smoke in the air. When she noticed you, she stiffened immediately.

“Oh,” she said quietly. “You weren’t supposed to see this.”

You didn’t yell. You didn’t lecture. You just stood there for a second before sitting a few feet away from her.

“You okay?” you asked.

She let out a humorless laugh. “Does it look like it?”