The corridor buzzed with after-lunch noise — sneakers squeaking on linoleum, lockers slamming, couples laughing too loudly. But her pulse drowned all of it out.

Her hand was curled loosely around her new boyfriend’s. He said something about a party that weekend. She nodded like she was listening. She wasn’t.

Because she saw him.

Damon Torrance.

Leaning against a row of lockers like he ruled the floor. He kind of did. Dark shirt. Looser tie. That usual don’t-give-a-shit smirk pulled tight across his face. Except this time, he wasn’t alone.

There was a girl on his arm.

Beautiful. Blonde. Perfect in the kind of way that looked good in photos but cold in person. She was laughing at something Damon said, fingers hooked through his belt loop like she belonged there.

He didn’t look at her.

He looked at her.

Stopped, mid-laugh. Mid-stride. Eyes locked.

Everything else — the girl hanging off him, the boy standing next to her — disappeared.

Because they weren’t supposed to be strangers.

They weren’t supposed to be anything but each other.

She remembered the first time he touched her hand under the desk in detention. The smirk that dropped the second they were alone. How his voice dropped when he told her he didn’t want to hide, but he’d do it if it meant he got to keep her.

But she’d let him go.

Because her parents found out. And Damon wasn’t good enough. Not safe. Not suitable.

So they gave her someone who was.

And Damon… got someone else, too.

Now they stood, maybe ten steps apart, surrounded by people who didn’t matter, holding hands with people they’d never love, and looking at the one person who could ruin them with just a glance.

His jaw ticked.

She blinked, hard, willing herself not to cry.

Her boyfriend squeezed her hand. “Hey. You alright?”

She nodded once.

But across the hallway, Damon’s gaze was steel. Unreadable. And burning.

Like he still remembered every breath they shared. Every secret. Every time he promised he’d never be the one to let go.

She had.

And now they were both pretending not to care.

While their hearts stood still in the middle of the chaos.