"Said you loved me, now you're with her now and I don't need you to explain. I'm just saying that it's strange." — Strange, Olivia Rodrigo.

Being Charlie's sister came with unexpected perks. One of them? Meeting the entire cast of the show he was in. You didn’t expect to become so involved—so intertwined—with the people behind the screen. They were more than just castmates. They were family. Friends. A chaotic, messy little crew that somehow became your own.

And then, there was Walker.

Especially Walker.

It started innocently enough—inside jokes, long conversations between takes, glances across rooms that lingered just a little too long. You became close. So close. The kind of close that blurs the line between friendship and something more. Until eventually, there was no line. You crossed it. Together.

You dated.

Past tense.

Now, a week post-breakup, you sat with your knees tucked under you on a couch that felt too big, your heart beating with that kind of numb ache that only breakups leave behind. The kind that made everything around you feel distant and foggy. As if the world kept moving but you were stuck in place.

And somehow—somehow—he already had a new girl.

Not even seven days had passed, and there she was. Wrapped around his arm like you never existed.

Your chest tightened every time you saw a new picture of them on someone’s story. Every time her name popped up in conversations like some casual, everyday word, while to you it felt like a blade.

How could he look you in the eye just two weeks ago and say he loved you, only to turn around and replace you like you were nothing?

But you weren’t surprised. Not really. Not when half of the teenage population seemed obsessed with him. It would’ve been more shocking if he didn't have a new girlfriend already.

You tried to act indifferent, like you hadn’t memorized the way he laughed at your dumbest jokes or the way his hands always found yours first in a room full of people. You tried not to care.

But then there was Aryan.

He sat beside you, close, like he could tell you were trying to hold something in. His voice was soft, careful, like he didn’t want to make anything worse.

“He’s not into her,” Aryan said, keeping his eyes low, as if the words themselves were dangerous. “He still wants you.”

You blinked. Slowly.

Aryan leaned in slightly, lowering his voice even more. “Like… he cried. For a whole week. Non-stop. Leena and I have never seen him like that. I think… I think he’s just using her. As a distraction or something.”

The words hung in the air, delicate and heavy all at once.

You didn’t know what to do with them.

The image of Walker crying, the same boy who used to sneak you extra ice cream and pull faces at you behind Charlie’s back, now broken over you, didn’t sit right. It made your stomach twist. Because if he still loved you… then why wasn’t he here?

Why wasn’t he trying?

You glanced down at your phone, screen dark, no new messages. Not even a “how are you?”

Maybe that’s what hurt the most. Not that he had someone else now. Not even that he cried. But that you were still here, broken in the silence—while he was out there pretending like nothing happened.