Vanessa's POV
I couldn't sleep
The note from my diary sat on my pillow like a curse:
"You think you can trust him? Think again. He's lying to you. Stay away from Alexis before it's too late."
The words pulsed in my head, louder than my heartbeat.
Who wrote it? How did they even get into my diary? My bedroom wasn't locked, but I always kept the diary tucked between my mattress and the wall. No one was supposed to know.
I sat up, heart thudding, and stared at the door. It was shut now. Still. But earlier, I swore I'd heard it creak. Like someone had slipped out.
Alexis?
No. Not the one from school. My brother. He had been acting strange lately. Quieter than usual. Restless. But why would he sneak into my things?
Or worse—was it Mom?
I shoved the thought away. She barely noticed me unless she was angry. It would be more attention than she'd ever given before.
I picked up the note again. The handwriting was tight and sharp. Like the writer had pressed too hard with the pen. Every letter slashed across the page.
Whoever wrote it, they wanted me scared. Wanted me to doubt Alexis. The other Alexis.
And I did. Just a little.
Because even though he'd been kind lately—offering cake, apologizing, asking to be friends—he still carried secrets in his eyes. Deep ones. The kind that didn't come out easy.
The next day at school, I watched him closely.
He looked normal. Or as normal as Alexis could ever look. Calm. Distant. Like someone made of stone and shadow.
"Morning," he said, sliding into his seat beside me.
I gave a small nod. "Morning."
His eyes flicked to mine for a second, but I dropped my gaze to my notebook.
He noticed.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just tired."
I wasn't ready to talk about the note. Not yet. If he was hiding something, I needed time to figure it out. And if he wasn't… if he was innocent… accusing him would hurt him more than I could handle.
At lunch, I sat by myself under the fig tree near the school fence. It was quiet there—away from the chatter of classmates, away from the pressure to be liked, away from Alexis.
I unwrapped my sandwich, then paused. The bread was moldy on one side. I pressed my lips together, threw it into a nearby bin, and pulled my diary from my backpack instead.
I flipped through the pages. The note was still tucked inside.
I scanned the nearby students.
Someone knew me well enough to leave it where I'd find it. Someone watched me closely.
Maybe Alexis wasn't the only one hiding something.
A shadow fell across my notebook. I looked up.
It was Alexis.
"Thought you were eating in the library," I said flatly.
"Thought you were eating in the cafeteria," he replied.
We stared at each other.
He sat down slowly beside me. "You've been avoiding me."
"No, I haven't."
His expression didn't change, but I saw something flicker behind his eyes. Disappointment. Maybe even hurt.
"I just figured…" He trailed off. "Never mind."
"Figured what?"
"That you'd disappear too. Like everyone else."
There it was again. That hollow tone. Like he was already used to people leaving him.
"I'm still here," I said quietly. "Just… trying to understand something."
He didn't push. Didn't ask questions. Just nodded, stood, and walked away.
That night, I tried to write in my diary but couldn't.
I kept thinking of Alexis. His voice when he said "you'd disappear too." The way he didn't beg for me to stay. Just accepted it. Like he expected everyone to eventually abandon him.
And then I thought of the note.
Was someone trying to push us apart?
And why?
I flipped to a blank page and started a new entry.
Dear Diary,
What if the person I'm afraid of isn't the one I should be? What if someone else is trying to scare me on purpose?
But why? And why now, just when things were starting to feel… okay?
I don't want to be wrong about him. But I also can't afford to be wrong. Not again.
Not when the last person I trusted was Alexis. My brother.
My hand paused.
That memory. The broken plate. The lie I told to protect him.
The scars on my back still itched when I thought about that night.
He had let me take the fall.
Maybe trust wasn't something I should give freely anymore.
The next day, Alexis wasn't in class.
At first, no one said anything. But by the second period, even the teacher seemed surprised.
"He doesn't usually miss school," a girl behind me whispered.
"Maybe he's sick," someone else offered.
But a strange unease crawled up my spine.
At lunch, I checked the library. The courtyard. Even the staff room hallway. No sign of him.
I shouldn't have cared so much.
But I did.
That evening, I went for a walk after school. I didn't want to go home yet. Home meant silence. Home meant pretending to be invisible.
Instead, I found myself near the old soccer field behind the school.
And that's when I saw him.
Alexis sitting alone in the bleachers, head in his hands.
I approached slowly.
"Hey," I said.
He didn't look up. "Go away, Vanessa."
"No."
He finally lifted his face. His eyes were red. Tired.
"I didn't come to school because I didn't trust myself," he said. "Didn't want to say something I'd regret."
"What happened?"
He let out a breath. "You've been cold. Distant. Like you're afraid of me."
"I got a note," I said. "In my diary."
His expression hardened. "What kind of note?"
I pulled it from my pocket and handed it to him. He read it in silence.
Then tore it in half.
"It wasn't me," he said.
I believed him.
Not because he said it. But because something in his eyes looked honest for once. Raw. Unshielded.
"I know," I whispered.
He stared at the torn paper in his hands. "Someone doesn't want us to be friends."
I nodded. "And I think they're close. Too close."
"Then we find out who it is," he said. "Together."
It was the first time he'd said we.
And for the first time in a long time, I didn't feel alone in a fight.