School was almost over ,just three or four days left. The kind of days that feel heavy because you can already taste the ending, yet you're pretending everything is normal. Everyone was buzzing with excitement, taking pictures in the corridors, signing shirts with messy handwriting, claiming they wouldn't forget each other even though everyone knew they would.
Bella kept moving through it all like she was floating present, laughing, smiling… but her mind stayed close to Leo. Their friendship had become the warmest part of her school life. He still cracked jokes, still teased her, still nudged her shoulder when she looked too serious. But there was something else now. A weight. A tension she couldn't name.
And then, one afternoon, Leo pulled her aside after class with that look he wore only when he had something real to say.
"Bella, you won't believe what I heard," he started, lowering his voice.
She waited.
His words came slow, like they didn't want to leave his mouth.
"It's Palm… someone told me she did everything she did because she liked me."
Bella felt her chest tighten.
So… that was it.
All the strange moments.
All the drama.
All the whispers and unnecessary fights.
Palm's sharp comments.
Palm's attitude whenever Bella was around.
The way Palm would stare at her when she walked with Leo.
It all clicked.
Painfully. Quietly. Suddenly.
Palm wasn't trying to protect Bella.
Palm wasn't warning her about Leo.
Palm wasn't being a friend.
Palm was jealous.
And Bella had been too innocent, too kind, too trusting to notice it.
It hit her hard not just the revelation, but the fact that Leo was the one telling her. He could've kept it to himself. He could've brushed it aside. But he wanted her to know. He wanted her to understand that the chaos wasn't her fault.
Bella tried to act unfazed, but something inside her shifted.
She suddenly felt small.
Foolish, even.
Like she had walked blindly into a game she didn't know she was playing.
Because while she had been trying to protect her friendships…
While she had been trying to stay neutral…
While she had been trying not to step on anyone's toes…
Someone else had been fighting a battle Bella never asked for.
Someone else had been blaming her, resenting her, misunderstanding her, all because of a boy she didn't even realize she cared about that deeply.
That afternoon, walking home, Bella felt the weight of it.
The world looked the same.... same dusty road, same chatter of students, same smell of fried food from the roadside but nothing felt the same.
She wasn't angry at Palm.
Not really.
She just felt… tired.
Tired of being the one who got caught in the middle without even knowing it.
But Leo walked beside her, hands in his pockets, kicking stones like a little boy, and for a moment Bella wondered:
Was all of this worth it?
Was he worth it?
School was about to end.
Everything was about to change.
And somehow, this revelation this small confession from Leo .... felt like the beginning of something she wasn't ready to name yet.