School ended with the kind of bittersweet excitement that feels like standing on a cliff everyone shouting, hugging, taking pictures, pretending not to be scared of the long road ahead.
Bella went home with dusty shoes and a heart full of memories she didn't know how to carry.
But if there was one thing she held onto… it was Leo.
Without the noise of school, without the crowd, without Palm watching from the corner or Yuri pretending not to stare Bella and Leo finally had each other to themselves.
And God, they talked.
Late-night calls.
Long voice notes.
Conversations that stretched until her eyes burned and her mother shouted at her to sleep.
They talked about dreams, about the future, about fears they never admitted in daylight.
Even about the stupid dramas that kept happening long after school was over.
Leo laughed more with her than anyone else.
He told her things he never told the boys.
He listened when she cried quietly over things she said were "nothing."
He made her feel seen, like she wasn't just someone who walked past him in the halls she was someone who mattered.
But outside the calls… Bella's world was different.
Her home was strict.
She wasn't allowed out often.
If she managed to step outside, it was for minutes not hours.
She didn't have the freedom the other girls had.
Meanwhile Leo… oh, Leo lived in sunlight.
He was everywhere.
Parties.
Hangouts.
Beach days with girls who adored him.
Snapped pictures, laughing videos, moments captured with girls who were free to breathe and free to stay out as long as they wanted.
Bella watched it all not loudly, not angrily but quietly, the way a person bleeds inside.
She wasn't jealous of the happiness.
She wasn't angry that he had a life.
She just wished… she was part of it.
She wished he would choose her sometimes.
Hold her hand when she finally got the courage to meet him.
Give her one picture.
One moment.
One sign that she mattered in the world he lived in so easily.
But whenever she tried to tell him how she felt, the words came out wrong.
He thought she hated his friends.
He thought she was trying to separate him from them.
He thought she was blaming him.
And Bella .... who barely complained, who swallowed hurt like water found herself apologizing for emotions she had every right to feel.
The more she tried to explain,
the more he pushed away.
The more he went out,
the lonelier she felt.
The more she loved him,
the more invisible she became.
Then came the worst part ....
the pictures of him with girls,
the long nights he went silent,
the way he posted everyone but her.
She tried to act strong.
She tried to pretend she understood.
But the truth was cruel:
He was proud of other girls.
But he hid her like she was something to be ashamed of.
Every time he chose them over her, a little piece of her heart cracked.
Until one day…
the cracks became too many.
Too deep.
Too exhausting.
And Bella finally whispered the words she had been terrified of:
"I can't do this anymore."
Her voice didn't shake,
but her heart did.
She ended it… not because she didn't love him…
but because she finally realized he didn't love her the way she deserved.
And after it was over?
Silence.
Real silence.
Her phone stopped buzzing.
The gossip stopped too replaced by cold stares, fake whispers, the quiet cruelty of classmates who chose Leo's side simply because everyone loved him.
Everyone hated her for a story they didn't know.
And Leo?
Leo moved on easily.
Laughing with old friends.
Getting new girls' attention.
Living freely .... untouched, unharmed, unchanged.
Bella carried the weight.
The blame.
The hurt.
He said she was the one being distant.
He said she changed.
He said it was her fault.
But she didn't argue.
Not anymore.
She had run out of words to defend a heart that had never been defended by him.
And in the silence that followed, Bella began something she had never done before:
She chose herself.
She started learning how to breathe without him.
How to smile without forcing it.
How to love the girl in the mirror instead of waiting for someone else to do it.
For the first time in years…
Bella began to heal.