By the time everything settled, it felt like the whole year had been one long storm tearing its way through Bella's life ...friendships cracking, loyalties shifting, truths hiding behind smiles. A storm she somehow survived, even when everything around her kept trying to break her.
Palm's noise eventually faded into the background, the way storms do when you stop listening to their thunder.Rose drifted too ...not unfriendly, just… distant. They still shared a wave, a soft "hi." Nothing like the deep warmth they once had, but not bitterness either. Just the natural distance of people who no longer walk the same road.
And then there was Yuri.
Bella still greeted her.Still offered help when she could.Still chose kindness even though Yuri never knew the truth Bella carried quietly in her chest.
Because during the months when Bella and Leo grew close truly close Leo had once sent Bella a recording. A recording of Yuri talking behind her back, telling lies, saying Bella was "taking Leo away," painting Bella as something she never was. Ironically, another boy had recorded Yuri saying all that and sent it straight to Leo.
Bella heard every word.
She never told Yuri she knew.Never confronted her.Never threw the truth in her face.
She simply chose silence.Not weakness maturity.
So yes, Bella still said "hi," still stretched a helping hand once in a while… but the softness was gone. The innocence was gone. The trust was gone. And Yuri never knew that Bella's quiet distance was actually her quiet strength.
Because Bella had outgrown the kind of friendship that smiled at her face but doubted her heart.
Leo…letting go of him was its own kind of storm.Slow, bleeding, confusing.Months passed, and still the smallest things stung the pictures he posted with other girls, the way he made them feel special in ways she once begged for, the way he seemed so effortlessly loving to everyone except her.
Sometimes it felt like she was the only one left carrying the weight of what they once were.
But with time long, aching, stubborn time something shifted.
She started seeing herself again.
She realized she wasn't the villain.She wasn't the jealous friend.She wasn't "too much."She wasn't "the problem."
She was just a girl who loved honestly, in a world where honesty was treated like a weakness.
So she began choosing herself in small, gentle ways.
A better playlist.Skincare in the evenings.Journaling her truths.Fixing her hair in the mirror and actually liking what she saw.Long walks where she breathed without fear.
And slowly, the pain softened.It didn't disappear .... heartbreak never disappears instantly but it loosened its hold on her.
She stopped breaking when she saw Leo smiling with others.She stopped shrinking when she saw Yuri or Rose or anyone who once doubted her.She stopped caring about the whispers that painted her as something she wasn't.
She had learned something vital:Some people are lessons, not lifetimes.Some truths burn so you won't touch the same fire twice.Some heartbreaks happen to return you to yourself.
By the end of everything the friendships, the confusion, the love, the loss Bella stood on her own two feet, not bitter, not defeated… just stronger.
The pain was still there, quietly humming beneath her ribs whenever an old memory resurfaced.But she no longer let it define her.
She was loving herself now ...properly.She was taking care of herself.She was becoming the best version of herself.
And for the first time in a long while, Bella didn't feel lost.
She felt free.