Weekly Love – Chapter One: The Quiet Between Texts
On Mondays, the world always felt louder than it needed to be.
Lockers slammed. Sneakers squeaked across the hallway floors. Someone laughed too hard at something that probably wasn't that funny. And in the middle of it all, Maya stood at her locker pretending to reorganize books she'd already organized twice.
Her phone buzzed.
She didn't look at it right away.
She told herself she wouldn't.
It buzzed again.
Her heart did that small, traitorous flip.
Ethan: Did you survive the math test or should I start planning your funeral?
She laughed before she could stop herself.
Ethan had transferred to her school three months ago. Same grade. Same history class. Same habit of tapping his pen against the desk when he was thinking.
They weren't officially anything.
They weren't officially nothing either.
That was the quiet between texts.
Maya typed back:
Barely survived. If I fail, I'm blaming you for distracting me yesterday.
Three dots appeared almost instantly.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
Her stomach tightened. Why did three dots have so much power?
Ethan: Worth it though.
She stared at the words longer than necessary.
Worth it though.
She replayed yesterday in her mind — sitting on the bleachers after school, talking about everything and nothing. The way he'd listened when she explained why she wanted to study architecture someday. The way he hadn't laughed when she admitted she was scared of not being "good enough."
The hallway noise faded around her.
"Earth to Maya," her best friend Lila said, snapping her fingers. "You're smiling at your locker."
"I am not."
"You absolutely are."
Maya locked her phone and tried to look normal. It didn't work.
After school, the sky was pale gray — the kind that felt like it was thinking about rain but hadn't decided yet.
Ethan was already outside, sitting on the low brick wall near the bike racks. He looked up when he saw her, like he'd been waiting.
Maybe he had.
"Math survivor," he said in greeting.
"Math menace," she replied.
They walked side by side toward the park across the street. Not touching. Not quite apart.
There was something fragile about this stage — like glass before it's shaped into anything. It could become something beautiful.
Or it could shatter.
"Hey," Ethan said suddenly, more serious now. "About yesterday. When you said you're scared of not being good enough?"
Maya's chest tightened.
"Yeah?"
"I don't think that's possible."
She blinked. "That's dramatic."
"I'm serious." He kicked at a pebble. "You care about things. You try. You don't pretend to be someone else. That's already more than most people."
The quiet stretched between them again.
But this time, it wasn't anxious.
It was warm.
Maya felt something settle inside her — not fireworks, not a movie moment. Just a steady kind of glow. The kind that feels like it might last.
"Thank you," she said softly.
Ethan smiled — not the joking one, not the teasing one.
The real one.
And for the first time, the quiet between them didn't feel uncertain.
It felt like the beginning.
If you'd like, I can:
Continue with Chapter Two next week
Make it more dramatic (love triangle, secrets, misunderstandings)
Make it fantasy-themed
Or write a completely different "Weekly Love" story with new characters 💫