Chapter 2:The First Crack
The first crack in the glass happened during a history project.
For a week, he sat in the back of the library with Meera, a girl who usually sat three rows back, as silent as a ghost. Aryan didn't look at her; he looked at his phone. Meera didn't look at him; she looked at her sketchbook.
"You're doing that thing," Meera said suddenly, her voice barely a whisper. "The scrolling thing. You're trying to make the world go quiet."
Aryan froze. No one had ever named his habit before.
"I'm just checking the news."
"No," she said, finally meeting his eyes. "You're building a wall. I do it too, but I use pencils."
She turned her sketchbook toward him. It was a drawing of a boy made of static, trapped in a glass jar.