Aika’s POV
I was holding the brush, but my mind was not here.
It should be easy. Stroke, dip, color, repeat. Let the colors blend into something pretty. Something calming. Something normal.
But nothing felt normal anymore.
Even with the soft music playing behind me… even with June humming a little and Mia chewing too loud on that stupid biscuit like she hadn’t eaten in years… my mind kept wandering. Floating back to everything I tried not to think about.
Julius.
His voice. His laugh. His sudden disappearance. And now, his shadow still haunting me like he never really left.
Like he’s just hiding somewhere, laughing at how lost I’ve become.
And now I knew about Ethan. Liam. And Noah.
The boys. The ones who always show up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Who keep saying the wrong words with eyes full of something I can’t read.
The ones who all knew something. Just like Mia and June.
Especially Mia and June.
They think I don’t see it. The way their eyes meet behind my back. The sudden silence when I walk in. The fake laughs. The awkward pauses. The way they keep checking if I’m okay like I’m some glass ready to shatter.
I know them. I’ve been with them too long not to notice.
They’re hiding something.
And it hurts.
It hurts more than I want to admit.
I dipped the brush into green and tried to focus on the leaves I was painting… but the lines came out shaky. Like my hand forgot how to stay still.
I didn’t look at them. I didn’t have to.
“Do you ever get tired?” I said, breaking the quiet.
Mia looked up first. June paused halfway from sipping her soda.
I kept staring at the canvas. My voice low. “Like… tired of pretending you’re okay. Of acting like the people you care about aren’t slowly falling apart. Or that… they’re slipping away.”
Neither of them answered.
I smiled a little, still painting. “I guess I do. I’m tired. So tired. Everything’s been a mess since he left. And no matter how far I run… he’s still there.”
I dipped my brush into blue this time. A deep one. Darker than night.
“Julius is gone. But his name is still everywhere. And now I can’t breathe. Because every time I think I’m getting better, something pulls me back.”
Still no answer.
“And now knowing that Ethan’s mixed up in this? Liam? Even Noah?” I laughed, but there was no humor in it. “It’s like I’m drowning with my eyes open.”
The silence was heavier now.
I knew they wouldn’t speak. I knew they wouldn’t confess. But I had to try.
So I turned my words like a knife, slowly.
“And what about you two?”
I said it softly, almost like a whisper. Still not looking.
I heard it.
The sharp intake of breath. The way the air suddenly changed. How the mood cracked like glass under pressure.
“Huh?” Mia asked. Her voice nervous. Like she wasn’t sure she heard me right.
I didn’t react. Just smiled, like I didn’t say anything strange. “How are you guys doing lately?”
They didn’t answer that, either.
I could feel their eyes on me. But I didn’t meet them.
I just kept painting. Until I couldn’t anymore.
The brush dropped from my hand with a soft thud. I stared at the canvas. It didn’t make sense. Just a bunch of color. A mess.
Kind of like me.
I turned to them finally. Looked at both their faces. Blankly. Calmly.
But inside, I was screaming.
“Do you really want to keep playing this game?” I asked.
June shifted a little. Mia blinked, her lips parted but no words came out.
“Do you really want to keep hiding things from me? Pretending you don’t know? You think I’m numb? That I can’t feel how you both keep something behind your back every time I ask about him?”
They still didn’t talk. But their silence said everything.
“I know you’re trying to protect me,” I whispered. “But do you know what hurts more?”
I paused.
“It’s not the truth. It’s being lied to. By the people I trust.”
June’s mouth opened, then closed again.
Mia… her eyes were red. Shaky. Her lips quivered like she wanted to stop her heart from spilling out.
I looked at them both.
“I’m not stupid,” I said. “You think I didn’t notice how weird you two got ever since that night? Ever since I started asking more questions? I’ve been waiting. Watching. Hoping that maybe you’ll just tell me.”
Still nothing.
“That hurts more,” I whispered.
Mia finally broke.
She sniffed hard, and tears started falling. She tried wiping them away fast, but they just kept falling. Her voice cracked as she said, “I didn’t want you to get hurt…”
“And yet I did anyway,” I said.
June leaned forward, trying to speak. “Aika… it’s not that we didn’t want to tell you. We just—there’s so much. And we didn’t even know how to say it.”
“Say what?”
She bit her lip.
Mia was crying quietly now, her hand over her mouth.
“We just didn’t want to break you,” June whispered.
“I’m already broken,” I said.
The room was quiet again. But not peaceful.
Just… sad.
Painful.
I looked down at my hands. Stained with paint. Shaking.
“I trusted you both,” I said. “I still do. But please… if I ever meant anything to you… don’t keep me in the dark.”
Mia reached out suddenly, holding my hand with both of hers. Her hands were warm. Shaky. “I’m sorry. I swear I am. We didn’t want to lose you…”
I looked at her, and something in my chest cracked.
“I’m right here,” I said. “Just… stop making me feel like I’m invisible.”
June leaned forward and placed her hand over mine too.
Three hands. Three girls. One broken truth between them.
No more lies.
Or at least, not today.