Mia stared at the message on her phone screen.
"Hey, how have you been?"
The text wasn't long. It wasn't dramatic. It was just enough. Or at least, she thought it was.
Her thumb hovered over the send button, her heart thudding. It had been months - no, almost a year - since she had last talked to Olivia. Their friendship had unraveled slowly, like a sweater with a loose thread that neither of them had bothered to stop from coming undone. At first, there were missed calls, then unanswered texts, then nothing.
Mia had told herself that Olivia was just busy. College, a new relationship, a fresh start in a new city. But deep down, she knew the truth - Olivia had moved on.
Still, she sent the message.
The second it delivered, regret punched through her chest.
She set her phone face down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. She had done her part. Now she just had to wait.
Minutes passed. Then an hour.
She picked up her phone. No reply.
Her chest tightened. Maybe Olivia hadn't seen it yet. Maybe she was at work or asleep. Maybe she just didn't care.
Mia forced herself up, pacing her small apartment. She tried to distract herself - scrolling mindlessly through social media, watching a random TV show, even attempting to read. But her mind kept drifting back to her phone.
Hours turned into the whole night.
The text remained unanswered.
Mia sighed, locking her phone and tossing it onto her desk. She shouldn't have expected anything different.
She had spent so much of her life being the person people outgrew.
Maybe it was her fault. Maybe she was just too much work to keep around.
Curling up under her blanket, she whispered to herself, It doesn't matter.
But the hollow ache in her chest told her that it did.