Chapter 21: "Seen"

The next few days passed in fragments.

Lily went to class, took notes, sketched in the margins of her textbooks. She laughed when things were funny and stayed quiet when they weren't. She didn't look for Joe around campus. Didn't check if he'd viewed her stories. Didn't reread his message.

Okay, maybe once. But just to remind herself she wasn't imagining things.

She didn't reply. And that silence—her silence—became a quiet power humming under her skin.

Each morning she stood a little straighter.

Each night, she added to the sketch of the girl on the cliff.

Sometimes she gave her wings. Sometimes she gave her a storm. But the girl never moved. She didn't need to.

Lily didn't tell anyone what happened with Joe. Not even Jess. Not because she was hiding it, but because there was nothing more to say. Joe had shown her who he was. And maybe the old her would've bent herself into a shape that made him stay. But not this version.

Not the Lily who finally saw how much she'd been shrinking just to take up less space in someone else's world.

On Wednesday, she got her graded art critique back from Professor Haley. A small sticky note was attached to the corner with just one word:

"Unfiltered. Finally."

She didn't know why that made her tear up. Maybe because for the first time, someone wasn't praising her for how clean or controlled her work was. But for how honest.

That night, Lily walked to the art studio. Not because she had to. Just because she wanted to.

Taylor was there.

Their eyes met briefly, a silent nod of acknowledgment, and then they both went back to their canvases. No words, no explanations.

Just two girls trying to make sense of the noise inside them with paint and paper.

"You ever feel like you're not sad, but also not okay?" Taylor said suddenly, still staring at her work.

"All the time," Lily replied.

Taylor paused, then gave a slow, understanding nod. "Yeah."

That was it. And weirdly, it was enough.

When Lily got back to her dorm, she found a message waiting for her—not from Joe, not from David, but from Ava.

Ava:

Mom said you've been drawing a lot. Can you draw me as a superhero? But like, one that eats noodles and fights with her spoon.

Lily laughed out loud. For the first time that week, it wasn't a tired laugh. It was real. Loud enough to startle Jess, who walked in balancing three books and a box of cookies.

"You good?" Jess asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Getting there," Lily said, smiling.

She sat cross-legged on the bed and began sketching her sister in a cape, one arm raised high with a steaming bowl of noodles in the other.

Halfway through, her phone buzzed again.

This time, it was a DM. From someone she didn't expect.

@sketch.to.speak:

Hey, I saw your drawing of the cliff girl on my Explore page. That was… wow. I don't even have the words. Just wanted to say thanks for posting that. I've been feeling like that girl for weeks. You made it feel okay to not be okay.

Lily stared at the message.

She didn't know this person. Didn't follow them. But somehow, they'd seen her art and felt seen.

Something inside her clicked.

Maybe she didn't need to be anyone's everything. Maybe she didn't need replies or attention or perfect conversations. Maybe she just needed to keep being real—even when it scared her.

Especially when it scared her.

She replied to the message with a soft, "Thank you. That means a lot."

And then, for the first time in a long time, Lily opened her sketchbook and wrote something at the bottom of a drawing. Not lyrics. Not a quote.

Just three words, barely legible beneath smudged pencil marks and rough edges:

"Still choosing me."

Later that night, Jess turned off the lights and crawled into bed. "Hey, you wanna go to the Fall Festival thing on Friday?" she asked through a yawn. "There'll be corndogs. And live music. Maybe even a mechanical bull."

Lily snorted. "Do I look like someone who rides mechanical bulls?"

Jess peeked at her from under her blanket. "You look like someone who could. If she wanted to."

Lily didn't answer right away. But her lips twitched into a grin. "I'll think about it."

She wasn't quite ready to be fully out there again. But she wasn't hiding anymore, either.

Progress, not perfection.

Just before bed, she checked her phone one last time. Her notifications were quiet, peaceful. No new messages from Joe. No long explanations or sudden declarations.

And for once, that didn't sting.

She wasn't waiting for anyone to choose her anymore.

Because this time, she was choosing her.