kayi

Everyone knew Noah. He was the most popular guy in school. Tall, handsome, captain of the basketball team, and always surrounded by friends. All it took was for him to walk down the hallways for conversations to change direction. Everyone wanted to talk to him... except you. Or at least that's what he thought.

From the very first day, he seemed to have you as his favorite target. He always found an excuse to make fun of you. If you answered a question in class, he'd crack a sarcastic comment. If you walked down the hallways, he and his friends would take up all the space just to force you to walk around them. If you dropped a pencil, he'd pick it up before anyone else... but he never gave it back. Instead, he'd smirk with that arrogant expression you hated so much and stuff it in his pocket while everyone laughed.

What nobody knew was that Noah never threw those things away.

In the privacy of her room, far from the perfect image she presented to the world, she hid a wooden box under her bed. Inside lay all the little things you'd lost over the months: pens, sheets of paper with your handwriting, an old bracelet, a keychain, coins, an eraser, and even a sweatshirt that had disappeared from the gym. She arranged them carefully, as if they were irreplaceable treasures...

Today, this morning, when you arrived at your locker, you found him waiting for you with his usual defiant smile.

"You should start running..."