Lie to Him, Moan for Me!

Ghosts!

MAYA — POV

He doesn't look at me anymore.
Not even by accident.

Not in class.
Not when we pass in the hall.
Not when I sit across the cafeteria, pretending to breathe.

Liam used to see me.

Now I'm just air.

The night he found out—it wasn't quiet.
It was public. Loud. Shattering.
His voice cracking on the words, his fists clenched like he didn't trust himself not to swing.

"You cheated on me. With him. My fucking best friend."

The silence that followed still rings in my ears.
The way everyone turned to look.
The way he didn't deny it.

Didn't say a word.

Just stood there—jaw clenched, unreadable.
Like he didn't care.
Like it hadn't killed him too.

But I knew better.
I know him now.
I know the way he breaks — quietly.

Liam hasn't said a word to either of us since.
Not a look. Not a curse. Not a goddamn whisper.

And I deserve it.

The others pretend to be neutral.
Emma sits with me.
Ava sits with him.
Luca keeps his jokes shallow and his eyes watchful.

But the air's never still.
Not when we're all in the same room.

Like now.

I'm sitting on the far edge of the table, Emma beside me.
Across the room, Nathan leans against the counter, nursing a drink he hasn't touched in twenty minutes.

And Liam...
Liam is outside. Alone. Head down. Smoke curling from his fingers even though he doesn't smoke.

None of us speak.

We're ghosts now. Haunting the same place, pretending we don't remember what we were.

And Nathan—
He doesn't look at me either.

But I feel him.
Every second.

⸻

NATHAN — POV

I haven't looked at her in hours.
But I know she's there.

I always know.

Liam hasn't spoken to me since that night.
I don't expect him to.
Not after what I did.

He loved her.

I watched it from the sidelines for months, like some sick punishment.
And still — I touched her.
Let her crawl into my bones and stay there.

And the worst part?
I'd do it again.

Even now, with him three feet away outside, hating us in silence.
Even now, with her across the room, trying to disappear into that stupid coffee she always orders.

I'd still choose her.

But we can't be together now.
We can't start something in the wreckage of what we destroyed.

Not when Liam's eyes are still bloodshot.
Not when everyone still talks in hushed voices when we walk in.
Not when it would mean rubbing it in his face.

So I stay quiet.
Stay still.
Stay far.

But I burn.
God, I burn.

Every time she laughs with Emma, I want to drag her out of the room.
Every time Liam slams a door too hard, I want to scream that I never meant to hurt him.
Every time she looks like she might cry — and I don't go to her — I die a little more.