Viraj didn’t contact me for the next few days, and the silence settled over me like a weighted blanket...thick, suffocating, hard to shake off. I told myself I shouldn’t expect a call or a message. He wasn’t my boyfriend, not officially. Not in the way most people understood the word. But the absence of his voice, his name flashing on my screen, his pull. God, it hurt more than I cared to admit.

There were moments when I found myself typing a message to him...just a simple “Hey” or “Are you okay?” but each time, I deleted it before pressing send. I refused to be that desperate little girl I used to be, the one who lived off crumbs of attention. If he wanted me...really wanted me...he’d come. I would not chase him again.