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Chapter 53 : The Things We Carry

Author: add-mide
last update Last Updated: 2025-07-23 13:30:28
There was strength in the reflection now. Maybe not the kind that people wrote stories about, but the kind you earned inch by inch after surviving someone who tried to break you.

Chris walked past behind him and paused in the doorway. “You’re wearing the blue jacket today,” he said, smiling faintly. “You always wear that when you want to feel like yourself again.”

Ryan turned to him, surprised. “You noticed that?”

Chris shrugged. “You’re my friend. Of course I noticed.”

That word friend landed differently now. Not because it meant less, but because it meant more. After everything, Chris hadn’t just been a roommate. He’d been Ryan’s lifeline.

Classes were easier now, even if the occasional stare or whisper lingered. Professors treated him with cautious kindness, and some classmates offered silent nods of respect.

Others still avoided him. That was fine. Ryan didn’t need their belief. He knew his truth.

What haunted him most wasn’t Adrien’s face it was the aftershocks. The moments in the
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