Chapter 126: Wednesday epiphany

Chapter 126: Chapter 126: Wednesday epiphany

Wednesday arrived quietly.

Two days had passed since the Founders’ Ball.

One day had passed since the dormitory celebration.

And Saint Albion had already settled back into its familiar rhythm.

Students hurried between lecture halls with books tucked beneath their arms.

The excitement surrounding the ball had faded into little more than passing remarks.

Now, conversations revolved around pending preliminary examination results, upcoming assignments, and club activities that had resumed after the festivities.

Life, as it always did...

Moved forward.

Vivienne moved with it.

She attended her morning lectures.

Walked beside Claire, Eleanor, and Amelia between classes.

Smiled when spoken to.

Answered when necessary.

From the outside...

She looked almost like herself again.

Almost.

--

The bell signaling the end of second period echoed across the campus.

The four girls joined the steady stream of students crossing the central courtyard toward their next lecture.

Amelia was in the middle of an animated story.

"...and then he actually said he forgot there was homework!"

Eleanor sighed.

"I sincerely hope he was joking."

"I don’t think he was."

Claire chuckled softly.

Vivienne listened with half an ear, smiling faintly at their conversation.

Then...

She looked up.

Her breath caught.

Anthony.

He was walking across the courtyard, several yards away, speaking with two fellow students.

He looked exactly as he always did.

His satchel hung neatly over one shoulder.

His posture remained straight.

As one of the young men beside him said something, Anthony smiled.

It was small.

Natural.

Unforced.

The sight struck Vivienne harder than she expected.

Before she realized what she was doing...

She stepped behind one of the stone pillars lining the covered walkway.

"...Vivienne?"

Claire turned back.

Vivienne blinked.

Only then did she realize she was hiding.

"...Sorry."

She let out a quiet, embarrassed laugh.

"I..."

Her voice trailed off.

Across the courtyard, one of the students walking beside Anthony glanced in her direction.

Their eyes met for only a brief moment.

A flicker of recognition crossed his face before he looked away again, continuing the conversation as though nothing had happened.

Anthony never turned.

He never knew she had been there.

The three young men continued across the courtyard until they disappeared into another building.

Silence settled over Vivienne.

Claire didn’t ask any questions.

She simply waited.

After a long moment, Vivienne drew in a slow breath.

"...Let’s go."

The four girls resumed walking, disappearing into the flow of students.

--

Anthony and the two young men continued across the courtyard.

Just before they reached the opposite walkway, one of them glanced back.

"...Wasn’t that Lady Beaumont?"

Anthony’s steps slowed.

Only for a moment.

The image returned unbidden.

Under the warm glow of the balcony lanterns...

Vivienne had smiled through tears.

"I understand."

There had been no accusations.

No desperate pleas.

Only quiet acceptance.

...

His fingers tightened ever so slightly around the strap of his satchel.

Then, just as quickly...

He continued walking.

He didn’t look back.

"...Come on," one of the others said as their conversation resumed.

Anthony answered absentmindedly.

Yet for the rest of the walk...

The image of her smile refused to leave him.

--

The encounter lingered with her long after Anthony had disappeared from sight.

Not because he had looked at her.

He hadn’t.

Not because they had spoken.

They hadn’t.

Simply...

Because seeing him again made Monday night feel undeniably real.

The rest of the day continued as it always did.

Lectures came and went.

Students filled the hallways between classes.

Someone laughed loudly in the cafeteria over a joke Vivienne didn’t quite catch.

Life moved steadily onward.

And for the first time...

Vivienne realized she was no longer replaying the balcony.

Instead...

She was replaying herself.

--

Evening arrived quietly.

Claire had gone to the common room with Eleanor and Amelia to discuss tomorrow’s assignment, leaving the room unusually still.

Vivienne lay on her bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

She wasn’t sleepy.

She wasn’t reading.

She was simply...

Thinking.

Without warning, the image returned.

Anthony.

Walking across the courtyard.

Talking with his classmates.

Smiling.

Continuing on with his day.

As though nothing had happened.

...

Perhaps...

To him, nothing really had.

The thought stung.

But only for a moment.

Because almost immediately...

She found herself shaking her head.

"No..."

That wasn’t fair.

It wasn’t that Monday night had meant nothing to him.

It was simply that...

Life had to go on.

Just as hers did.

Anthony had classes.

Student Council duties.

Friends.

Responsibilities.

He couldn’t possibly stop living because he had rejected someone.

"...Besides..."

Vivienne let out a quiet sigh.

"Why would he?"

The question lingered in the silence.

Why would he?

He wasn’t rejecting someone he loved.

He wasn’t ending a relationship.

He had simply answered the feelings of a girl...

A girl he hadn’t truly gotten to know.

Her eyes slowly closed.

"I’ve been asking myself why he doesn’t love me..."

"...when the better question is..."

"Why should he?"

The answer came almost immediately.

There was no reason.

Not yet.

She had spent the last month chasing after him.

Finding excuses to speak with him.

Looking forward to every conversation.

Feeling disappointed whenever he left too soon.

She smiled faintly.

"...I’ve been trying very hard."

Almost embarrassingly so.

She buried half her face in the pillow.

"If someone did all that to me..."

"...would I suddenly fall in love with him?"

No.

Of course not.

Affection wasn’t something that appeared because another person wished for it.

It grew.

Slowly.

Naturally.

Between two people.

Her smile faded.

"...Then what was I expecting?"

Silence answered her.

After a long while, another thought quietly surfaced.

"I’ve been treating Anthony..."

"...as though I already knew him."

She frowned.

Not the Anthony from the novel.

The real Anthony.

The young man she’d spent the past month trying to win over.

Had she really known him?

Or...

Had she simply assumed she did?

She searched her memories.

Every time Anthony had done something kind...

She had smiled to herself.

"That’s so like him."

Every time he acted responsibly...

"Of course he did."

Every time he made a decision...

She had believed she already understood why.

But...

Did she?

Or had she merely filled in the blanks with memories from another life?

Vivienne slowly covered her eyes with one arm.

Anthony wasn’t a character.

He wasn’t a collection of scenes she’d already read.

He wasn’t destined to say the same words...

Or make the same choices.

He was a real person.

One who could surprise her.

Disagree with her.

Reject her.

Choose a future she had never imagined.

"..."

A soft laugh escaped her lips.

Not because anything was funny.

Because she finally understood something about herself.

"I’ve been projecting."

She had fallen in love with Anthony long before he had ever met this Vivienne.

She had approached him with years of affection already tucked away in her heart.

Anthony...

Had only been getting to know the person standing in front of him for the past month.

They had never begun from the same starting line.

"...That’s unfair."

Not to herself.

To him.

She had expected Anthony to respond to feelings that had taken her years to build...

After only a month.

Vivienne stared quietly at the ceiling.

For the first time since Monday night...

The pain in her chest eased.

Only a little.

Not because she had stopped loving him.

But because...

She had finally stopped blaming him.

And somehow...

That made it just a little easier to breathe.

--

Tbc