Chapter 33 Mia

• School resumed like it was just another day, even though yesterday felt like the most intense high of my life with my near-death experience. Mrs. Harrisburg had come by last night to check on me. Before leaving, she even had the audacity to remind me to finish her assignment. Only Mrs. Harrisburg could pull that off, showing her hardcore alpha mentor side even after all I'd been through. But I was used to it by now.
• What I wasn’t used to was the emptiness gnawing at me today. A substitute teacher announced that Nathan had “matters to attend to,” which meant he was absent on what should have been his first official day in class. And as ridiculous as it sounds, that left me with this weird sinking feeling that I hated. I told myself it was just leftover bitterness from the rejection I went through, but it felt different—stronger.
• Seeing Raphael in the hallway didn’t bother me at all. He was there with some new girl, another fling, most likely. But as I watched them together, I felt... nothing. Not a single urge to march over, or claw her eyes out, or anything. It was as if he was just another random guy passing by, making out with a random girl. But anytime Nathan’s image crossed my mind, my stomach would flip in this annoying, sickening way, exactly like it was doing now as we sat in the cafeteria for lunch.