Narrator:"About two weeks after Samuel met the girl, he began waiting for her more and more. It wasn't intentional. It simply… became part of his routine. Though, if I'm being honest, it also became his worst habit."
September rolled in with heavy clouds and humid afternoons. Samuel and the girl often walked together after school, trading small jokes, laughing over nothing important. Their conversations weren't special to anyone else — but to Samuel, they were everything.
Narrator:"The bond Samuel imagined was far stronger than the one she did. But he didn't know that yet. He wouldn't for a long time."
One afternoon, Samuel waited for her again at the usual spot. Minutes passed. Then more. She never came.Samuel walked home alone, disappointment hanging on his shoulders like a soaked jacket.
A few days later, Samuel sat with the rest of the students in the gymnasium, waiting for the bell to release them. The girl was across the room with her friends, laughing and talking as they paced back and forth.
Samuel's hand slipped into his backpack. His phone was already on. Without thinking — or maybe thinking too much — he angled it from the front pocket so the camera pointed toward her.
Twenty-five seconds. That's all.
He stopped the recording immediately.
A boy sitting beside him leaned over."Did you just record those girls?" he asked quietly.
Samuel shook his head fast, too fast.No. Of course not. Why would he?
Narrator:"He lied. Of course he lied. He recorded her — whoever she even was. What Samuel believed was harmless would eventually unravel things he wasn't ready to face."
Later that week, Samuel walked with her and their mutual friend, Leo.Leo was harmless, but Samuel didn't see it that way.To him, Leo was competition — someone who might steal the tiny sliver of connection he believed he had.
Samuel kept pace with them, talking, laughing, pretending he didn't care. Pretending he didn't notice how the girl's attention shifted between the two of them.
He wished Leo would disappear.He wished she would look only at him.
Eventually they reached the neighborhood where Samuel had to split off. He didn't want to leave her alone with Leo — though he had no reason, no proof, nothing but insecurity.
Narrator:"Whether Leo liked her or not, I can't say. She didn't like either of them that way, but Samuel didn't see that. He always carried the worst-case scenario in his pocket."
Samuel said goodbye, turned down his street, and walked alone.As he stepped further away, he heard it again.
That faint ticking.
He'd heard it weeks ago too… but he brushed it off.
And once again, he ignored it.
Narrator:"But that sound — that quiet little ticking — would one day become either his salvation… or his undoing."
END OF CHAPTER 2 — ACT 1