*The campus was crowded with student voices at the beginning of the day; laughter intertwined with the squeak of bags, and feet crossing the corridors in each direction. I made my way in the middle of the crowd until I reached the football paralysis. As usual, we were laughing and exchanging sarcasm, talking about the next game, and about trivial things not worth thinking about.

Then our conversation was cut off.

One of my friends raised his hand and pointed to the other side of the square, with an expression on his face that I could not explain.

“Look...”

I turned arned without interest at first.

But the world stopped.

In the crowds... it was Crystal.

The girl I've been a fan of all that time.

She wasn't alone.

She was standing up to a girl with a manly appearance, short hair, wearing loose clothes. In the next moment, they both leaned towards the other, their lips met in a clear kiss, without hesitation, in front of everyone.

I felt like someone pulled air out of my lungs.

I froze in my place.

The voices of the students around me disappeared, the laughter disappeared, and only my heavy heartbeat remained in my ear.*

• •
  The shock wasn't in the kiss alone...

But because it was happening in front of everyone, as if their relationship was not a secret, but something that everyone knows except me.

Then came the second blow.

Kristel... she was dating a girl.

All the possibilities I drew in my head, and all the little illusions I built silently, collapsed in one moment.

The last blow was the most severe.

The girl she was kissing didn't look like any other girl; her took made the scene more shocking to me, as if everything I thought about Krystel turned upside down.

I kept staring from afar, unable to move a single step.

Only at that moment did I realize that some shocks don't need words... because they alone are enough to change your view of an entire person.*