The sight of Isaac that morning was a punch to Quinn's gut. For the first time, she didn't recognize him—not fully, anyway. They'd been inseparable for years, their lives so intertwined that it was impossible to imagine one without the other.

But now, as Quinn stood there at their lockers, waiting for him like she always did, she couldn't shake the feeling that she was looking at a stranger.

Their lockers had always been side by side, and they'd always made sure to meet there before school, chatting about whatever came to mind—nothing important, just their little moments of normalcy in an otherwise chaotic world. But as the first bell rang, Quinn was still alone, Isaac nowhere to be seen.

When she finally spotted him walking down the hallway, it took everything in her not to approach him immediately. She stood frozen for a moment, watching as Isaac casually walked past her, laughing with people she didn't even recognize. He didn't look at her, didn't acknowledge her presence at all.

It was like she wasn't even there.

The cocky smirk on his face only made the whole situation worse, a mask of confidence that Quinn didn't know how to react to. It was as if he was a completely different person—a person who didn't need her, didn't want her in his life anymore.

She wanted to yell at him, to demand answers for why he was acting this way, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Instead, she walked into class, hoping against hope that she could at least talk to him there.

But when she entered, her heart sank. Isaac was sitting across the room, far away from his usual seat next to her.

He was deep in conversation with a group of students who had never so much as looked at him before. Quinn had never seen Isaac smile like that before, that smug, arrogant grin that made her stomach churn. She felt the familiar anger bubbling up inside her, but she forced herself to swallow it. If Isaac was going to ignore her, then she would do the same.

She sat in her usual seat, pulling out her notebook, but her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't focus on anything. Every glance she threw in Isaac's direction only made her feel more disconnected from him. His back was turned to her, and it felt like an ocean separated them.

The quiet realization crept in: her life, her entire world, had revolved around Isaac more than it ever should have. And now, as he slipped further and further away from her, she felt lost. Like a piece of her had been ripped out, and she didn't know how to find it again.

Days turned into weeks, and those weeks stretched into months. Isaac's new life with his pack consumed him, leaving Quinn on the outside looking in. She watched from a distance as he grew closer to Erica Reyes, the girl who seemed to have undergone a transformation of her own, just like Isaac had.

It was as if the people she had known—her Isaac, her best friend—were slipping away, morphing into something else. She hated it, hated how she couldn't stop him from drifting further from her, but she had no idea how to fight it. The more she tried to reach out, the more he pulled away.

Then came the day Isaac's world crumbled. His father was murdered, and Isaac, as the prime suspect, was taken in for questioning. Quinn felt her heart sink as she watched the police drag him away. She knew Isaac better than anyone.

There was no way he could have killed anyone—not the Isaac she knew. He was too broken, too kind. So, despite everything, she made it her mission to prove his innocence. But her efforts were in vain. News soon broke that Isaac had escaped custody, and he became a fugitive.

Quinn was beside herself, her anxiety skyrocketing as the town went into a frenzy. She couldn't understand why he would run, why he wouldn't reach out to her for help. But as the days wore on, the truth came to light: Isaac was innocent of his father's murder.

The police had found the real killer, and Isaac was cleared of all charges. Still, even with the relief that came from knowing the truth, it didn't change anything. She and Isaac were no longer friends. The bond they once shared had been severed, leaving Quinn with a bittersweet sense of closure. She was glad Isaac wasn't guilty, but it didn't erase the fact that they had drifted so far apart.

One day, it felt like nothing had changed. Quinn was back at school, leaning against the lockers in the hallway, waiting for Isaac, as she had done so many times before. But this time, she stood there longer than usual, because Isaac wasn't coming.

When he finally appeared, he was surrounded by a new crowd of people, his eyes scanning the hallway with a look of indifference. And then Quinn saw her. Allison Argent. She was walking over to Isaac, a smile on her face that Quinn had never seen directed at her best friend. Isaac's eyes lit up when he saw her, and Quinn's heart sank.

It had been happening for a while now, but it still hurt like a fresh wound. Isaac and Allison were becoming something more, something Quinn had never imagined.

As Quinn watched them interact, her chest tightened, and she turned away, knowing she couldn't bear to watch this new chapter of Isaac's life unfold. She felt a weight in her chest, a loneliness that was becoming too heavy to carry.

It was the same for Scott McCall. Quinn caught his eye across the hall as he stood watching his ex-girlfriend with the same bittersweet pain. They exchanged a brief glance, a silent acknowledgement of the heartbreak that had come from watching their best friends fall in love with someone else.

They both smiled, the kind of smile that didn't reach their eyes, and then turned away, silently agreeing to move on. But neither of them could escape the sting of it, the way their worlds had changed in ways they hadn't been ready for.

Later that day, by sheer coincidence, Quinn and Scott bumped into each other. Their eyes met, and for a brief, painful moment, it was as if the weight of their shared heartbreak pulled them together. There was a magnetic force between them, a silent understanding of the pain they both carried. They didn't speak, but in that fleeting moment, they didn't need to.

The bond they shared, however brief and fractured, was enough to pull them close. And as they both walked away from the hallways where love had blossomed for Isaac and Allison, Quinn couldn't help but feel that perhaps, just perhaps, she wasn't as alone as she'd thought.