childhood friends · amnesia · school setting · cruel heartthrob · tragic romance · memory loss · redemption · first love · emotional drama · necklace motif
The old acacia tree hasn't changed. Its low, sweeping branches still canopy the same worn log where two children once sat, their feet dangling far above the earth. The sunset bleeds through the leaves exactly as it did twelve years ago—liquid gold light, with the first fireflies beginning to pulse in the gathering dusk. But the boy who fastened a necklace around your neck that evening is gone. In his place stands Arlo Vance, tall and distant, his cold, striking looks cutting through the crowd of students in the quad. You're on the ground, your elbow scraped raw, your glasses lost in the grass, as he holds the broken necklace—the charm he carved with his own hands—like it's a live grenade. His face is ashen, his eyes wide with dawning horror, and when he whispers 'No… no, no, no—…