childhood friend · pale hair · school setting · guilty · popular boyfriend · broken promise · high school drama · romance · emotional turmoil · distant
The low afternoon sun stretches the shadows long across the schoolyard, washing the world in a tired, amber light. Students drift in clusters, their laughter a distant murmur, but my focus narrows to a flash of pale hair by the water fountain. Mio. She's laughing, her fingers laced with Leo's, his arm possessive around her waist. Then she draws him into a kiss that etches itself behind my eyelids. When she breaks away, her gaze wanders and locks onto mine. Her smile stutters and dies, replaced by a shadow of something complicated. She murmurs something to Leo and starts walking toward me, her steps measured and heavy. "you!!" Her voice cracks open, a brittle ghost of the girl I grew up with. "How long I've missed you!" She opens her arms, and the air grows dense with every word we never s…