I honestly lost count of how many lies I told the last couple weeks.
Bailey doesn’t answer, she just narrows her eyes at me like she knows there’s a whole story sitting behind that sentence. But Mom’s expression softens. “I’m sorry, sweety,” she says quietly.
And that almost does it. Because if she keeps being this nice, I might actually lose it right here between the flour and the carrot cake batter. So I nod once, quickly, shoving it away.
“I’m gonna study in my room,” I mutter.
Neither of them stops me. So I grab my bag, head upstairs, and close my door a little too fast behind me.
40
MADDY
Calling on my girls
The water is cold when I paddle out, the waves steady beneath me as I push forward again and again, letting the rhythm take over. I catch one, stand for a second, before it breaks and pulls me under. I come back up, wipe the salt from my eyes, and do it all over again. My shoulders burn. My legs feel like jelly. But I keep going.
Eventually, though, even stubbornness has its limits. My arms barely cooperate when I paddle again, and by the time my feet finally touch sand, my whole body aches in that deep, bone-tired way that usually means I pushed just a little too far. I drag the board onto the beach and drop onto my towel with a long, shaky exhale.
The last couple days have been… something. Seeing him at school made it almost impossible to remember why I can’t like him. So I did what any emotionally stable person would do—I avoided him.
This is for the best. It wouldn’t have worked anyway. Feelings never work. So it’s fine.
Except Liam drove twenty minutes just to bring me my favourite sandwich yesterday. Mel and Kiara showed up with an entire emergency box of chocolate. Noah’s been handing me coffee at lunch without saying much—more than usual. And Dad keeps bringing extra food home from the café.
Which somehow feels worse. Because they’re being kind, and I’m just lying to their faces. So much for being a good friend.
I stare out at the ocean, the horizon glowing orange as the sun starts to sink, the light stretching across the water in soft, flickering lines. A couple people walk past behind me, their voices low, familiar in that small-town way.
Most of the town already knows we broke up. No one’s said anything directly—just soft smiles that translate roughly towe’re very sorry and will absolutely demand details later, but we’ll give you a polite grace period first.
A soft ping cuts through the sound of the waves, and I reach into my bag until I find my phone. There’s a notification—an email from school.
Yearbook Preview — Sneak Peek Inside!
My thumb hovers for a moment before I tap it open, and watch the photos load in, each one a frozen piece of something ordinary. Classrooms, hallways, random in-between moments.
There’s a group in the library, someone caught mid-laugh while another person in the background is very obviously doing something they’re not supposed to, and another picture of a teacher holding a stack of papers, looking like they’d rather be anywhere else, caught in that exact split second between blinking and sighing.
A small smile tugs at my mouth.
These are actually really good. That guy knows what he’s doing.
I scroll slowly, letting the images blur together just enough, until I stop at a picture with all of us, sitting on the bench. Noah’s mid-sentence, Kiara’s laughing with her head thrown back, Liam’s leaning into Mel while she’s smiling bright.
My gaze drifts to him. Ryan’s caught mid-laugh, his head tilted slightly toward me like whatever I just said was thefunniest thing he’d heard all day, like I was the reason he was smiling like that.
I stare at it for a second too long, before I force myself to swipe again. Another picture flashes past; blurry, chaotic, someone running, someone else yelling.
And then my breath catches.
It’s him and me. At the dance.
The picture fills the screen, and everything else disappears with it. I’m standing there with my arms looped around his neck, his hands resting at my waist, pulling me just close enough that there’s almost no space left between us. The light falls around us in this soft, warm glow while everyone else fades into motion, blurred and distant. Our faces are inches apart. The moment right before we were almost about to kiss.
My heart stutters, but I can’t seem to look away, like if I stare at it long enough I might fall back into that moment.
My vision blurs.
