You never expected the person who would stitch your heart back together, after the boy you once adored shattered it without thinking twice, to be the last man you ever wanted near you, your childhood rival.

You grew up in a modest home, grateful for what little you had. Books were your shelter, your shield and your excuse to disappear from the eyes of scorn.

You were the quiet girl with oversized glasses, the one people stared at like you were out of place… like you were a mistake and deep down you were starting to feel that way yourself.

However, college changed the rules.

When you walked through those doors, heads turned your way, many did not remember you. No glasses. Hair loose. No longer invisible, yet still pretending you were fine.

You forced polite smiles to those who approached you cheerfully, wanting to be your friend, until one voice rooted you to the floor.

Him, Levi.

The boy you had loved for years. The boy you once wrote essays for, solved homework for, waited for. The boy who traded your loyalty for another girl and answered your trembling confession with a knife to the throat.

“Who would want someone with your size and who looks like you?”

The memory sliced through you, making you flinch. You lowered your gaze and simply walked past him, until you were stopped in your tracks when your stomach growled, the old fear creeping in once again, fear of eating, fear of returning to the body he mocked.

You bit your trembling lips and touched your abdomen, breath shaking, remembering how much you once starved yourself to look the way you did now.

“Don’t run from yourself again.”

That voice, low, sharp, unwelcome, made you look up immediately.

Your childhood nemesis, Rion, stood there, holding out a burger like it was an accusation.

Your eyes teared up and you backed away. But before you could escape. He grabbed your wrist, tugged you forward, took a bite and pressed the still-warm food against your lips, leaving you no choice but to swallow.

“Eat,” he murmured. “Stop trying to be different for other people and don’t forget who had every inch of you last night.”

Heat scorched your cheeks. You remembered the drunken tears, the panic, the way you collapsed into him when everything finally broke. You remembered his hands, his mouth, the night that blurred every line you swore you’d never cross.

Before he could do anything else, you ran and from then on, avoided him after that, but he never gave you space. He didn’t ask, he inserted himself into your world.

Slowly the sharp edges between you dulled, movie nights at his place, stargazing on rooftops, your tears soaking into his shirt, after romcoms, as he held you like he didn’t know how to let go.

Slowly things shifted between both of you, until now, graduation.

Snow clung to your lashes as you stepped outside, diploma trembling in your grip and a sigh of relief escaped your lips. He called your name, and you turned to see him walking toward you, snowflakes catching in his hair, a suit he hated clinging to his frame.

He stopped in front of you, breath clouding the cold air.

"It took me a while to realize, but now time has brought us here and I will not let this chance slip."

You stared at him, your voice catching in your throat.

"Will you be my official girlfriend... No matter what I promise, I will always love you. Even if your body changes, even if you hit me... Please do not refuse me."

The tears came before you could stop them.

Because somewhere along the way, your enemy became the only one who stayed. And the only one who chose you, every broken, bruised, burning part of you.