I was nine when she left. Stood outside her ma’s car with two melting ice pops in my hand—hers dripping down my wrist—watching the back of her head through the window as they pulled off down the road. She waved, half-asleep, didn’t even see me crying.

I kept the second ice pop in the freezer for days after. Just in case she came back.

She never did.

Not until now.

She walked into Tommy’s corner shop like she’d never left. Same half-tied laces, same gold ring on her index finger from the two-euro machine, same way she hummed under her breath without realising.

But she didn’t look at me like I was anyone.

Not a flicker.

Not even a second glance.

I followed her out the door before I even knew I’d moved. “Hey—wait up.”

She turned, blinking like she wasn’t sure if she should smile or be wary. “Yeah?”

I stepped back slightly, shoved my hands in my pockets, trying not to sound mad. “You don’t remember me, do you?”

Her head tilted. “Should I?”

God. That stung.

I forced a breath out my nose, let it go. “Nah. Just… thought you looked familiar.”

She smiled then. Warm. Easy. Like she used to.

“I get that a lot.” She paused, looked me over again. “Did we… go to school together or something?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Something like that.”

Later I heard from her cousin what happened—the accident, the memory loss. The gap in her head where all the childhood years used to be. She remembered bits, blurry stuff, but no names. No faces.

No me.

And now I had to make a choice:

Do I tell her everything? The mud pies, the first bike crash, the shoelace I tied for her every single lunch break. The promise she made with ketchup on our hands that we’d be best mates forever.

Or do I stay quiet? Let her meet me now, like it’s the first time.

Start again. Clean.

She was sitting in the park when I passed by again. Alone, picking petals off a flower like she was twelve and trying to figure out if someone fancied her. She looked up when I slowed near the bench.

“Hey,” she said, squinting into the light. “You again.”

And I smiled. For real this time.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding toward the spot beside her. “Mind if I sit?”

Because if she didn’t remember me, I’d just have to make sure this time was even better. Make her fall in love with knowing me all over again. Even if it broke my heart to start from scratch.