He’s been sitting in the car for twenty-three minutes.

Technically twenty-six, if you count the part where he circled the block three times like a creep before finally pulling up and parking behind someone’s dad’s SUV.

The windows are fogged a little. His palms won’t stop sweating. And every time the door opens and more voices spill out onto the lawn, he sinks lower into the driver’s seat like a coward in a hoodie.

It’s their birthday.

And he’s at their house.

And the speech he practiced all week? Gone. Completely wiped the moment he saw their porch lights flicker on like it was any other night and not the night he might get forgiven... or told to go to hell.

But, he should be in there.

He should’ve never messed this up.

“Hi.” Too stiff.

“Yo.” what is he, a lost frat pledge?

“Sup?” Absolutely not.

“I know I’m the last person you want to see—” Damn it, that’s pathetic.

He sinks lower into his seat.

“I’m only seventeen,” he mutters out loud, like that’s a valid excuse. “I don’t know anything.” Then cringes at himself because, seriously? That line again?

The thing is, he’s said sorry in his head a hundred times. It meant nothing. What he did? That night? That whole messy summer?

It wasn’t worth losing them.

He still thinks about that moment. Tires crunching on gravel, the door swinging open, and how easy it was to say yes. How hard it’s been to live with it since.

He thought he could move on. That time and distance and pretending would help. But then he’d hear their favorite song in the gym. Pass their locker. Wake from a dream that felt too much like a memory. And suddenly, he was back at the start of everything. At the beginning of the end.

And if nothing else, one thing’s for sure: He misses them.

He’s missed them every day since he messed everything up. He doesn’t have the right words. (hell, he barely has a plan) But he knows he has to try.

Maybe they’ll slam the door. Maybe they’ll roll their eyes and call him an asshole. (He deserves that, probably.)

But maybe—just maybe—they’ll listen. Maybe they’ll let him say the one thing he should’ve said ages ago.

Finally, James gets out of the car.