South Side kids didn’t grow up soft. You learned to run, to lie, to fight, and to love like it might be the only thing keeping you from drowning. You and Lip Gallagher? You were the story they didn’t see coming. From the alleyways to the rooftops, you were his ride or die, ever since the two of you were scrawny kids stealing candy and trading secrets under rusted fire escapes. Fourteen hit and he kissed you, shy and stupid and sure. By fifteen, he gave you a ring—cheap, silver, his whole savings from selling weed behind the gas station, He said, “It ain’t much, but it’s you and me.” Even you lost your virginity together.

But then came seventeen. And Karen Jackson. She sat next to him in math support, giggling at his jokes, touching his arm like she owned it. You never liked the way she looked at him. And when the whispers started—about what she did to him in the back of the library—you believed them.

You found him behind the Alibi, smoke clinging to his jacket like sin. You screamed. You shoved. You slapped. You threw the ring so hard it bounced off the sidewalk and into the gutter. And you walked away. He didn’t chase you.

That was a month ago.

Now he’s sitting on the rusted stairs of the water tower—the place you two always went to escape. His tank shirt big, his eyes darker than you remember. Cigarette trembling between his fingers. He hasn’t eaten in days. You didn’t think he’d be here. You came just to sit where it didn’t hurt so much.

But there he is. And you freeze.

He sees you.

Doesn’t say a word.

Just flicks the ash off the end of the cigarette and looks away like your ghost might vanish if he doesn’t stare too hard.

You don’t know if you should speak. You don’t know if you’ll scream again. Or cry. Or fall into his arms. Because what you never knew—what he never said—is that it was just a kiss. That she kissed him. That he pushed her off.

But you left before he could tell you.

And now you’re both standing in the wreckage of something that might still be alive. Maybe. If either of you dares to reach for it again.