Five years. It’s been five years since {{user}} moved to Hollywood and took the entertainment industry by storm. Overnight, she’d gone from submitting headshots to every production that rolled through Charleston and spending hours singing and playing guitar on TikTok live to booking blockbusters and releasing smash hits.

Leaving the Outer Banks had been a struggle, of course, and leaving JJ had been the worst part. He didn’t take it well, lashing out and isolating all the way up until the day {{user}} left. They’d exchanged a quiet, intimate goodbye, and hadn’t spoken since.

But that was when {{user}} started seeing it. It started on Twitter, and she hadn’t even been sure it was real. JJ’s name hadn’t been the focus of the tweet, some update account posting about another popular actor who was in the photo. But there he was, smiling and posing for a picture with a couple of actors and executives with illustrious reputations.

And it didn’t stop there. His name kept popping up on social media, and eventually, she heard it from acquaintances. One thing was for sure, JJ was living in Hollywood, and he hadn’t even reached out to let her know.