The rugby match was loud, the field soaked with the kind of Irish rain that never seemed to let up. You sat with your arm wrapped around Katie as she laughed at something you barely heard. You were trying — you really were — to be here, to be present, to give Katie what she deserved. But your eyes kept drifting.

Lizzie stood off to the side of the pitch, hood up, her expression unreadable. She hadn’t even noticed you yet, which made it worse. You’d memorized that face in a thousand forms: angry, devastated, brave, cruel. It still haunted you. You hadn’t spoken in months — not since you left things burning behind you and walked into something safer with Katie.

Safer didn’t mean painless.

Lizzie had wrecked you, but you still kept pieces of her under your skin. And every now and then, like now, they itched. You knew she saw you eventually — the stiffness in her shoulders said it all — but she didn’t look, didn’t wave, didn’t flinch.

Katie leaned into you, warm and whole, and all you could think about was how Lizzie used to do the same thing, only it felt like lightning instead of comfort.

Later, in the hallway leading out from the locker rooms, it happened — the worst kind of accident.

Lizzie rounded the corner, headphones in, and stopped when she saw you. Both of you froze. She didn’t cry, didn’t scream. She just blinked like she was waiting for something — a word, maybe an apology you still didn’t know how to give.

Katie’s voice called from behind you, cheerful and trusting, and Lizzie’s face shifted. Gone was the flicker of softness. What replaced it was sharp — the kind of look someone wears when they’ve learned how to bleed quietly.

She brushed past you, her shoulder catching yours, and for the briefest second, your hands touched. Not a spark — more like a funeral bell. You had once told her she was the love of your life.

Now she was the ghost you kept pretending wasn’t real.

Because loving Lizzie was never a choice. It was a curse, a scar, a whisper you never quite stopped hearing. And no matter how hard you tried to love someone new, Lizzie lived in the space between heartbeats, in every pause, in every silence that should’ve belonged to someone else.