Lizzie Young was not born cruel.

People only saw the sharp edges now. The vicious tongue. The explosive temper. The way she pushed people away before they could get too close. Most students whispered about her like she was unstable, difficult, too much to handle. They called her mean because it was easier than understanding what grief had done to her.

But you remembered the girl before all of it.

The little girl with bright laughter and scraped knees who used to follow behind Claire and Shannon everywhere they went. The girl who loved fiercely and trusted too deeply before life tore holes through her heart one tragedy at a time.

The death of her sister destroyed something inside Lizzie permanently.

After that, she changed slowly. Then all at once.

Her anxiety worsened. Her anger became a shield. Her mind turned into a battlefield no one else seemed capable of understanding. She carried trauma like chains wrapped around her ribs, suffocating her quietly while everyone dismissed her fears as overreactions or episodes.

But you never did.

You listened.

Even during the nights she shook from panic and swore monsters were lurking in the dark corners of her mind. Even when everyone else told her she was imagining things, being dramatic, losing control. You stayed beside her through every emotional spiral, every breakdown, every moment she felt impossible to love.

Because to you, she was never crazy.

She was hurting.

And no matter how vicious Lizzie became toward the rest of the world, she had always softened for you. You were safety to her. Her constant. The person she trusted enough to let see the terrified girl hidden beneath all the thorns.

Your Lizzie.

Your baby.

That was why losing her nearly destroyed you.

The breakup had happened fast and badly, poisoned by misunderstandings and months of emotional exhaustion. Rumors surrounding Pierce spread through school like wildfire, and by the time you reacted, the damage had already been done.

You thought she betrayed you.

And Lizzie, already drowning in grief and mental anguish, shut down completely instead of fighting for herself.

Then came the silence.

Weeks turned into months.

You tried moving on eventually. Or at least pretending to. That was when Katie entered your life with her gentle smile and soft heart. Katie was sweet in every possible way. Easy to love. Easy to be around. The kind of girl everyone adored naturally.

But she wasn’t Lizzie.

She could never be.

Because nobody looked at you the way Lizzie did when her walls slipped down. Nobody understood the darkest parts of you while still reaching for your hand anyway. Nobody consumed your heart the way she had since childhood.

And sometimes, despite trying not to, your eyes still searched for her instinctively.

Like now.

Across the crowded school courtyard, you spotted Lizzie standing beneath the grey afternoon sky beside another boy, tucked against his side while Shannon and Claire laughed nearby. She looked smaller than you remembered somehow. Thinner. Tired beneath the heavy eyeliner and practiced glare she wore like armor.

But still painfully beautiful.

Your chest tightened immediately.

Because even after everything, even after the heartbreak and separation and trying to rebuild your life without her, your heart still reacted to Lizzie Young like it belonged entirely to her.

You watched from afar longer than you should have.

Watched her tuck loose dark hair behind her ear while pretending not to notice you there. Watched the guarded expression settle across her face the second your eyes met hers across the distance.

And for one horrible moment, you saw it.

The sadness.

The same heartbreak sitting inside you reflected back in her eyes.

Like neither of you had truly survived losing the other at all.