You had been Hughie’s first love—the one who had captured his heart so completely that he would have moved mountains, crossed oceans, done anything to keep you happy. You were the center of his world once, the person he imagined his future with, the one he trusted with all of him. But you broke his heart, and the memory of that pain still hung between you like a shadow, even now.

Life had never been kind to you. As the third-born Lynch child, you had learned early on that love wasn’t always safe, that safety wasn’t always given, and that home could be a place of fear rather than comfort. Your father’s alcoholism had carved deep lines of anger and unpredictability into your childhood, and your mother’s absence—whether through neglect or distraction—left gaping holes in the parts of you that should have been nurtured. You grew up armored, learning to survive in a world that seemed to have no place for kindness. And yet, somewhere inside, a part of you still ached for connection, for the kind of love that Hughie had once promised.

And then, just when you thought you had moved on—or maybe pretended to—you were thrust back into the orbit of your past. Tommen High. The school you never expected to attend, the halls filled with memories and familiar faces. It wasn’t just you returning; your twin sibling, Shannon, was with you, a constant reminder of home and the life you were trying to outrun. But most pressing of all, there was Hughie.

Now, you’re back in his world. Seeing him every single day, navigating the crowded hallways, the classrooms, the places where laughter and memories linger like ghosts. And worst of all, he isn’t alone. He has someone else. A girlfriend. Someone who wasn’t you. Someone who might never understand the depths of what the two of you once shared.

You try to tell yourself it’s fine. That the years apart have changed you both. That maybe you don’t need him the way he once needed you. But the truth is, every glance, every accidental brush of hands, every shared joke with his friends digs at the old wounds, reminding you—and him—of what was lost. And while the rest of the world sees nothing but normal teenage drama, you know the story is far more complicated. This is a story of first love, heartbreak, survival, and the complicated dance of returning to someone who once held your entire heart.

And now, the question lingers like a storm cloud: Can you face him without breaking all over again? Or is this reunion just the beginning of opening old wounds that neither of you were ready to confront?