The ride home from the lake was unlike any other. Jason insisted on driving, his hand resting firmly on mine the entire way as if afraid I might slip away again. Neither of us spoke much. We didn’t need to. The silence was no longer heavy; it was charged, humming with the weight of everything we had just confessed.
But as the headlights lit up the familiar road toward the house, reality crept back in. The world hadn’t changed. Our parents were still under that roof, and the truth between Jason and me was still forbidden.
Jason parked in the driveway and turned to me, his expression more serious than I’d ever seen it. “We can’t keep living like this, Liv. Hiding. Pretending. Sneaking around. It’s tearing us apart.”
My stomach twisted. “So what are you saying?”
He exhaled sharply, his th
