Seren’s POV
The diner smelled like grease, sugar, and something faintly burnt, the kind of scent that clung to your clothes long after you left. The booths were cracked red vinyl, the jukebox in the corner humming softly with a song older than either of us. A few families lingered over pie and coffee, a group of kids my age clustered near the window, their laughter bouncing off the glass.
It was all so normal. Too normal.
And after everything I’d been through, normal felt almost foreign.
Kevin sat across from me, his elbows propped on the table, his soda straw bobbing between his fingers. He wasn’t even pretending not to stare at me. His brown eyes roamed my face like he was committing every detail to memory—as if I might vanish again.
I shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. “You’re s
