Memories flooding back...
570 Words
Sarah walked away fast, then slower, until her steps finally matched her breathing again. Only when she turned the corner of the street did she let out a long, shaky sigh.
Relief hit her first. Sharp. Immediate. Like she had been holding her breath for eighteen years and only just remembered how to release it.
But relief never comes alone.
Memories started rushing in, uninvited, unstoppable.
Eighteen years ago.
High school corridors filled with noise, chalk dust, and teenage chaos. And there he was. Leeore. Tall, always slightly out of place in a crowd, not the classic campus heartthrob kind, but something else entirely. His moreno skin caught the light in a way people noticed without understanding why. Quiet confidence. Sharp intelligence. The type of boy teachers praised and students secretly watched. All the girls in campus talked about him in whispers, but none of them really reached him the way they wanted.
And Sarah.
Not the top of the class. Not the loudest in academics. But she had something else. Confidence that didn’t ask permission. An eloquence that made even simple words feel intentional. A “baddie” in her own quiet, effortless way. She walked like she knew the hallway belonged to her too, even if grades said otherwise.
They were never supposed to mix.
But they did.
It started with accidental glances. Then small arguments in group work. Then laughter that lingered a little too long after class. Leeore would challenge her answers just to hear her defend them. Sarah would roll her eyes just to hide that she was actually enjoying his attention.
And somewhere between teasing debates and stolen moments after school, things changed.
He wasn’t the boy everyone described anymore when she looked at him. And she wasn’t just the confident girl people talked about when he spoke to her.
They became quieter. Something hidden. Something real.
But high school loves don’t survive on feelings alone.
The bell rings. Expectations. Friends. Fear. Timing that never feels right.
And now, standing years later on a different street, Sarah realized something painful.
She didn’t just escape a conversation today.
She escaped a version of herself she never fully got over.
Leeore stood there for a moment longer than he should have.
Sarah had already walked away, her figure slowly blending into the moving crowd. But he didn’t move right away. His eyes stayed fixed on the space she had just occupied, like his mind was trying to hold onto something his hands could never reach.
He wanted to keep that moment longer.
Not loudly. Not dramatically. Just… longer. A few more seconds. A few more words. Something simple enough to delay the ending that had already started.
But deep inside, he also didn’t know how.
What do you say to someone who once meant everything, after years of silence?
What do you ask when you’re not even sure you have the right to ask anything at all?
His fingers twitched slightly, like he almost reached out, almost called her name again. But the sound never came.
Instead, he let out a quiet breath and lowered his hand.
Around him, the street kept moving like nothing important had happened. People passed, cars rushed, life continued its loud indifference.
But for Leeore, everything felt paused in a way that hurt more than movement ever could.
And just like that, the moment he wanted to keep… slipped away anyway.
- Writer
