The Attention I Never Knew I Needed

Aliyah Santos never believed in childhood enemies turning into anything more. She remembered the boy clearly—one of those people who teased her relentlessly from Grade 1 until graduation. Luke Alvarado. He had a way of making ordinary days… unbearable. Pencils rolling off desks, chairs tipped over accidentally (or maybe not), whispers that somehow reached the teacher just in time. Every single year, he was there, always testing her patience. And yet, here she was, ten years later, staring at a group chat she had ignored for years. Luke: “Everyone better come this year. It won’t feel complete without the whole batch.” Her chest tightened. Luke Alvarado. The boy who had made her elementary years exhausting. The boy she never thought about again. Until now. Aliyah had a choice: ignore the message like she always did, or… go. For four years, she had mastered ignoring invitations, but something about this year made her pause. Maybe it was curiosity. Maybe it was nostalgia. Or maybe it was the subtle, stubborn part of her that refused to let him have the last laugh—even after all these years. She didn’t know it yet, but one night in December, sitting at a table she didn’t even know she would share with him, would change everything. One i********: add, one conversation, one shared laugh… and suddenly, the boy who had once been her enemy became the boy she couldn’t stop thinking about. And just like that, Aliyah’s carefully controlled world of ignoring and overthinking was about to be turned upside down. Because some people… some connections… refuse to be forgotten. And Luke Alvarado… was one of them. ---