Chapter 4
760 Words
Jason hadn’t planned to be nosy. But that’s the thing about little brothers—when they start acting like they’ve got secrets, you start paying attention.
He was scrolling through Jared’s i********: when he saw it. Just a simple photo on his story—nothing dramatic. No caption. Just Fiona, sitting across from Jared at a café table, laughing.
Laughing.
Jason paused.
There were hundreds of things he could’ve thought in that moment. But what came first was:
That can’t be her.
But it was.
The braids were the same. So was that smile—the one he remembered catching flashes of in the halls of Lakefield High, though he’d never paid enough attention to store it properly in his memory.
He tapped the photo again. Rewatched it. Zoomed in. Replayed her laugh in his head.
He hadn’t heard her laugh like that before.
Not around him.
Jason set his phone down slowly, a strange tightness in his chest.
Fiona.
He remembered her as the quiet girl who always seemed to be writing something. The one who used to glance at him when she thought he wasn’t looking. The one who blushed when he accidentally held a door open for her and thanked him like he’d done something heroic.
He’d known, of course. He wasn’t blind.
She’d had a crush on him for years. And he... hadn’t cared.
Why would he? He was Jason Williams. Football star. Senior. Every girl had a crush on him at some point. Fiona was just another one—until she wasn’t.
Until now.
He didn’t like the way Jared was looking at her in that photo. He didn’t like the way she was smiling like he had her full attention. That smile had once belonged to him, hadn’t it? Even if he never asked for it. Even if he didn’t earn it.
Now, he wanted to see her.
Just once. To see if she still looked at him the same way.
Maybe just to prove to himself that she didn’t.
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Fiona didn’t expect to run into Jason. It had been two years since she’d seen him in person. Two years since he graduated from high school, and even longer since she’d let herself think of him with any kind of hope.
She was walking out of her literature lecture, headphones in, when she saw him standing by the fountain near the student union building.
He hadn't changed. Still tall, still that stupidly good hair, still wearing confidence like a second skin. But something in his expression was off—like he was searching for something.
Her.
Fiona froze. Her heart stumbled. The last time she’d seen him this close, she had been trying not to stare. Now he was the one staring.
She pulled out her earbuds slowly. “Jason?”
His lips curled into a slight smirk. “Hey. Thought that was you.”
She nodded, unsure what to say.
“You look different,” he said, eyes scanning her like he was trying to memorize her all over again. “College suits you.”
Fiona raised an eyebrow. “I guess so.”
There was a silence between them—tense, unfinished.
“So,” he said finally, “you and Jared?”
She blinked. He didn’t even try to hide the question.
“What about me and Jared?”
He shrugged, but it was anything but casual. “I saw your picture. Looked... cozy.”
Fiona crossed her arms. “You mean the way I used to look at you?”
Jason hesitated. The smirk faltered. “That’s not fair.”
“No?” she said, voice calm but laced with steel. “You knew I liked you. Everyone knew. And you ignored it. Worse—you let me keep hoping.”
“I didn’t ask for that.”
“No,” she agreed. “But you didn’t stop it either.”
Jason exhaled, jaw tightening. “Maybe I didn’t see you back then. Not really. But I do now.”
It hit her like a cold gust.
Too late.
“You see me now because someone else does,” she said, stepping back. “And I’m not going to apologize for being happy. Not anymore.”
He looked like he wanted to argue. Like he wanted to say something that would pull her back, anchor her in the version of herself that waited for him year after year.
But she didn’t give him the chance.
She walked away.
And this time, he was the one left watching her go.
- Writer
