chapter 2
752 Words
Three years went by in a flash.
College life was supposed to be her clean slate.
New town. New people. No Jason.
Fiona had spent the entire summer trying to scrub her heart clean of him. She deleted the playlist that reminded her of him. Threw away the hoodie she once borrowed when he left it in the library. Even burned a page from her journal—just to prove she could let go.
But hearts don't work like that. Not really.
Her first week of college was a blur of late-night ramen, chaotic roommates, and icebreakers that made her cringe. She smiled when she needed to. Laughed when appropriate. But she felt hollow inside. Like she’d left a piece of herself in the past—wrapped in the shape of a boy who never loved her back, even though she hadn't seen him from three years now, he graduated a year before her, and her final year was like torture she couldn't see his face and then found out that Jason kissed Lila her best friend on the day of his graduation, everyone in the school knew that Jason once said that he has a crush on Lila but that was in junior school, in senior school he started dating Jenna but the broke up some months to his graduation, through out her final year Fiona couldn't help but hate her best friend.
It was on a rainy Thursday that she saw him.
Not him, not Jason.
But someone.
She’d ducked into the campus bookstore to escape the storm, raindrops dripping from her braids, jacket clinging to her arms. She wasn’t looking for anything in particular—maybe just silence, maybe a distraction.
And then there he was. Standing by the poetry section, one hand tucked in his hoodie pocket, the other flipping through a book with a kind of gentle reverence.
He looked familiar.
Not just familiar—known.
Tall. Soft curls. Same intense eyes she remembered from a photo she once saw on Jason's phone when Lila borrowed it.
No. It couldn't be.
“Jared?” she said, her voice low, surprised it came out at all.
He turned. Eyes narrowed slightly, then widened in recognition. “Fiona, right?”
God. He remembered her.
She nodded slowly. “Yeah. Um—wow, hi.”
Jared Williams. Jason’s younger brother. The same last name, but something completely different in the way he moved, the way he looked at her—like he saw her. Not through her, not around her. Her.
“I didn’t know you went here,” she said, stepping closer.
“I don’t. Not yet, anyway.” He shrugged, holding up the book. “Visiting campus. Thinking about applying next fall.”
Right. He was still in high school—barely. Six months younger than her, maybe? But he didn’t feel young. He felt present. Steady. Real.
Fiona glanced at the title in his hand. Milk and Honey.
“You like poetry?” she asked.
Jared smiled. “I like words. Especially the ones that hurt a little.”
She blinked. That wasn’t the answer she expected. Not from a guy who looked like that. Tall. Broad-shouldered. A softness in his voice that made it feel like he wasn’t trying to impress anyone.
“What about you?” he asked. “Still writing?”
Her heart stuttered. “How did you—?”
“You used to carry that black notebook everywhere. Even at Jason’s birthday party two years ago. You sat outside and wrote for, like, an hour straight.”
Fiona flushed. “You noticed that?”
“I notice a lot more than people think.”
And just like that, the air shifted.
They talked for nearly an hour. About books. About music. About how weird it felt trying to grow up when no one really tells you how. She found herself smiling—really smiling—for the first time in weeks.
When they finally stepped outside, the rain had stopped. The world smelled like pavement and beginnings.
Jared looked at her, tilting his head slightly. “You know… if you ever want to grab coffee or something—no pressure.”
Fiona hesitated. Not because she didn’t want to. But because for the first time in years, someone was standing in front of her without the shadow of Jason looming between them.
“I’d like that,” she said softly.
And maybe, just maybe, her heart whispered…
This could be something real.
- Writer
