Chapter 1: The Girl Who Changed Everything

I’ve always been the childhood friend—the safe, familiar one. Aubrey? She was the girl who seemed to step right out of a storybook and into our lives.

Back in our little Midwestern town, you could smell fresh-cut grass after football practice, and faded championship banners hung limp in the gym. Everybody knew the rule: the childhood friend never stood a chance against the one who sweeps in like a dream—like the new girl from somewhere bigger and brighter, who turns heads without even trying. Not long after Aubrey transferred to our high school, someone caught my rebellious best friend, Caleb, in the empty stairwell after school, head bowed like a guilty puppy, quietly taking his lumps. By lunch, the whole cafeteria was buzzing. Even the lunch ladies were in on it.

Later, after I had a falling out with Aubrey, Caleb said, almost offhand, “I don’t want to see Natalie at school.” My parents, terrified of crossing the Carter family, immediately arranged for me to transfer. In a town like ours, where who you know means everything, that sort of thing happens quietly. No one wants to get on the wrong side of the Carters.

From then on, it was like I’d vanished from his world, too scared to show my face anywhere near him again. I’d walk home by the railroad tracks, kicking at the gravel, the distant whistle of a freight train echoing across the fields. My breath fogged in the chilly air, and for a second, I wondered if anyone would notice if I just kept walking.

But then, on his birthday, he showed up at my door, rain-soaked, looking embarrassed and hurt: “Seriously, Nat? You forgot my birthday?” The porch light flickered over his face, water dripping from the brim of his baseball cap, and for a second, it was like we were ten years old again.

Everyone says the childhood friend never stands a chance against the girl who just showed up out of nowhere and turned everything upside down. I used to roll my eyes at that, laughing it off with my friends after practice, like it could never really be true for us.

But as I sat in the gym bleachers, the scent of sweat and popcorn in the air, watching Caleb gaze at Aubrey—who spun across the stage in her pink ballet flats, the gym’s ancient speakers crackling out Tchaikovsky while parents snapped blurry photos on their phones—I felt my stomach twist.

In that moment, I believed it. For once, all those stories felt real.

I also believed what people said about seeing the wild Caleb Carter bow his head to Aubrey in the empty stairwell. Even the teachers whispered about it, their voices blending with the squeak of sneakers on linoleum.

The feelings I never got to confess would just have to stay buried. That’s the way these stories go, right?

When the music ended, I clapped for the dazzling girl on stage. My hands stung a little, but I didn’t stop.

Caleb got up and left his seat, probably to find Aubrey. I stood and left the gym, too, the echo of my sneakers on the old wood floor following me out.

Outside, I raised my hand. A small, silver locket dangled from my wrist, swaying in the breeze. It caught the last bit of sun, winking like a secret.

“Nat, this is... for you.”

I looked at him, confused. “What is it?”

When he was seven, Caleb had watched a soap opera with his aunt and remembered something about a token of affection. He never liked to admit it, but he was always a bit of a softie under that tough act.

“I’ll give it to Nat. From now on, she can only like me.”

“I’ll always protect Nat.”

My eyes stung. I took the locket off and held it in my palm. Kids’ promises aren’t supposed to count for much. But to me, they were everything.

But I took them seriously. The wild little troublemaker Caleb Carter was the secret joy of my whole childhood. Back then, he was the sun that brightened my ordinary days.

Aubrey transferred in this semester. She was beautiful and a dance student. Her confidence radiated off her like she knew she belonged anywhere she went.

Her arrival caused a stir. Even the teachers seemed caught off guard. In homeroom, all the guys sat up straighter when she walked by.

Back then, the girls in our class said Aubrey was like the heroine in a YA romance: sweet, and somehow noticed by the school’s notorious bad boy. We all thought it was just gossip at first, but you could feel the energy shift in the halls.

Then the school rebel bent for the good girl. And the world kept spinning.

Lots of people were after Aubrey then. Someone even joked that only Caleb hadn’t tried yet. I remember rolling my eyes, but deep down, the idea unsettled me.

Caleb stretched lazily and glanced at the speaker: “Is she even worth it?” He always played it cool, never showing his cards.

See how cocky he was back then. I almost admired it.

Before, I didn’t believe Caleb and Aubrey were together, because I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, and he’d never told me he was with another girl. There was always this silent trust between us.

But now, I get it. It’s time for me to let go and keep my distance from Caleb. Sometimes, the only way to move forward is to let go of what you thought was yours.

I used to walk home with Caleb every day. I can’t remember when it started, but he always found some excuse for me to go ahead without him. At first, I thought it was just a phase.

Honestly, he could have just told me. I wouldn’t have clung to him. I’m stronger than that, even if no one notices.

After all, we were never together. Not really. Not the way I wanted.