Eva’s POV

Will you be my girlfriend?”

This was the last text I got from him.

It felt like he loved the universe we both created for ourselves. The one where I could be me, and he could be himself, without thinking about the outside world.

Different questions kept popping into my head. Why, when I finally decided to be with him, did he disappear?

Probably he found someone else to love him in all the ways I was lacking. Probably I expressed my feelings too much, or maybe I spoke too loud. Probably I felt too free with him.

It all didn’t make sense to me, why he would just disappear on me after asking that insane question.

I didn’t even get to tell him my real name: Eva Harper. He only knew me as Quiet Lily.

I waited for his text. I waited as hours turned into days, and as days turned into months.

I wouldn’t have met him if I hadn’t secretly installed an online dating app called “Bloomers”, all because I was looking for a guy to love me for me.

Somehow, a friend request notification popped up.

Immediately, I logged into the app, and there he was, Golden boy.

I almost didn’t want to accept the friend request, but I did anyway. What harm could it cause me?

That same day, we started talking, and our vibes clicked instantly.

In our first chat, he made me laugh a lot, and I felt so free whenever I spoke to him on the phone.

His looks were out of this world; animated, with blonde hair and small lips.

I couldn’t bear the thought of sending him my picture because I wasn’t confident in how I looked. I kept thinking that if I did, he might not like me anymore.

I already felt like I wasn’t enough because of my nerdy appearance and my lack of fashion sense. I was convinced he would probably find me weird too.

All these thoughts kept running through my mind as I kept on staring at his last text.

Natalie snapped her fingers in front of my face.

“Earth to Eva. Don’t tell me you’re still thinking about that ghost boy,” she said, leaning over to peek into my phone.

“No, it’s not what you think…” I said quickly, locking my screen. “I just… I don’t understand it, Nat. Why would he ask me something like that and then just disappear? Like I imagined everything.”

Natalie folded her arms. “hear me out, he’s just a guy.”

I frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” she said dramatically, flipping her hair, “guys do confusing and annoying nonsense things all the time. It’s practically in their DNA.”

I let out a small laugh despite myself. “So you’re saying I got emotionally invested in nonsense?”

“I’m saying you got emotionally invested in potential,” she corrected. “There’s a difference.”

I hesitated, then looked down at my hands. “Or maybe… he found someone better. Someone who actually looks good. Someone who doesn’t hide behind a username.”

“Eva.” Her tone changed immediately.

“What?” I said, my voice quieter now. “You didn’t see him, Nat. He was..he is…perfect. And me?” I gestured to myself. “I’m just… me.”

Natalie grabbed my shoulders and turned me fully toward her.

“First of all, stop that. Right now,” she said firmly. “I don’t like that version of you.”

I sighed. “It’s not a version. It’s the truth.”

“No, it’s insecurity dressed up as truth,” she shot back. “There’s a difference.”

I blinked at her.

“You think guys only like one type of girl?” she continued. “Hot, loud, flashy, perfect hair, perfect outfits?”

“…Yes?” I said slowly.

She rolled her eyes. “Please. If that were true, I’d be married by now.”

That made me laugh.

“I’m serious,” she said, though she was smiling. “You’re beautiful, Eva. You’re just too busy comparing yourself to everyone else to see it.”

I looked away. “It’s easy for you to say. You are everyone else.”

“Wow,” she said, placing a hand on her chest dramatically. “So I’m just ‘everyone else’ now? No personality? No depth?”

I smiled a little. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Mhm. That’s exactly what you meant,” she teased. Then her expression softened again. “Look… I get it. You liked him. Maybe you still do. But holding onto someone who disappeared on you? That’s not fair to you.”

“…Do you think he’s dead?” I asked suddenly.

Natalie stared at me.

“Eva.”

“I’m serious,” I insisted. “What if something happened? What if he didn’t mean to disappear?”

She sighed. “Or what if he did?”

That hung in the air for a second.

I swallowed. “I don’t like that option.”

“I know,” she said gently. “But you can’t keep building stories to make his silence hurt less.”

I didn’t respond.

She nudged me lightly. “And for the record, thinking about him is probably blocking your chances with real people.”

“I don’t think that’s the reason,” I said.

“Just look at me,” I said, while spinning. “Who would like someone who looks like this?”

“Every guy wants to be around you.“

“Okay, first of all rude…,” she said. “Secondly, that’s completely incorrect.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Incorrect?”

“Yes. Do guys like me? Sure. Do they deserve me? Debatable,” she said, flipping her hair again.

I laughed.

“But you?” she continued, stepping closer. “You’re the kind of girl people don’t forget. You just haven’t met the right person yet.”

“That sounds like something from a movie.”

“Exactly,” she grinned. “And every main character starts off underestimating herself.”

I shook my head, smiling. “You and your motivational speeches.”

“You love them.”

“…I tolerate them,” I corrected.

“Liar”.

“Alright, girl, enough of all that,” I said, grabbing my bag. “Class starts in five minutes, we’ve got to move.”

I slammed my locker open and reached for my textbooks.

But immediately, a paper fell out.

I frowned.

It was a note.

Come to the theater room during lunch period. From your secret admirer.

“Natalie, look at this,” I said, holding it up.

Her eyes widened instantly. “Oohhh, Evaaa!”

“What?” I said cautiously.

“You have a secret admirer,” she whispered dramatically. “This is how it starts.”

“This is how what starts?” I asked.

“Romance. Mystery. Obsession. Possibly a love triangle,” she added excitedly.

“Or a prank,” I said flatly.

She ignored me. “Wait! what if it’s someone we know?”

“That’s exactly why I’m worried.”

“Or,” she continued, gasping, “what if it’s someone handsome?”

“Natalie.”

“What? Let me be hopeful for you since you refuse to be.”

“I don’t like this,” I said, reading the note again. “It feels… weird.”

“Weird how?”

“I don’t know. Like… too sudden. Too random.”

She tilted her head. “Or maybe someone has liked you for a while and finally got the courage?”

“At Eastview High School?” I raised an eyebrow. “Nobody here even notices me.”

“That is a lie,” she said immediately. “People notice you. You just don’t notice them noticing you.”

“That didn’t even make sense.”

“It made perfect sense,” she insisted. “You’re just in denial.”

She grabbed my arm. “You have to go.”

“Why?”

“Because if you don’t, I will go in your place and accept him on your behalf.”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “…You’re actually crazy.”

“Bold of you to assume that’s new information.”

I laughed.

“Look,” she said. “If you don’t like him, just say no. But at least give the person the decency of showing up.”

I hesitated.

“…I’ll go with you,” she added quickly. “I won’t let anything weird happen.”

I looked at her for a moment.

“…Okay,” I said slowly.

The bell rang for lunch.

“Come on, girl,” Natalie said, already pulling me up. “Your gentleman is waiting.”

“Oh please, he can wait,” I said, trying to stay calm as I arranged my things.

“Nope,” she said, grabbing my hand. “We are not missing this moment. This is cinematic.”

“Nata….”

Too late.

She was already dragging me out of the classroom.

“Nat, slow down!” I protested, trying not to drop my books.

“Nope,” she said, not even turning back. “If we walk slowly, you’ll start overthinking, and then you’ll suddenly ‘feel sick’ and run back to class.”

“I do not do that.”

“You literally did that during the chemistry presentation.”

“That was different!” I argued. “I actually felt sick.”

“Mhm. Convenient timing.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re so annoying.”

“And yet, here I am, still your favorite person.”

“…Debatable.”

She gasped dramatically. “Wow. After everything I’ve done for you? Emotional support? Free advice? Premium friendship package?”

I laughed. “You talk too much.”

“And you don’t talk enough. That’s why we balance each other,” she shot back.

We slowed down as we approached the hallway leading to the theater.

My steps became smaller.

Natalie noticed immediately.

“Hey…” she said, her voice softer now. “Don’t start panicking.”

“I’m not panicking,” I said quickly.

“You’re literally squeezing my hand like you’re about to enter a horror movie.”

I loosened my grip slightly. “…Sorry.”

She smiled a little. “It’s okay.

“…What if this is a joke?”. “What if someone just wants to embarrass me?”

Her expression hardened instantly. “Then they’ll have to deal with me.”

I blinked. “Natalie”

“I’m serious,” she said. “Nobody’s allowed to mess with you like that. Not on my watch.”

I exhaled slowly. “And what if… it’s not a joke?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Then what’s the problem?”

“What if it’s someone I don’t like?”

“Then you say no.”

“What if it’s someone I do like?” I asked quietly.

She smirked. “Then say yes.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It actually is,” she said. “You just like to complicate things.”

We finally got to the theater room door, and then I stopped, my chest tightening.

“Nat…” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” she asked, confused.

“My heartbeat,” I said, placing a hand over my chest. “It’s… loud.”

She looked at me for a second, then chuckled softly. “That’s called being nervous, Eva. Very normal human reaction.”

“This feels like a problem,” I admitted. “What if I can’t do this?”

She stepped closer and placed her hands on my shoulders. “Listen to me,” she said. “You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be confident. Just be you. That’s enough.”

I looked at her, unsure. “And if it goes wrong?” I asked.

She smiled slightly. “Then we’ll laugh about it later. Together.”

That made me feel a little better.

“I’ll be right here,” she added. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“…Okay,” I muttered.

She gave me a small push toward the door. “Go on.”

I took a deep breath, then another, and slowly stepped inside.

Everything was dark, too dark, and I paused to let my eyes adjust, but I could barely see anything.

“Hello?” I called softly.

No response came.

Then, without warning, the stage lights came on, and I flinched at the sudden brightness. Before I could process anything, I felt a soft tap on my hand and turned quickly. A student stood beside me, silent, gesturing gently for me to follow. My heart pounded as I followed him, because if he wasn’t the one who had called me here, then who was?

Ethan’s POV

My first love.

I met her on Bloomers.

She was one of the happiest, most carefree people I’ve ever known.

From the very first conversation, something just clicked between us. It didn’t feel forced or planned. It felt natural… like we were already meant to find each other.

She made me laugh easily. Even the smallest things she said had a way of softening my thoughts, like the world became lighter whenever she was around.

With her, I didn’t have to pretend to be anyone else.

I’ve never seen her face.

But I always imagined her as beautiful—not just in appearance, but in the way she talked, the way she thought, the way she existed.

Her voice over the phone… soft, a little shy when she said my name… stayed with me longer than I expected.

Everything about her felt real.

Like something I didn’t want to lose.

My eyes opened slowly. Everything was blurry.

My head felt heavy. My body didn’t feel like mine.

The room was quiet for a moment, with only the soft beeping of machines filling the space around me. I shifted slightly, and my body still felt heavy and unfamiliar beneath me, as though it belonged to someone else.

The door opened, and a doctor stepped in, my dad following close behind him.

“Ethan,” my dad said quickly, almost rushing to my side. “You’re awake.” His voice cracked slightly at the end, carrying a strange mixture of relief, shock, and exhaustion all at once. For a second, he just stood there, like he wasn’t sure if he should touch me or not.

“Yeah…” I muttered, blinking slowly as I tried to adjust to everything around me. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

The doctor gave a small, professional nod before stepping closer to the bed. “Ethan, I’m going to ask you a few questions. Nothing difficult, alright?”

I looked at him for a moment, then glanced over at my dad, and something about the way they were both watching me so closely made my chest tighten slightly.

“…Okay,” I said.

“Do you know your full name?”

I frowned a little, though that question was easy enough to answer. “Ethan Brooks.”

“Good,” the doctor said calmly. “And do you know where you are right now?”

I looked around the room again, taking in the white walls, the quiet machines, the soft overhead lights, and everything about it felt far too clean, far too unfamiliar to be comforting.

“Hospital,” I answered.

“Correct,” he replied.

He paused for a moment before my brows pulled together on their own. “Can someone just… tell me what actually happened to me?”

A brief silence followed, and I noticed it first in my dad, the way he looked down at the floor before anyone else even spoke, and that alone was enough to make my stomach tighten with dread.

The doctor spoke gently. “You were involved in a road accident.”

My chest shifted uncomfortably at the words. “A road accident?” I repeated, slower this time, as though saying it again might make it easier to understand.

My dad stepped closer to the bed now, his voice softer than before. “You were hit while crossing the road after school.”

I blinked, turning the words over in my mind. After school. It sounded like such an ordinary thing to be doing, almost too ordinary, like there was something buried underneath it that I still couldn’t quite reach.

But something about it didn’t sit right in my head, no matter how many times I turned the words over.

“Why was I not paying attention?” I asked quietly.

My head throbbed a little as I tried to force the memory to the surface, and there was something there, just out of reach, but it kept slipping away every time I got close.

“I wasn’t just walking,” I added. “I feel like I was doing something… important.”

My dad hesitated, and I noticed it immediately before he finally sighed.

“You were on your phone, Ethan.”

I stared at the ceiling for a second, turning the thought over in my mind and wondering what exactly I could have been doing on it. I tried to pull the memory closer, but all I managed to grasp were fragments, a sound, a vibration, maybe a message, and then nothing at all, just an emptiness sitting where something important should have been.

My jaw tightened slightly. “I can’t remember it clearly,” I admitted.

The doctor nodded, not looking the least bit surprised. “That’s completely normal. After a head injury like yours, it’s common to have gaps in memory, especially around the event itself. It’s called retrograde amnesia,” he added.

I swallowed. “So… how bad was it?” I asked.

The room went quiet again, and this time even the doctor hesitated for a fraction of a second before he spoke. “You’ve been unconscious for four months.”

That number didn’t settle easily in my head. Four months. It felt far too big, far too unreal to actually belong to me. I blinked slowly.

“…Four months,” I repeated, almost like I was testing whether it was real by saying it out loud.

My dad nodded, his voice lower now than before. “We weren’t sure you were going to wake up, Ethan.”

That hit differently than everything else had, not dramatic exactly, just heavy, like something sinking slowly into my chest and settling there. I looked away for a moment, trying to process it, trying to feel like myself again, but everything still felt disconnected, like I was watching my own life from somewhere just outside of it.

The doctor checked the monitor beside me again. “Your recovery is progressing well. But you need to take things slowly. Don’t force your memory, it will come back in pieces.”

I nodded slightly, though I wasn’t really focused on his words anymore.

My thoughts kept drifting, like something important was sitting just out of reach, waiting for me to notice it.

“Where’s my phone?” I asked suddenly.

My dad sighed, rubbing his forehead slightly before he answered. “It was badly damaged in the accident.”

“I need it,” I said immediately.

The doctor glanced at my dad but didn’t interrupt. My dad stepped closer to the bed. “Ethan, it’s not usable right now. We tried to recover it, but it’s gone.”

I frowned, already thinking that I would need a new one soon. There was a small pause, and my dad looked at me for a moment like he wanted to say something else before he finally nodded slowly.

“…Alright. Once you’re discharged, I’ll get you a new one.”

I exhaled slowly and nodded once, even though I didn’t fully understand why it mattered so much to me. But it did.

Three days later, I got cleared and discharged, and it turned out to be a long, quiet drive home. The house looked different from how I remembered it, felt emptier somehow, with boxes piled up everywhere I looked.

“Dad, what’s going on? Why are there boxes everywhere?” I asked.

Before he could answer, his phone rang, and he glanced at it before excusing himself to take the call. I turned to my nanny instead. “What’s happening?”

“We’re packing,” she said. “We’re moving to another town.”

I frowned, about to ask why, but my dad walked back in just then, ending his call. “I was transferred,” he said. “I’m going to be the sheriff in another town. I’ve already arranged everything for your school. It’ll be good for you too, a change of environment after the accident.”

I hesitated for a moment before asking, “Okay… so where are we going?”

“Oakwood,” he replied. “And the name of the school you’ll be attending is Eastview High School,” he added.

The name sounded familiar somehow, though I couldn’t quite place why.

“Dad, what about the phone?” I asked anxiously.

“Go to your room. It’s on your desk,” he replied.

I hurried upstairs to my room, and the moment I stepped inside, I spotted the box sitting neatly on my desk waiting for me. I walked over, opened it, and picked up the phone, already beginning to set it up when my nanny, Miss Ann, slipped quietly into the room.

“Did you ever hear back from her?”

she whispered.

I frowned. “Hear from who?”

“The girl,” she said. “The one you told me you liked on Bloomers.”

“Bloomers?” I asked, looking utterly confused.

“Oh… sorry,” she said softly. “I forgot what the doctor said about your memory.” She hesitated for a moment before adding, “You told me you liked a girl on Bloomers.”

I tried to remember, I really did, but the harder I pushed, the more my head began to ache, until I finally forced myself to stop. Miss Ann glanced at me for a moment, then quietly turned to leave the room, but before she reached the door, she hesitated once more and said softly, “Her name is Quiet Lily.”

The name lingered in the air long after she left. Quiet Lily. It sounded important, somehow, though my mind remained completely blank. I exhaled slowly and turned back to the phone, deciding instead to install the Bloomers app.

Moments later, I opened it, and just like that, almost instinctively, my fingers moved across the screen and typed in my password without a moment’s hesitation, as though my body remembered something my mind couldn’t quite reach anymore. Before I could even question what I was doing, I was already in, logged into an account I didn’t remember ever creating in the first place.

My eyes scanned the screen, searching for the messages, or at least for where they should have been, but there was nothing there. No chats, no history, nothing at all. I frowned, my chest tightening as the empty screen refused to make any sense to me.

Then I noticed it, a small line sitting quietly at the top of the screen: Messages older than one month are automatically cleared.

My grip on the phone tightened at once. I had been gone for four months, far longer than the single month the app allowed, which meant everything was already gone. Every conversation, every trace of her, every piece of Quiet Lily that had ever existed between us had already been erased completely.

And somehow, that felt worse than not remembering at all.

I sat there for a moment longer, unable to shake the feeling that something important had been waiting for me there, something I couldn’t fully explain even to myself. I simply felt it, the way you feel the shape of a room in the dark, without being able to see any of it clearly.

Eva’s POV

Suddenly, another set of lights came on, and the words lit up right in front of me: Will you be my girlfriend? My breath caught in my throat as I stared at them, spelled out in glowing letters so bold and bright that there was no way I could have missed them.

As I slowly walked toward the stage, a thought slipped into my head that I hadn’t expected at all. What if this is real? For once, I actually found myself hoping it wasn’t a prank, hoping that maybe, just maybe, there was really someone out there who liked me for me. A small, nervous smile crept onto my face before I could stop it.

I stepped up onto the stage, my heart beating a little too fast, and then I saw him, a tall figure walking out from the darkness into the light. My smile faded instantly.

“No way… is that Jason Blake?” The Jason Blake, the basketball team captain that everyone in school knew? I couldn’t understand this at all, not even a little. When had he started seeing me like this?

My thoughts were still spinning when I suddenly felt something cold hit my body, and I stood there completely frozen as it trickled down over me. For a second, I couldn’t even process what it was, and I simply looked down at myself, confused, trying to understand what they had poured on me. Before my brain could catch up, a bucket of feathers came crashing down on top of me as well.

Everything went quiet for half a second, and then laughter exploded around me from every direction. At the same time, all the lights in the hall came on at once, and the sudden brightness hit my eyes so hard that I flinched. My glasses caught the glare, making everything worse, too sharp, too bright, too overwhelming all at once, and I instinctively looked away, trying to shield my face as my vision slowly adjusted.

But I could already hear them clearly now, students from every grade, laughing like I was the joke of the year, and my chest tightened at the sound of it.

Then I saw him. Jason, the boy who had left the note in my locker, stepped forward, smirking like he had been waiting for this exact moment all along.

“You really thought I could like someone like you?” he said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “An ugly, nerdy lowlife like you?”

Something inside me cracked, and tears filled my eyes before I could stop them. I could hear whispers layering over each other now, repeating his words, laughing even harder as they stuck to me like they belonged there. Ugly. Nerd. Lowlife. I couldn’t breathe properly anymore.

Without thinking, I turned and ran, pushing through the crowd as my glasses slipped slightly out of place, my vision still half-blurred from the sudden light. I didn’t care anymore. I just needed to get out.

By the time I reached the entrance, I almost ran straight into someone, my best friend, and the moment she saw me, her face changed instantly, shock giving way to worry almost at once.

And that was it. That was all it took. I broke down completely.

She didn’t ask questions. She just pulled me in and quickly guided me toward the bathroom to clean me up.

We got to the bathroom, and she asked, “What happened? Why are you so sticky, and why do you look like a chicken?” She was almost chuckling while using her fingers to brush the feathers off me.

“It’s not funny,” I said, tears still in my eyes. Sticky? That was when I realized the white liquid on me was actually adhesive gum.

“Okay, sorry about that. What really happened?” she asked.

I calmed down enough to explain how everything had been a prank.

“Come on, Eva, you know things like this sometimes happen to nerdy girls like you, right? Don’t take it to heart, okay?” Nat said, rubbing my head pitifully.

“But I told you I felt weird about going there,” I said.

“I didn’t think it was going to turn out this way,” she replied, looking at the mirror while adjusting her shirt.

“It’s fine… now I have to face the whole school after that embarrassing moment,” I said.

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you,” Nat said.

I was mad at Nat for convincing me to go, but deep down I knew it wasn’t really her fault. She was just looking out for me, or so I told myself.

“Eva, I need to go now,” Nat said.

“Why? But you’re supposed to help me clean up properly,” I replied.

“Sorry, my darling. While I was waiting at the entrance, a student came and told me our math teacher was looking for me, so I have to go see him now,” Nat said.

“Oh, alright then. I’ll see you arou…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Nat was already out of the restroom, and I stood still for a moment, staring at the door she had just rushed out of.

I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself, but my reflection in the mirror didn’t even feel like me anymore, with feathers stuck in my hair, gum dried onto my clothes, and my eyes still red from crying. How was I supposed to walk out there and pretend that embarrassing moment hadn’t just happened?

I opened the restroom door slowly, and the hallway outside was busy, too busy. As soon as I stepped out, I felt it immediately, eyes turning toward me, whispers starting almost at once. I lowered my head and kept walking, hoping that if I moved fast enough, I might somehow become invisible.

But I wasn’t invisible at all. I could hear them laughing, pointing, murmuring things I didn’t want to understand, and my heart beat faster with every step I took. A group of students near the lockers started laughing the moment they saw me, and one of them mimicked the way I had looked earlier in the theater room. My steps slowed, and I turned slightly away, trying to escape their eyes, but there was nowhere left to hide. Just get to class, I told myself. Just get to class.

I finally made it to class and sank into my seat, keeping my head down. No one said anything to me directly, but I could still feel it, the judgment, the quiet reminder that I didn’t belong, not here, not anywhere.

My hand slipped into my pocket, holding onto my phone like it was the only thing keeping me steady. I stared at my screen for a long moment before locking it and placing it face down on my desk. My chest felt empty, but maybe that was better, maybe it was easier this way, with no expectations, no disappointment, just silence.

I picked up my bag slowly and walked out, hoping to see Nat.

I was in the corridor when I heard my name, “Eva,” and I recognized that voice immediately as Natalie’s. She told me she had been looking for me and advised me to go home to avoid the noise and the glares from the other students, promising she’d cover for me. I was so thankful in that moment that I didn’t hesitate, and I left right away.

On my way home, I stopped by a coffee café to clear my head. I sat down and watched how happy the people around me seemed to be, and I found myself questioning why my life had turned out this way. I sighed and slowly reached for my phone, my fingers hovering over the screen for a moment before I finally unlocked it, my eyes drifting toward the app.

Bloomers.

For a second, I didn’t touch it. I just stared at it, thinking about everything it had given me and everything it had taken from me in return. My chest tightened.

“This was a mistake,” I whispered.

I tapped it open, and there were no messages waiting for me, no conversation left to scroll through, no Will you be my girlfriend? staring back at me from the screen. Just his profile. Golden Boy. A profile I had once spent hours staring at, a name that had once made my heart race, though now it just felt distant, like it belonged to someone I didn’t know anymore.

The chat space was completely empty, all of it erased by time, four months of silence having wiped everything clean. I stared at the blank space where our messages used to be, and somehow that emptiness hurt more than remembering ever could have, because there was nothing left to hold onto now, no proof it had ever been real, since even the memories hadn’t managed to stay.

I blinked slowly, my throat tightening, and swallowed hard before clicking into the settings. My fingers trembled slightly as I scrolled, until I finally saw it.

Delete App.

I paused. This time it felt real, like I wasn’t just deleting an app but letting go of something that had once made me feel chosen. A small notification popped up: Remove “Bloomers” from your phone? My throat tightened further, and for a second I almost laughed, because for once, something was actually asking me if I was sure.

I wish life did that more often. I wish someone had asked me if I was sure before I ever walked into that theater room, before I let myself believe that someone could actually like me.

A tear slipped down my cheek, and I wiped it away quickly before anyone could notice. Then, without letting myself think too much about it, I tapped Delete. I tapped Yes.

Just like that, it was gone. No profile, no Quiet Lily, just me, Eva Harper. And somehow, that felt worse than everything that had come before it.

I sat at the café a moment longer, still and numb, like my body had stayed in place while something inside me had quietly broken apart. And the worst part of it all was that I didn’t yet know this was only the beginning.