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.

Natalie’s POV

I hate how easy it is.

How easy it is for Eva to fall apart… and still have people care.

Eva Harper has this way of looking broken that makes people want to fix her. Like she’s fragile. Like she needs saving.

Like she’s… special.

I lean against the hallway wall, arms folded, watching from a distance as she disappears around the corner earlier, her head down, shoulders shaking slightly.

Right on cue.

A small smile tugs at my lips.

“That should be enough for today,” I mutter under my breath.

Just enough to make sure she remembers.

My phone vibrates in my hand.

I glance down and unlock it.

“That was crazy. You didn’t say it would go that far.”

I let out a small sigh. Boys always act tough until consequences show up.

I type back slowly. “You got paid. That’s literally the only part you needed to worry about.”

A second later, his reply comes through. “Yeah… but she looked really messed up.”

I roll my eyes.

“Soft,” I muttered, out loud this time. They never understood the point of these things. It wasn’t about fun. It was about impact.

I pushed myself off the wall and started walking toward the back staircase, a quiet, empty place, perfect for people who didn’t want witnesses.

He was already there. Jason Blake, basketball captain, golden boy of the school, the type everyone listened to before thinking, still in his jersey like he’d just come off a stage instead of destroying someone’s dignity. Funny how that worked.

“Relax,” I said as I approached. “No one followed you.”

He shifted uncomfortably. “You said it was just a prank.”

“It was,” I replied, holding out the remaining cash.

He took it slowly. “But it didn’t feel like one,” he muttered.

I tilted my head. “Oh?” I raised a brow. “So now you’ve developed a moral compass after the fact?”

He didn’t respond immediately, and that already told me enough.

“Look,” I said, my voice calm but sharp, “you don’t get to feel guilty now. You stood there. You laughed with them. You pointed too, if I remember correctly.”

His jaw tightened slightly. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Sure,” I cut in lightly. “Just take your money and move on. That’s what people like you do best.”

He looked at me for a second, like he was trying to figure out if I was joking. I wasn’t.

“Why her though?” he asked again.

That question again. Why her? A memory flickered in my mind, quick and sharp and unwanted: Eva smiling, everyone watching her, choosing her. My jaw tightened, and I took a slow step closer.

“Because she reacts,” I said simply.

He frowned. “That’s it?”

“That’s everything,” I corrected him.

I glanced away for a moment. Eva’s face flashed in my mind again, too soft, too open, too visible, and it irritated me more than it should have.

“She walks around like people won’t notice her,” I continued. “But they always do. And when they do, she falls apart like it’s news to her every time.” I looked back at him. “And honestly? That’s exhausting to watch.”

He didn’t say anything, which was good.

“Just forget it,” I added, turning away. “It’s done.” As I walked past him, he muttered something behind me.

“She didn’t deserve that.”

I stopped, then turned just enough to look at him over my shoulder. “Deserve?” I repeated, amused. “You think life hands things based on deserve?”

He didn’t answer. Exactly. I continued walking.

By the time I reached the main hallway, my expression had already changed, calm and soft, perfect. I spotted her almost immediately. Eva, still walking slowly, still trying to disappear into herself like she could become invisible if she tried hard enough. Pathetic, and predictable.

I adjusted my tone instantly, slipping into place beside her just as she turned the corner. “Eva?”

She stopped and looked up at me, her eyes red, her thoughts clearly still scattered, still recovering. Perfect timing.

“I’ve been looking for you,” I said gently, tilting my head.

She blinked. “Oh… Nat.”

I smiled softly, the kind of smile that said I care.

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay after earlier,” I said.

Her shoulders dropped slightly. “I… I’m fine,” she lied.

I nodded slowly. “Good,” I replied. “Because I was thinking, maybe you should just go home early today. You know, avoid the rest of the noise.”

Her eyes flickered, that same hesitation, that same weakness that always showed there first.

“I don’t know…” she whispered.

I sighed softly, like I was concerned. “Eva,” I said gently, placing a hand on her arm, “trust me. Staying here is just going to make it worse. You already gave them enough entertainment for the day.”

She looked down, and I could see it working. Good.

“I’ll text you later,” I added, softer now. “Just… don’t overthink it, okay?”

She nodded slowly. “…Okay.”

Perfect. She turned to leave, but I didn’t. I waited until she disappeared down the hallway, until she was out of sight, until she couldn’t accidentally turn back and see me still standing there. Only then did I exhale.

“Good girl,” I whispered under my breath. Because today I hadn’t just embarrassed her. I’d controlled the entire day she had, and she didn’t even notice.

I took a slow breath and continued walking down the empty corridor. Everything felt normal again, too normal, like nothing was about to change, like she wasn’t about to lose something she didn’t even know she still had.

I headed back to class like nothing happened, because apparently that’s what everyone else was doing too. The bell rang, chairs scraped against the floor, people burst into laughter, conversations picked right back up, as if Eva hadn’t just been humiliated in front of half the school. Typical.

I rolled my eyes, slinging my bag over my shoulder. Oh, Eva. Right, that reminded me. I pulled out my phone, already unlocking it, already knowing exactly what I was about to say to her, when it vibrated in my hand.

I paused. This time I didn’t smile. I didn’t move. I just stared at the screen through the fabric of my pocket as it lit up faintly.

A new notification appeared. Bloomers.

My fingers curled slowly around the phone. I hadn’t opened anything. I hadn’t sent anything. And I was sure Eva had already deleted the app, so why was it still active?

My thumb hovered for a second before I unlocked the screen, and what I saw made me stop completely.

Golden Boy is typing…

I stared at it, unmoving, because none of it made sense. It shouldn’t even have been possible. Eva was supposed to have deleted the app. I thought she had. The idea had stuck in my head ever since she left school early, her face, the way she’d looked like she was done with everything.

That was enough for me to assume he’d forgotten all about it, so I couldn’t understand why his name was suddenly active again. The three dots appeared at the bottom of the screen, then vanished, then reappeared, like someone on the other end kept hesitating, thinking too hard before saying something they probably shouldn’t. My grip tightened around the phone, and a slow breath left me almost without my noticing.

“…No way,” I whispered.

Then a message came through, just one line, no greeting, no hesitation, as if whoever was on the other end had finally decided it was now or never.

“Who are you?”