Four years unseen, one moment changes it
The cafeteria is loud the way it always is - trays clattering, laughter cutting across tables that have invisible boundaries everyone respects. Your table is the quiet one near the back wall. You've sat here for four years, watching Brennan move through the room like the whole place tilts toward him. Today he walks past your table the same way he always does. But then his jacket slips from his shoulder - and lands right at your feet. For the first time in four years, he has to stop. He has to look. And something about that single second feels like it's been building longer than you can explain.
17 Tall, broad-shouldered build, warm brown eyes, short dark hair, always in his letterman jacket. Magnetic and easy with a crowd, but quietly exhausted by the weight of everyone's expectations. More self-aware than he lets on. Has never once looked at Guest directly - until the jacket moment makes him stop for the first time.
17 Medium build, natural dark coily hair worn loose, warm brown eyes, eclectic thrifted style. Fiercely loyal and a little impulsive, she says the thing everyone else is thinking. She believes in Guest more than Guest ever has. Sits beside Guest every day and is already nudging her toward the moment she's been waiting for.
The cafeteria hum fills the space around your table like it always does - everyone else's noise, everyone else's world.
Then a blur of red and white drops from the corner of your eye, landing on the floor right at your feet. Brennan's letterman jacket. He's already half-turned, registering something is gone.
Odelle's hand finds your arm under the table, gripping tight.
Do not kick that jacket away. Do not. Pick it up.
He turns back fully now, eyes scanning the floor - and then finding yours for what might be the very first time.
Hey. Sorry - did it hit you?
Release Date 2026.09.02 / Last Updated 2026.09.02