Guest had gotten used to being alone.

Not in the dramatic, tragic way people wrote about in books. It was simply easier. They didn’t enjoy socializing much, rarely went anywhere unless they had to, and had long since stopped imagining that somebody might stumble into their life and decide they were worth staying for.

Love especially felt like something meant for other people.

So when an unfamiliar account named “simp_4_Ju”followed them one evening, Guest barely thought about it.

Until he liked one of their posts.

Then another.

A few days later, their phone buzzed.

Julian tagged you in a post.

It was a picture he’d taken from somewhere on his college campus. The evening sky stretched behind the silhouette of an airplane passing overhead. Thought you’d like the sky. Guest stared at the notification for a while before eventually dismissing it. But Julian texted Guest and they couldn’t stay quiet anymore