𝙏𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙨

8

Joseph's POV

Briana.

My breath caught in my throat, and my mouth went dry as I struggled to swallow the lump that had formed there. It felt as though time had slowed to a crawl, every movement around us becoming blurred as my focus zeroed in on her.

Despite the years that had passed, she looked just as captivating as ever, her presence commanding attention amidst the chaos. A surge of emotions washed over me, catching me off guard and leaving me reeling in her wake.

Author's POV

Joseph stood in the bustling corridor, surrounded by the familiar chaos of high school life. But his mind was elsewhere, lost in the labyrinth of memories that threatened to consume him.

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*The smoke hung heavy in the air as Joseph leaned against the graffiti-stained walls, his friends gathered around him in a circle of camaraderie. They laughed and joked, their voices echoing off the concrete walls as they reveled in their youthful arrogance.*

*And then she appeared—a quiet girl, her presence almost ghost-like as she moved through the crowd, unnoticed by all but Joseph. He couldn’t resist the urge to provoke, to push her buttons and watch as she wilted beneath his cruel words.*

*But when Briana stepped forward, her eyes blazing with righteous indignation, he felt something shift within him—a stirring of emotions he couldn’t quite name. It wasn’t anger or sadness or even regret, but something deeper, something he had long buried beneath layers of indifference.*

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As Briana’s laughter floated through the air, Joseph’s thoughts drifted back to that fateful day—the day she had slapped him with a force that left him reeling, not from the physical pain, but from the unexpected jolt to his conscience.

He glanced at her from across the corridor, watching as she animatedly conversed with someone else, oblivious to his presence. A pang of bitterness twisted in his chest as he reminded himself that she probably didn’t even remember him—a fleeting moment in her past, long forgotten amidst the passage of time.

But even as he tried to push her memory aside, he couldn’t shake the nagging sense of unease that lingered within him. He hated her, despised her for shattering the carefully constructed facade he had spent years building. And yet, beneath the layers of resentment, there was something else—a glimmer of recognition, a flicker of something he couldn’t quite define.

He shook his head, willing the memories to fade into the recesses of his mind once more. Briana was nothing to him now—a distant echo of a past he had long since left behind. And as he turned away, he vowed to never let her disrupt his life again.

But deep down, he knew that some wounds never truly healed—that some memories, no matter how buried, always had a way of resurfacing when least expected. And as Joseph disappeared into the throng of students, the echoes of his past reverberated in the empty spaces of his heart, refusing to be silenced.

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