It had been ten years since I last saw him. Ten long years where I had tried to forget, to move on, and to bury the memories of the boy who had once stolen my heart. But the moment he appeared in front of me, it was as if time hadn’t moved at all.
The day we reunited was ordinary, or at least it should have been. The sun was blazing overhead, the city buzzed with its usual rhythm, and I was lost in the mundanity of errands when he appeared.
The sight of him felt surreal—his posture, his walk, even the slight tilt of his head when he smiled, all of it was achingly familiar. Yet, there was a maturity about him now, as if life had molded him into someone both the same and different. The boy I once loved was now a man, but his eyes still held that softness that had once melted my heart.
“Hey, it’s been a while,” he said casually, as if the years hadn’t created a canyon between us.
I felt my pulse quicken. “Yeah, it has,” I replied, struggling to keep my voice steady.
After a few moments of small talk, he offered to walk me home, and though every fiber of my being screamed against it, I found myself agreeing. We strolled side by side, our conversation awkward at first, full of superficial chatter. But beneath it all, I could feel the weight of unspoken words hanging in the air between us. I wondered if he felt it too, if the years of silence had affected him as they had me.
When we reached my door, I was about to say goodbye when he stopped me. “I heard you’ve been asking for my number,” he said, catching me off guard. “Why?”
YOU ARE READING
The Echoes of First Love
Short StoryFirst love has a way of staying with you, even when you think it's long gone. It's not the kind of love that fades completely; it lingers in the background, a shadow that follows you no matter where you go. I've learned to live with it, to let it be...
