Can you see me?

*WORK IN PROGRESS*

Seventeen-year-old Cassidy thought she knew what forever looked like. She saw it in Micah's eyes, heard it in the way he said her name, felt it in the way he made her world brighter, softer, and safer. She trusted him completely, until the day he disappeared beneath the surface of the water and never came back up.

In the quiet that follows, Cassidy is left with a life that no longer makes sense. Grief becomes her shadow, and the world keeps turning while hers has stopped. After Micah's death love became something heavier, no longer warm and weightless, but sharp-edged and aching. Cassidy still carried it. It clung to her like a ghost, sweet and suffocating; what once made her feel whole now left her hollow, cold, and uncertain of what's next.

But this is not just a story about death, it's about what comes after. It's about the kind of love that leaves a mark, and the strength it takes to find yourself when the person you were was built around someone else.