24 parts Ongoing Seventeen-year-old Samantha-Sam-has always believed the fluttering butterflies in her stomach belonged to James: her best friend, her next-door neighbor, and the boy who's been her safe haven from a broken home since childhood.
While her heart was fixed on James, his best friend Cash stood quietly in the background-steady, loyal, and loving her from a distance she never noticed.
Days before James leaves for university, he suggests that maybe-once she's with him at school-they could be together.
But everything starts to shift the moment he leaves. Her world unravels at home, and Sam finds herself homeless-until James's family takes her in. Now living under their roof, surrounded by the warmth she's always craved, she's also suddenly closer than ever to Cash , who stayed in town for college and works part-time at his family's garage.
As Cash continues to show up-patient, steady, and unexpectedly constant-Sam begins to question everything she thought she knew.
Especially who those butterflies were really meant for.
*TW: Themes of child abuse throughout the story*