The Secrets We Keep

Epilogue

The last bell of senior year didn't sound like an ending.
It sounded like a breath.

The sun poured across the football field as students spilled out in every direction, tossing notebooks and half-broken earbuds into the air. Adrian lingered at the edge of the bleachers, shoes pressed into warm metal, watching the chaos with a quiet smile.

A year ago he would have been in the center of it-perfect grin, camera flashes, every movement rehearsed. Today he wanted the edges, where the noise couldn't drown out the heartbeat of something real.

Eli found him first. Of course he did. No words at first, just that easy half-smile that still made Adrian's chest tighten. They stood shoulder to shoulder, the crowd's shouts fading into the steady rhythm of their breathing.

"You ready for the next chapter?" Eli asked.

Adrian glanced toward the parking lot where Nova and Lila were scrawling good-luck graffiti across each other's yearbooks, laughing loud enough to carry on the breeze. Chloe waved from a distance, her smile uncomplicated now, free of the secrets they'd both once carried.

"Yeah," Adrian said. "I think I finally am."

The investigation was over, the lies exposed. What remained weren't scars so much as stories-proof that they had survived and chosen each other anyway. Adrian had told his parents the truth weeks ago. It hadn't been easy, but it hadn't broken him either.

Eli's fingers brushed his. A simple, public gesture. Adrian didn't pull away.

For the first time in a long time, there was nothing to hide. No bonfire smoke. No locked apps. Just open sky and the promise of a summer that belonged entirely to them.

Adrian laced their fingers together.
"Let's go," he said.

They stepped off the bleachers and into the sunlight, the secrets they'd once kept now just part of the story that had made them whole.