The Summer I Started Lying

"Do you miss him?"

My psychiatrist asked me that once.

I think I smiled.

Not because the question was funny.

Because after everything that happened between me and Brian Harbor, "missing him" felt like the smallest part of it.

Blackwater State was full of stories about him.

Most of them were true.

But nobody talks about what happens after the parties end.
After people stop watching.
After someone gets under your skin deeply enough that even a year later, you still hear their name and feel something ruin your entire day.

Maybe that's where this story really starts.

Or maybe it started the night I realized loving Brian Harbor was always going to cost me something.