UNTIL IT WAS US

UNTIL IT WAS US

I had my future planned out.

Good grades. A scholarship. College. A career. No distractions.

Especially not boys.

Then there was Kairo Carter.

Star basketball player. Professional procrastinator. Way too confident for someone who once asked me what a thesis statement was.

We were never supposed to become friends.

We definitely weren't supposed to start liking each other.

And we absolutely weren't supposed to become us.

But somewhere between after-school study sessions, basketball games, late-night conversations, and all the moments we pretended didn't mean anything, Jaylen became more than the boy I was tutoring.

He became the person I looked for in every room.

The person I wanted to tell everything to.

The person who made me question whether the future I'd planned was actually the future I wanted.

Because sometimes the person you never expected becomes the one you can't imagine your life without.

And sometimes, somewhere between you and me...

it becomes us.