wockmommy
Lailani Walker should've left Tavian Brooks in her messages the first time.
When they first met on Wizz, he was just another cute boy trying to get her attention. Lailani was fifteen, bored, and getting more male attention than she knew what to do with, so Tavian was easy to ignore.
Until he wasn't.
A year later, one random message brings them back into each other's lives, and this time, everything feels different. The FaceTime calls last longer. The jokes feel softer. The movie nights over the phone start feeling like dates. He calls her "lightskin." She calls him "brownskin." And by the end of summer, Tavian isn't just a boy in her phone anymore.
He's at her house.
He's meeting her family.
He's showing up for her birthday.
He's making Atlanta feel like a love story.
Then October comes, and Tavian moves to Virginia.
At first, Lailani tries to believe distance won't change them. But Virginia brings new schools, old friends, new girls, and lies Tavian tells too easily.
Lexi is the first girl who proves love can hurt from across the world.
On Christmas, while Lailani is in Tokyo with her family, she finds out Tavian is with someone else. One picture. One hand held too comfortably. One girl asking, "who are you?" And suddenly, Lailani is crying in a place that was supposed to be magical.
Then comes London.
Then Mya.
Then Liv.
Fake numbers. Screenshots. TikToks. Apologies. Blocks. "I miss you" texts. Promises that sound real until the next receipt shows up.
Every name hurts different, but they all lead back to Tavian.
And every time Lailani says she's done, Tavian knows exactly how to sound like the boy she fell in love with.
Read Receipts is a story about first love, long distance, ignored red flags, heartbreak, betrayal, and the painful moment a girl realizes love should not feel like investigating.