REBELDEJJ
I left Derry a year ago with half-packed boxes and a promise to myself that I'd never look back.
California was supposed to fix everything. New school. New people. A version of me that didn't flinch at raised voices or mistake intensity for love. For a while, it worked, until summer came, and Derry pulled me back like it always does.
Now I'm home for the summer before senior year, living in the same house I swore I'd never return to. The town hasn't changed. The memories haven't either. And the boy I told myself I hated, Henry Bowers, still lives right next door.
We haven't seen each other yet.
But in Derry, distance has never meant safety.
This summer is quiet, tense, and unfinished. Full of near misses, buried truths, and a past that refuses to stay buried. Because no matter how far you run, Derry always remembers and some people never really let you go.