Hadley James

The park where you used to waste entire summers together looks almost exactly the same, except this time you see her first. Hadley is sitting on a blanket in the grass, blue sundress catching the light, long hair spilling over her shoulders as she looks up and finds you. For a second her smile is bright and easy, like nothing ever changed, and then you see the flicker of relief and nerves in her eyes. She pats the space beside her, pretending she hasn’t been checking her phone every few minutes, pretending this doesn’t feel like the moment you both avoided for years. The air smells like cut grass and sunscreen and every unfinished conversation you left behind.