Page 54 of Seven Lost Summers
Without a word, she reaches behind her neck, fingers working the clasp until it gives. The wings slip into her palm. Then she steps back into my space, close enough that I forget to breathe.
“I want you to be exactly who you are,” she says. “Not the version they shoved you into. Not the shadow you think you have to become just to survive this place. I want you to be spectacular. Beautiful. All of it.”
She lifts the chain and settles it around my neck, her knuckles brushing my skin as she fastens the clasp. I feel every second of it.
I close my eyes for a moment.
I want to believe her. I want to be the boy she sees when she looks at me.
The one who isn’t broken. The one who isn’t scared.
“I’m not giving this to you because I want you to keep it,” she murmurs. “I’m giving it to you so you can remember. Every time you start to shrink. Every time you want to fade. This is proof that someone fucking sees you.”
My throat burns. Something cracks beneath my ribs. I stay frozen.
Bianca steps back, her eyes on the angel wings now hanging around my neck.
“One day, when you finally believe you’re worth more than you think… you’ll give it back.”
“I…” My voice splinters. I clear my throat. “I will. I promise.”
“I love you, Theo.” Her voice softens. “I just wish you’d learn to love yourself a little more.”
She leans in and presses a gentle kiss to my mouth. When she pulls away, that smile is there—the one that asks for nothing, the one that tells me she sees all of me. Every scar, every shadow, every dark corner.
Chapter 10
Quinn
Thephotosarepilingup.
Stacks of prints cover my desk, my bed, even the floor under the window. I keep telling myself I’ll sort them, label them, slip them neatly into sleeves. But every time I try, I get distracted.
There’s a photo of Nate, eyes closed behind his drum kit, sticks suspended mid-air. Sweat clings to the curve of his neck, his mouth parted, chest heaving. You can’t hear it, but you can feel it in the shot—every beat he hurls into the silence.
There’s one of Theo strumming chords, his shirt riding up just enough to reveal the scar across his hip. He’s caught mid-story, and Bianca’s laughing, her head tipped back, mouth wide open, the sound spilling out of her as if it belongs to both of them.
The camera stays close these days. Close enough no one notices anymore. They’ve grown used to it. To me. To the way I move through their noise, catching what slips through the cracks. The four of us, bound by sound and chaos. Bianca tangled up with the boys in a way none of us dare name.
She’s become my best friend.
I’ve never really had one before.
I always kept people at arm’s length, far enough they couldn’t reach the parts of me I wasn’t ready to explain.
The guys only ever wanted one thing. None of them gave a shit about the girl behind the lens, the one with something real to say. And the girls… they smiled with their teeth, then tore each other apart the second backs were turned. All glitter and venom.
So I kept to myself.
It was easier that way. No pressure to perform. No need to prove I was worth the space I took up.
But something’s changed.
I feel it when we’re crammed into Nate and Theo’s bedroom, music buzzing through the air. I see it in Nate’s crooked grin mid-jam, in the way Theo looks at Bianca like she’s his next breath. I hear it when Bianca leans in to whisper something meant only for me, and my laugh slips out before I can stop it.
I belong, to this chaos, to them. The four of us, loud, messy, untouchable.
And for the first time in my life, I don’t want to keep my distance.
