EVERY YEAR AFTER
CONTEXT: A story about first love, summer sunsets, and the boy Y/N never quite forgot. Inspired by Every Summer After.
TW: emotional heartbreak, themes of growing apart, nostalgia, unrequited love
Y/N’S POV :
The lake always looks smaller than I remember.
When I was thirteen, it felt endless. Like an entire world existed inside its shoreline. A world where summer lasted forever and adulthood was something that happened to other people.
Now, standing at the edge of the parking lot with my overnight bag hanging from my shoulder, it looks different.
Not worse.
Just smaller.
Maybe that's what happens when you grow up.
Or maybe memories have a way of making things larger than life.
The breeze carries the familiar scent of pine trees and lake water.
For a moment, I can't breathe.
Because suddenly I'm not twentysix anymore.
I'm thirteen.
Standing on this exact shore for the first time.
Terrified.
Lonely.
Heartbroken.
And completely unaware that I was about to meet the boy who would change everything.
Chris.
Back then, he was all sunburnt shoulders and messy hair. The kind of boy who never sat still for longer than five minutes.
I remember thinking he was rude.
Matt was the first one to welcome me.
Nick was the first one to make me laugh.
Chris barely looked at me.
At least not when I was looking at him.
It wasn't until later that I realized Chris noticed everything.
The summer I was thirteen, he taught me how to jump off the dock.
The summer I was fourteen, he taught me how to drive a boat.
The summer I was fifteen, he taught me how to skip rocks.
The summer I was sixteen, he taught me what it felt like to fall in love.
For years, our lives were measured in summers.
September through May belonged to the real world.
School.
Friends.
Homework.
Jobs.
Family obligations.
Everything else.
But June through August belonged to the lake.
To us.
Every year I'd count down the days until I came back.
Not because of the lake itself.
Not really.
Because of him.
Chris and I existed differently there.
Outside of the lake, we lived separate lives.
Different lives.
Different cities.
Different worlds.
But the second summer arrived, it was like no time had passed at all.
We picked up exactly where we'd left off.
The same inside jokes.
The same routines.
The same dock.
The same sunsets.
The same certainty that we'd always have next summer.
When you're seventeen, forever feels guaranteed.
You don't realize how fragile things are.
You don't realize people change.
I fell in love with Chris slowly.
Then all at once.
It was in the way he always saved me a seat.
The way he remembered things I mentioned months before.
The way he'd find me during crowded bonfires without even trying.
The way he looked at me sometimes when he thought I wasn't paying attention.
For a long time, I thought maybe I imagined it.
Then one summer night we were sitting at the end of the dock watching the stars.
And he kissed me.
After that, everything changed.
And somehow nothing changed at all.
We spent the next few summers caught somewhere between being kids and being adults.
Talking about colleges.
Dream jobs.
Future apartments.
Road trips we'd take someday.
The lives we'd build.
I think a part of me always assumed Chris would be there.
Not because he promised.
But because I couldn't imagine a future where he wasn't.
Looking back, that was probably my mistake.
Chris wasn't cruel.
He wasn't careless.
He just wasn't ready.
While I wanted plans, he wanted possibilities.
While I wanted certainty, he wanted time.
And eventually, time became distance.
Distance became silence.
Silence became years.
The funny thing is that nothing dramatic happened.
There wasn't some massive betrayal.
No screaming match.
No moment where we stopped loving each other.
Life simply kept moving.
And somehow we moved in different directions.
For a while, I hated him for it.
Than I missed him.
Then I spent years pretending neither mattered.
Now, standing at the lake for the first time in almost a decade, I realize neither feeling ever really disappeared.
I just got better at carrying them.
The dock comes into view through the trees.
The same weathered wood.
The same gentle waves beneath it.
The same place where half my memories live.
I wonder if Chris remembers them too.
I wonder if he remembers me teaching him how to braid friendship bracelets because Nick thought it was hilarious.
I wonder if he remembers sneaking out after midnight to watch meteor showers.
I wonder if he remembers our first kiss. Our first time.
I wonder if he remembers the last conversation we ever had.
The one where neither of us knew it would be the last.
My stomach twists.
Because in a few hours, none of that will matter.
In a few hours, Chris will be standing at the front of a ceremony.
In a few hours, he'll be promising forever to someone else.
The thought hurts more than I expected.
Not because I still think he should have chosen me.
Not because I'm hoping for some movie ending.
But because there's a version of my life, a younger version, that always thought we'd somehow find our way back to each other.
And today, I have to let her go.
—
Laughter drifts across the property.
guests.
Family.
Friends.
People who have no idea how much history is buried beneath this place.
I tighten my grip on my bag.
Then I start walking.
Past the cabins.
Past the dock.
Past the shoreline where I first met him.
Toward the white chairs lined up beside the water.
Toward the ceremony.
Toward Chris.
The music begins just as I reach the aisle.
Someone stands at the front.
Tall.
Broad shoulders.
Dark suit.
Familiar.
My heart stumbles.
Slowly, he turns.
And for the first time in years—
Our eyes meet.
Authors Note: I know I been procrastinating smm on the story but here’s a lil AU for you guys 🤍
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