The light from the watch exploded into Ava’s vision, sharp and unrelenting. It wasn’t like the soft glow from earlier. This light was alive—and it swallowed her whole. There was no rewind, no soft pull backward in time. No. This time, it shattered everything.
Ava felt it instantly—her body unraveling, her mind disintegrating. She was falling through the chaos of her own life, through pain and regret, through years that felt like they had happened in a single breath.
Every memory she’d fought so hard to bury, every moment that had scarred her, flashed by like a whirlwind of broken glass.
And then—thud.
Ava hit the ground hard. Her knees sank into the grass, the coolness of it shocking against her skin. She blinked, disoriented, her heart hammering in her chest.
For a moment, she just sat there, gasping for air, unsure of where she was—or when. The world spun around her for a moment before it finally stopped.
It was the last day of high school.
She could feel it in the air—the humid warmth of summer, the promise of freedom. The sound of distant voices—the kind of chatter only high school could produce—drifted through the air, mixing with the faint rustling of leaves in the trees around her.
Ava’s head snapped up. And there he was. Jace.
Sitting alone on their old bench, hunched over like he was trying to protect something fragile inside him. He didn’t seem to notice her at first.
His fingers were knotted in the fabric of his jeans, his gaze fixed on the ground like he was battling some invisible weight. But then—he looked up.
His eyes found hers in an instant, and everything around them froze.
Time—real time, the one that had been breaking just moments ago—paused as he met her gaze.
Ava’s heart skipped a beat, the familiar pull of him hitting her like a wrecking ball. She didn’t even know what to say, or how to explain why she was here, standing in the middle of a memory she hadn’t expected to relive.
“You came back,” Jace whispered, his voice hoarse, like the words were ripped from the depths of him. There was no anger, no sarcasm. Just… relief.
Ava’s breath caught in her throat. She couldn’t answer him immediately. She stood there for a moment, eyes locked on his, trying to figure out how to make sense of all this.
The whys, the hows, the whats… they all tangled up in her head like a storm she couldn’t escape. Jace stood up, his movements slow and unsure.
“Ava…” His voice trailed off, but his eyes were full of something she couldn’t quite name. “I—”
Ava didn’t wait for him to finish. She took a step forward, her feet moving on instinct, her heart pounding, each beat screaming at her to go to him. But something was different now.
She wasn’t that girl anymore. She wasn’t the one who had loved him blindly, the one who had let him break her piece by piece.
“Don’t,” she whispered, cutting him off before he could say anything else. “Don’t say you’re sorry. Don’t say anything.”
Jace stopped, standing just a few feet away from her. His face was a mixture of surprise and confusion, but something else too—something darker.
“Ava, I— I didn’t think I’d see you again.”
“Maybe you didn’t want to,” she shot back, her voice sharp, but not angry. “Maybe you didn’t want to face the girl you broke, the one you never had to try to fix.”
Jace flinched. “You think I didn’t want to fix you?” His voice cracked with emotion. “I never stopped—”
“I know,” she said, her voice softening as she closed the distance between them. “But you didn’t fix me. You just broke me, Jace. And I let you.”
Jace’s breath caught in his throat. He was standing close now—close enough that Ava could feel the heat from his body, feel the tension between them like a live wire.
He reached for her, his hand trembling as it hovered just inches from her arm. “I never meant to—”
“I know,” she whispered. “You never meant to.”
Ava’s heart thudded painfully in her chest. She stepped closer, her hands shaking, but she didn’t pull away. She had nothing left to hide from him. Not now. Not here.
“I was always waiting for you to fix me,” she said quietly. “But what I didn’t know… was that I had to fix myself.” She took a shaky breath. “I loved you, Jace. I still love you. But I won’t keep pretending. I won’t keep hiding from myself just to make you feel better about who I am.”
Jace didn’t say anything at first. He just stared at her, his eyes wide with emotion she couldn’t place. She could see him trembling, his jaw clenched, fighting back something she didn’t know how to name.
Ava felt the weight of everything that had passed between them—every moment of hurt, every time he had pushed her away.
But now, here they were—standing face to face, the past hanging between them like a fragile thread.
“Ava,” he whispered, and for the first time, his voice was raw. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t understand what I had until I lost it. You. Us. Everything.”
She closed her eyes, her breath trembling as she let his words wash over her. “You didn’t have to lose me,” she said softly. “You just had to remember me.”
He stepped closer again, reaching for her hand, his touch hesitant, almost scared. “I’m sorry. I— I never wanted to hurt you.”
Ava lifted her eyes, locking onto his with a fierceness she didn’t know she had.
“I know. But you did. And I don’t want to be the girl who keeps begging for you to love me back. Not anymore.” Her voice cracked, but she kept going. “I’m done waiting. And I’m done pretending.”
She turned away, but before she could take another step, she heard Jace’s voice, softer than before. “Ava…”
She paused, feeling the weight of the moment press against her chest.
“I know I can’t undo what I did,” he said quietly. “But I will try, if you’ll let me.”
She turned back to face him, her heart pounding in her chest. “You don’t need to try,” she whispered. “You just have to be here.”
The sky above them began to crack.