Alhealey
[Revised First Chapter] Graduation is only a few weeks away.
For Jenna, that means one thing: escape.
Make it through junior high.
Check.
Make it through high school.
Almost.
Make it to graduation.
Then move away the first chance she gets.
For years, Jake Maxwell has been impossible to avoid - in the hallways, in classrooms, at dances, and only three houses down. Always there with another comment, another joke, another reason for Jenna to count the days until leaving felt like the only way out.
She has a plan. Save her money. Pack her things. Graduate. Move to a town where Jake Maxwell has no reason to be - where he won't be down the street, across the hall, or waiting around the next corner.
Because staying never felt like an option.
But when Jenna stops fighting back, Jake notices. And for the first time, the silence between them says more than any argument ever did.
With graduation closing in, everything begins to shift - old wounds, family secrets, friendships, and feelings neither of them knows how to name.
Jenna is ready to leave.
Jake is only just realizing she may be the one person he doesn't want to lose.
A nostalgic 1985 slow-burn romance about growing up, leaving home, and the aching space between almost over and not yet goodbye.
🔥 slow-burn tension
💔 messy emotions
🕯️ quiet moments
📼 1980s nostalgia
❤️ clean romance with heart
Author note: This story was previously titled Never in a Million Years. Chapter 1 has been corrected after an upload issue, and the story now reads as intended.