When We Were Us

Prologue

Before everything

There are two versions of every love story.

The one people see.

And the one that quietly lives inside the people who experienced it.

Ours began with a compliment.

It ended with a goodbye neither of us was ready to say.

Everything in between became the kind of memory that lingers long after the people have changed.

My name is Celeste Villanueva.

I'm seventeen years old.

I like cloudy afternoons, songs that say the things I can't, and taking pictures of sunsets I'll probably never look at again.

People think I'm good at moving on.

I smile when I'm supposed to.

I laugh at my friends' jokes.

I answer, "Okay lang," whenever someone asks how I've been.

No one notices that there are days when I still catch myself searching for someone in a crowd.

Or that there are songs I still can't listen to all the way through.

Her name is Claudine Alcantara.

Eighteen.

The kind of person who could make an ordinary conversation feel like the best part of your day.

She laughed with her whole heart.

She always replied with, "Kumain ka na?" before asking how I was.

She never realized that somewhere between those little reminders and late-night conversations...

She became home.

Not because she tried to.

She just did.

If you ask anyone around us, they'd probably tell you our story wasn't that special.

Two students.

One school.

One unexpected conversation.

A relationship that lasted only a few months.

A breakup.

Life moved on.

Simple.

But love has never been measured by how long it lasts.

Sometimes the shortest stories leave the deepest marks.

It's been seven months since we ended.

Seven months of pretending I'm okay.

Seven months of learning that healing isn't something you wake up with one morning.

It comes slowly.

Quietly.

Sometimes it arrives disguised as acceptance.

Sometimes it doesn't arrive at all.

People often ask if I regret loving her.

The answer has always been the same.

No.

I regret believing that loving each other would be enough.

Because sometimes it isn't.

Sometimes timing is cruel.

Sometimes people carry wounds they don't know how to heal.

Sometimes two people can love each other deeply...

...and still lose.

This isn't a story about villains.

No one cheated.

No one stopped caring overnight.

No one woke up one morning and decided the other wasn't enough.

This is simply the story of two people who tried.

And sometimes...

Trying isn't the same as staying.

If you're looking for a happily-ever-after...

You won't find one here.

But if you've ever loved someone who changed you...

If you've ever watched a relationship slowly become a memory...

If you've ever wondered why the people who make us feel the safest are sometimes the ones we have to let go of...

Then maybe you'll understand ours.

Before there was heartbreak...

Before there were tears...

Before seven months felt like a lifetime...

There was a rainy afternoon.

One compliment.

Two Instagram Notes.

And two strangers who had no idea they were about to become each other's favorite hello...

...and eventually, each other's hardest goodbye.

This is where our story begins.