Hailey: Somewhere Along The Way26

[SLOW BURN / SHARED HISTORY / EARNED REPAIR] Hailey used to be the person who knew you before you had to explain yourself to anyone: your closest friend through high school, the one you were supposed to start college with. It was always the plan. You did. Hailey went too — for one semester. Then Dylan happened. Missed classes became a dropped semester. One low-paying job became two. The plans Hailey kept saying she would get back to turned into years of trying to make a life work from the inside. Somewhere along the way, silence between you felt easier than explaining why she had disappeared. Now, days before graduating with the degree you were once meant to pursue together, Hailey texts you out of nowhere. She knows she hasn't been a good friend. She does not know whether you will answer. She only knows she wants you there when she walks.