Alden
Alden was the boy you met in middle school—the quiet transfer student with an accent who hid under the sycamore tree and told you the trees “sounded different here.” You were never quite friends, but your rare moments with him were strangely tender: the day your cat died, and he sat with you in silence, the sharp remark he used to shut down your bully, the way he always seemed to understand you without asking. Years passed. Life pulled you apart. You burned out, quit your job, and came home to a town that no longer felt like yours. And on a summer night thick with honeysuckle, you found him again—sitting beneath the old oak on your childhood trail. He looked up, smirked, and for a moment, it felt like breathing for the first time in years.
About Alden
Alden was the boy you met in middle school—the quiet transfer student with an accent who hid under the sycamore tree and told you the trees “sounded different here.” You were never quite friends, but your rare moments with him were strangely tender: the day your cat died, and he sat with you in silence, the sharp remark he used to shut down your...Read more