Not only had I opened the shoebox vault that stored all our memories, I’d drowned in every piece of memorabilia. Maybe my heart wouldn’t feel broken if Parker had been mean to me, but she was kind and sensitive and sweet. I still didn’t understand why she dumped me. I lost hours of sleep wracking my brain trying to figure out if I came on too strong, or not enough. Was I that horrible to her new friends? Maybe I should have been more patient? God, I missed her. I missed her arms around me and the tiny kisses she placed on my neck whenever we watched movies together, or how she would always play with my hair when we lay on my bed talking.

“What the fuck is happening here?” Hayley kicked off her heels and sat on the bed. She wasn’t pitying me, but I could tell she felt my pain.

“I was getting ready, and legit excited about homecoming, but then I remembered Parker wouldn’t be there and then I got caught up in all this stuff I should’ve burned.” I turned my attention back to the one video I had of us kissing. After the third time I hit play, Hayley gently closed the laptop.

“Okay, enough. We have a really amazing night planned and I need you to put Parker out of your mind for just tonight.” She tugged on my T-shirt. “Look, I know you’re upset about her, but put yourself in her shoes. Her parents aren’t cool like your dad is. They think you’re a monster corrupting her which you totally aren’t.” She held up her hands, knowing I hated that description of our relationship. “But she has to live with them.”

“I love her and I know she loves me, too.”

“Nobody doubts that. It’s not you and it’s not her. Her parents are the world’s biggest Bible-thumping assholes. If it wasn’t for them, you’d still be together, right?”

I sat up and sniffled. “That’s true.”

“Remember that T-shirt we saw in Spencer’s last week? ‘If you love somebody, set them free. If they don’t come back, shoot them.’” Hayley studied my face. “I saw that. It was almost a smile.” She was teasing me and it was working. “She’s setting you free to have fun your senior year and she’s trying to make peace with her parents. I don’t envy her. She’s in a horrible spot.”

My heart felt like a brick. “It’s so unfair.” Everyone was wrong. Time wasn’t healing the heartbreak. Hayley put both hands on my shoulders and made me look at her.