Chapter One: The Boy in the Rain

The first time I saw him, he was standing in the rain like he belonged to it.

No umbrella. No backpack. Just a black hoodie pulled low over his head, soaked through and clinging to his body like a second skin. The kind of scene you’d find in a movie—melancholic, dramatic, impossible to look away from.

But this wasn’t a movie.

It was the West Haven High parking lot. A place where nothing interesting ever happened.

Until now.

I stood at the school entrance, half-hidden behind the glass doors, watching him like the rest of us didn’t exist. Students passed by him, some staring, some laughing. Most just ignored him, like you do with anything that doesn’t fit. But he didn’t seem to care.

He wasn’t waiting for anyone. He wasn’t in a rush. He just stood there, face tilted toward the gray sky like he was daring the rain to wash him away.

And for some reason, I couldn’t look away.

“Who’s that?” I asked, nudging Claire beside me.

She followed my gaze and raised a brow. “Oh. Him. The new kid.”

“He’s new?”

“Transferred this morning. I think from Chicago or something. Everyone’s calling him Blue.”

“Blue?” I echoed, unsure if it was a joke or a name.

“Yeah, I know. Dramatic, right?” Claire shrugged. “But kind of fitting.”

I nodded slowly, my eyes still locked on him. The way the water dripped from his hoodie. The way his hands were shoved into his pockets like he was holding the world together inside them. Everything about him screamed, Don’t ask questions.

So, naturally, I had a million.

Why was he standing in the rain like that?

Why did he look like the saddest person I’d ever seen?

And why, after just one glance, did it feel like he’d walked straight into my story?

---

I didn’t speak to him that day. I barely spoke to anyone at all.

It’s not like I’m shy—I just don’t like using my voice unless I have something worth saying. Most days, I feel like a sketch on the edge of someone else’s canvas. There, but not really. Not colored in.

I kept expecting him to show up in class. But he didn’t.

Not in English.

Not in History.

Not in Chemistry, where I silently hoped he’d sit next to me and ask for a pen.

It wasn’t until last period, just as the bell rang and students started flooding into the hallway, that I saw him again—this time, inside the school. Hair still damp, hoodie clinging to him like it hadn't dried all day. He leaned against a locker that clearly wasn’t his, one headphone in, the other dangling from his pocket.

Our eyes met for half a second.

And it was enough to stop time.

Something about the way he looked at me—calm, curious, not afraid—made my stomach twist in a way I didn’t know it could. Like he already knew something about me that I hadn’t figured out yet.

Then he looked away.

And just like that, the moment was gone.

---

That night, I lay awake staring at the ceiling, heart pounding like I’d just run a race I didn’t remember starting.

I didn’t know his story.

I didn’t know why he transferred.

I didn’t even know if “Blue” was his real name.

But I knew this:

I wanted to see him again.

And I wasn’t ready for what that meant.