Before We Were US

I remember the night my parents died as a blur of whispers, casseroles, and people who kept touching my shoulder like I might break.

Grief, I discovered at ten years old, has a specific smell. It’s a mix of floor wax, overly floral perfume from well-meaning neighbors, and the metallic scent of rain clinging to umbrellas left by the front door. Our house, once a place of loud music and my father’s terrible singing in the kitchen, had become a museum of hushed tones.

Everyone kept telling me I was strong. They said it like it was a compliment, but the truth was I felt nothing at all. I was a hollowed-out shell, a ghost haunting my own living room. Every time a relative leaned in to offer a tearful "I'm so sorry, sweetie," I felt a physical urge to vanish.

Unable to stay inside the crowded house, where the air felt thick with the steam of lasagna and pity, I slipped out the back door.

The porch steps were cold against my legs, the wood slightly damp from the evening mist. I sat there, staring at the empty street, waiting for my parents' silver sedan to turn the corner. Waiting for the universe to admit it had made a clerical error.

That’s where Noah found me.

He didn't say a word as he sat down. He didn't offer a tissue or a "they're in a better place" speech. He was eleven, his knees scraped from a soccer game earlier that week, wearing a hoodie that was two sizes too big. He just sat close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off his arm.

When I finally found my voice,a small, jagged thing that felt foreign in my throat…I asked the question that had been clawing at me since the police officer arrived.

"What’s going to happen to me now, Noah?"

I expected him to say he didn't know. I expected him to shrug. Instead, he looked straight ahead at the dark treeline and answered in the simplest way possible:“You’re staying with us.”

For the first time that night, something inside my chest loosened. It was a tether. He was the anchor, and I was the ship lost at sea.

Present Day

"Bennett! If you’re late on that tuck again, you’re hitting the bench. Move it!"

The sharp, authoritative snap of Madison Clarke’s voice brought the past crashing into the present. I blinked, the bright stadium lights of North Hills High searing into my retinas.

Madison stood in the center of the grass, her hands on her hips, her long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail so tight it looked painful. She was the picture of perfection,the captain of the cheer squad, the daughter of the town’s most successful realtor, and the girl currently wearing Noah’s varsity jacket over her shoulders when the sun went down.

"Sorry, Madison," I said, my voice steady and practiced. "I’ve got it."

"You better," she muttered, though her eyes softened just a fraction. Madison wasn't a monster; she was just a girl who knew exactly what she wanted, and right now, she wanted a flawless performance for the season opener. "We have scouts in the stands. Not just for the boys on the field, but for us. Don't let the team down."

I nodded, falling into line. Being on the cheer squad with Madison was a delicate dance. On the mat, she was my captain.

In the hallways, she was the girl I had to share my best friend with. And at the Callahan dinner table, she was the guest who sat in the chair that used to be mine.

The roar of the crowd began to swell as the clock ticked down to kickoff. The student section,the "Titan Pit" was a sea of blue and silver, faces painted, voices hoarse before the game had even started.

"Positions!" Madison shouted.

We moved into our pyramid formation. As the flyer, I was hoisted into the air, my heart hammering against my ribs. From up here, I had a bird's-eye view of the tunnel.

Then, the smoke machines flared. The drumline hit a deafening crescendo.

Leading the Titans onto the field was Number 14.

Noah Callahan didn't run; he commanded the space.

At nineteen, he had filled out into the kind of athlete people wrote recruitment letters about. His shoulders were broad, his gait confident, his blue eyes hidden behind the dark visor of his helmet. To the rest of the school, he was a god in cleats. To me, he was still the boy who used to share his Oreos with me when I had nightmares.

As the team reached the thirty-yard line, Noah did what he always did. He stopped. He turned toward the sidelines.

Even through the visor, I knew he was looking for me. It was our silent ritual. A check-in. Are you okay? I'm here. Beside me, I saw Madison perk up, flashing a dazzling, high-wattage smile and waving her pom-poms toward him.

She assumed the look was for her. Everyone did. Why wouldn't they? She was the captain; he was the quarterback. It was a suburban fairytale.

But I saw the slight tilt of Noah's head,just a fraction of an inch toward where I stood. He wasn't looking at the blonde in the center. He was looking at the girl in the back.

He gave a sharp, barely visible nod, then turned to join the huddle.

"God, he is so dreamy," Chloe, one of the other flyers, sighed as we descended from the pyramid. "Isla, seriously, how do you live in the same house as that and not, like, die every day?"

"It’s easy when you've seen him eat cereal in his boxers at 6:00 AM," I lied, forcing a laugh. "The mystery wears off pretty fast."

"I don't know," Dani Reyes said, leaning over from the sidelines where she was managing the water station for the band.

Dani was my one escape from the "cheer" world,a fellow Math Club member who saw the world in logic and equations.“Statistics say that when two people grow up together like that, they get weirdly attached. You two are basically a social experiment.”

"Dani, please," I hissed, grabbing a water bottle. "He is practically my brother”, We are just ….best friends

"The keyword there is 'practically,'" Dani countered, her dark eyes twinkling behind her glasses. "Biology says otherwise. And the way he just looked over here? “That didn’t look like a normal best-friend check-in. That looked… intense.”

I ignored her, but my skin felt uncomfortably warm.

The game began in a flurry of collisions and whistles. I went through the motions,the cheers, the stunts, the constant high-energy smiles but my focus never left the field. I watched the way Noah moved, the way he led the huddle, the way he took a hit and stood right back up.

Every time he went down, my breath hitched. Every time he threw a successful pass, my heart soared. It was more than simple friendship, but I had never tried to define what it actually was. It was a tether I couldn't cut, even if I wanted to.

By the fourth quarter, the Titans were up by seven. The tension in the stadium was electric. Madison was in her element, leading a "De-Fense" chant that had the bleachers shaking.

During a timeout, Madison walked over to me, wiping sweat from her forehead with a delicate hand. "Noah's playing out of his mind tonight," she said, her voice dropping so only I could hear. "He told me before the game he was doing this for 'the girl who always has his back.' I thought he meant me, but..."

She trailed off, looking at me with a strange, unreadable expression.

"He probably did," I said, my voice sounding hollow to my own ears. "You're his girlfriend, Madison."

"Yeah," she said, her gaze drifting back to the field. "His girlfriend. “Sometimes I feel like you and Noah have this whole history I can’t break into.”

The honesty in her voice startled me. It made me feel a sudden, sharp guilt. Madison wasn't supposed to be vulnerable; she was supposed to be the obstacle.

Before I could respond, the whistle blew. The final play was a blur,Noah dodging a blitz, spinning out of a tackle, and launching a forty-yard spiral into the end zone as the buzzer sounded.

The stadium erupted.

The team swarmed the field. Madison led the charge, running toward Noah to throw her arms around his neck for the "victory kiss" that would undoubtedly end up on everyone’s I*******m stories by midnight.

I stayed back on the sidelines, gathering my things. I watched them..the golden couple, framed by the bright lights and the falling confetti. Noah hugged her back, but his eyes were scanning the crowd again.

When he found me, he didn't smile. He just stared, a long, intense look that seemed to strip away the uniforms and the crowds and the years of pretending.

I turned away first.

I had to. Because if I kept looking, I’d have to admit that the house the Callahans built for me wasn't just a home anymore. It was a cage. And the person who held the key was the only person I could never, ever have.