All Chapters of With All My Love: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Present~HimMy mother used to say that love revolved around one sun.When I was younger, I never understood what she meant. I thought it was just another one of her poetic musings, something soft and wistful, but ultimately untrue.But then I fell in love with Annabelle Bliss. And suddenly, the sun made sense.Without her, my days collapsed into gray, like reading a book with all the words gone. Emptiness clung to everything. The air smelled of stale coffee and morning silence, and the streetlight outside my window gave a weak hiss, flickering through the night like a reminder of a broken lamp. She was the warmth I craved, the color that brought me back to life.And then she left, and everything changed again. As if loss wasn’t enough, the universe dealt another blow: my mother was diagnosed. I still remember that Sunday afternoon. Sunlight filled her face with hope, but the air inside me turned cold as the door of my dorm opened. The room seemed to expand and contract, my pulse loud

Past ~ July 20th Annabelle was a coward. It had been a couple of days since the kiss, each one filled with a growing sense of dread. She had done everything in her power to avoid Patrick. If he turned right, she turned left. If she saw him walking toward her in the hallway, she ducked into the nearest bathroom, whether she needed to or not. If she heard his voice in the cafeteria, she changed her entire route just to avoid passing by his table. But fear had rooted itself in her heart—a fear that Patrick, like others before, would betray the trust she barely managed to rebuild since her last heartbreak.He noticed. The first day, he texted Anna, ‘Where'd you go?’ She ignored it. The second day, he tried catching her after school, but she slipped out before he could reach her. The third day, she felt his eyes on her from across the hall, his gaze heavy, questioning. But she kept walking, pretending she didn’t see. She thought she could keep this up forever. She did all that and more. U

Present ~ HerI felt like a coward. I just couldn't find the courage to confront my truth, the one I had been running from for five years. My deepest, most selfish desire was to finally face Patrick, to lay out all my secrets, to confess how I truly felt, to make amends, and to seek a second chance. I didn’t want to be a ghost in my own life, but every time I saw Patrick's or heard a story about him, I felt my spine turn to water. Every time I thought about him possibly being at the bar, I would duck behind something, avoid his gaze, and pretend not to exist. Was this how guilt felt? A constant, low-level thrum of wrongness that lived just beneath the skin?I hadn’t broken any laws, but I had lied. I had left. I had kept the most important things to myself, buried them deep in a carefully constructed life in another city, and now it was all catching up with me. It felt like a wave of heat rising in my chest, constricting my throat and making my hands tremble. The truth buzzed under my

Past A month after that kiss in the library, they started sneaking around, kissing, touching, and losing themselves in each other every chance they got.Every time his lips found hers, it felt like a high she never wanted to come down from. They didn’t talk things through, but they understood each other in glances and lingering touches. His hand would find hers, needing her close. She wanted to ask what they were and what it meant. Did either of them want a label? Or would they keep existing between wanting and needing? She wasn't sure, but she wanted him. For once, I felt chosen, she thought. Something inside her craved certainty, a place where she was not just an option, but the choice. But she was hesitant to ask outright, afraid of shattering their fragile bubble, so she stayed quiet, hoping actions would speak louder than the words she was too afraid to say.By the time her shift ended, the storm had hit full force. The rain poured in heavy sheets, drumming against the roof, the

PASTShe didn’t hesitate. She closed the space between them, her trembling hands reaching for his soaked shirt, fisting the fabric as she pulled him down toward her. Her lips met his, tentative at first, testing, tasting. But Patrick wasn't having it. He tilted her chin upward, deepening the kiss, his lips moving against hers with a hunger that left her breathless. The world outside ceased to exist. There was no storm, no fear, no hesitation, just the heat of his mouth on hers, the scrape of his jaw against her skin, the way his hands found her waist and pulled her flush against him. His tongue teased the seam of her lips, and when she parted them, he invaded, claiming her with a possessiveness that made her knees weak. He kissed her like a man starved, like he had been waiting his whole life for this moment.She gasped when his hands slid down to the backs of her thighs, lifting her effortlessly. Her legs wrapped around his waist instinctively, her fingers tangling in his hair as he