CHAPTER ONE — The Diary

Hannah’s POV“Every night I wake up praying, please God, let me be sick.”I set the diary down. Just for a second. Just to breathe.Then I picked it up again because I couldn’t not.The apartment was empty when I got home. That wasn’t unusual. Zara stepped out sometimes, corner store, a walk, nowhere in particular. She never went far. I had learned not to panic at an empty apartment.But the diary was sitting on the dining table.Zara’s pink diary. The one she treated like a second heartbeat. Carried everywhere. Slept with it under her pillow some nights. It had no business being on that table. Zara would never leave it out.Not unless she wanted it to be found.I stood there for a long moment just looking at it.Then I sat down and opened it.I told myself I would just skim. One page. Two at most. Just enough to understand what was happening with my daughter before she got home and I could find a way to start the conversation carefully.That was the plan.“Please save me from going t

Last Updated : 2026-07-25

CHAPTER TWO — The Ambulance

Hannah’s POVI woke up to sirens.For one strange second I didn’t know where I was. Just movement and brightness and a pressure on my chest that had nothing to do with anything physical.Then everything came back at once.Zara.“My daughter.” The words came out before I was fully conscious. “Where is my daughter.”“Ma’am you need to stay still.” A paramedic. Young face. Calm voice. Hands pressing me gently back against the stretcher. “You fainted. We are taking you to Mercy General.”“My daughter was on that roof”“She is in the ambulance ahead of us.”Ahead of us.Two words. I held onto them the way you hold onto something in dark water not because it is enough but because it is all there is. Ahead meant moving. they had somewhere to take her. Ahead meant she was still here to be taken somewhere.I lay back against the stretcher and stared at the ambulance ceiling and counted the seconds between sirens.She is ahead of us, I kept telling myself. She is ahead.The hospital was all flu

Last Updated : 2026-07-25

CHAPTER THREE — Seventeen Again

Hannah’s POVThe first thing I heard was Cheryl’s voice.Even through whatever thick dark place I had been floating in I knew it was her. Seventeen years of friendship wires your ears to recognize someone before your brain fully catches up.“Zara you would have to stay with me for a while, just until your mom gets better.”I tried to open my eyes. Nothing. Like my body had made a decision without consulting me and wasn’t ready to reverse it yet.“Mum, I’m so sorry. Please stay with me.”Zara.I fought harder. Pushed against whatever heaviness was sitting on top of me. I needed to see her. Needed her to see me open my eyes so she would stop crying in that voice, that small broken voice that didn’t sound like my daughter at all.But the harder I pushed the more stuck I felt. Eventually my body simply said no and I stopped fighting and just listened until even that faded out.Then I was somewhere else entirely.A classroom. Sunlight coming in at the wrong angle. The smell of chalk dust a

Last Updated : 2026-07-25

Chapter four- first day

Nora’s POVCheryl opened the door in her bathrobe and looked at me the way people look at something that doesn’t make sense before coffee.I had been standing on her porch for four minutes working up the nerve to knock. I knew this house. Knew the wind chime on the left side that Cheryl’s mother gave her the Christmas before she passed. Knew the welcome mat that said home is where the wifi is that I bought her as a joke three birthdays ago.I knew every single thing about this place except how to explain why I was standing here looking seventeen when three days ago I had been thirty four.“Can I help you?”My best friend. Looking at me like a stranger.The magic had warned me. I had heard the words. But hearing and feeling were still two entirely different countries.“My name is Nora,” I said. First time saying it out loud. Strange in my mouth. “I’m a friend of Hannah’s. She asked me to give you this.”I handed her the letter I had spent an hour writing in the hospital bathroom. I kne

Last Updated : 2026-07-25

CHAPTER FIVE — The New Girl

Zara’s POV“You do that every time.”I turned around slowly.The new girl. Still sitting three seats away on the bleachers like she had been there for hours and had absolutely no plans to leave. Legs crossed. Looking at me with an expression that wasn’t pity and wasn’t curiosity exactly. Something quieter than both.“Do what,” I said. Not a question.“Wait for everyone to leave before you move.”I looked back at the empty field. The last of the stragglers were disappearing through the double doors at the far end. Just us now and the late afternoon sun cutting long shadows across the grass.I had not realized anyone was watching me do it. That was the whole point of doing it you waited until nobody was left to watch anything.“Bleachers are public property,” I said.“I know.” She didn’t move. Didn’t push. Just sat there like she had nowhere more important to be. “I do it too. Wait for rooms to empty.”I looked at her sideways.“Why?”She was quiet for a second. Actually thinking about

Last Updated : 2026-07-25

All Chapters of Young again: first love seventeen years late : Chapter 1 - Chapter 6

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER ONE — The Diary

CHAPTER TWO — The Ambulance

CHAPTER THREE — Seventeen Again

Chapter four- first day

CHAPTER FIVE — The New Girl