Babyyy_Juice

"EVERYTHING I NEVER SAID"is a slow-burn, emotional romance about love, loss, and second chances. Ethan Hayes and Riley Carter were inseparable—neighbors, childhood best friends, practically family. But when Ethan confessed his love in their first year of high school, Riley didn’t feel the same. They drifted apart, and months later, Ethan’s father died. Riley never showed up, and Ethan never forgave her. Two years later, Riley regrets everything, but Ethan has built walls too high to break. As old wounds resurface and fate forces them together, can they mend what was broken—or are some distances impossible to cross?

EVERYTHING I NEVER SAID

She told herself that over and over again as she walked down the hallway, her fingers tightening around the straps of her bag.

She didn't cry when Ethan turned away from her.

She didn't cry when he shut her out like she was just another stranger.

And she definitely didn't cry when she realized—maybe that's all she was now.

She had spent two years convincing herself that what happened between them was inevitable. That drifting apart was natural. That he hadn't needed her the way she had needed him.

But now? Now, after seeing the way he had looked at her—or the way he refused to look at her—she finally understood something.

She had left him.

And there was no way to take that back.

She blinked, snapping out of her thoughts just as Jason caught up to her, slinging an arm over her shoulder.

"Where'd you go?" he asked, pressing a quick kiss to her temple.

"Nowhere," she said automatically, forcing a smile.

Jason grinned, completely oblivious. "C'mon, the guys are waiting."

She let him lead her down the hall, her body going through the motions, her smile in place.

But her mind was still back in the art room.

And the way Ethan had made her feel like she was already too late.

Ethan stayed in the art room long after she left.

He didn't move, didn't breathe too hard.

Because if he did, the walls he had built—the ones he had spent years stacking brick by brick—would start to crack.

He curled his fingers into a fist, pressing them against his knee.

Not after choosing her perfect life, her perfect boyfriend, her perfect little world that didn't include him.

And Ethan had learned how to be okay with that.

He had spent months telling himself he didn't care anymore. That Riley Carter didn't mean a damn thing to him. That if he saw her again, it would be nothing.

But then she had looked at him with **that** face—like she regretted it.

And for half a second, he had wanted to believe her.

Because maybe if he made her feel even an ounce of what she had made him feel, maybe—just maybe—it would finally stop hurting.

REGRET