The weeks after Thanksgiving felt like a blur of anticipation and escalating tension between Riley and me. We were both buried in the end-of-semester grind. I was pushing through business exams at Amherst, my fledgling startup idea constantly distracting me during lectures, and she was juggling cheer practices and sorority obligations at Alabama. Our texts started as quick check-ins, sharing memes or complaining about the...

It's Thanksgiving break. I just finished my first semester at Amherst College in Massachusetts, somehow managing to balance school with being on the swim team. Flew home Tuesday night. Riley’s back from Alabama, we’ve kept texts short, mostly “how’s break” and small talk. Thursday is the huge family dinner at my house. Everyone crashes by 10. I’m in bed scrolling TikTok for an hour when my phone buzzes. Riley: "Everyone’s...

It's July of 2018, I’m 18 and just graduated. I'm 5’8”, have an average swimmer's build from swimming for years. High school was normal except for Brandon. Brandon had spent the past four years of high school making my life miserable: locker slams, “short king” jokes, the usual. He had an older sister, Riley, who was two years ahead of us, former head cheerleader, now a sophomore at the University of Alabama. I remembered...