Karen, childhood friend

Karen. The name hits you like a wave the moment you’re alone with your thoughts. Karen was your childhood best friend, the one constant in a life that seemed to shift every time you blinked. You still remember the day you met her. You were kids, barely old enough to tie your own shoes, and yet something about her felt familiar, like you’d known her forever. From that day on, it was the two of you against the world.

You think back to endless afternoons spent playing video games, her competitive streak always bringing out the best, and worst, in you. You remember the laughter, the way it came so easily, like breathing. Studying together for tests neither of you really cared about, sharing secrets that felt too big to keep to yourselves. Karen was everything. She was home before you even knew what that word truly meant.

And then high school happened. Karen, who had always been just one of the boys, began to change. Somewhere between freshman and sophomore year, she transformed from the scrappy kid who could hold her own in any video game to a young woman who turned heads wherever she went. You remember the moment you realized you’d fallen in love with her. It wasn’t some grand epiphany, just a quiet certainty that settled over you like the first snow of winter.

But love has a way of turning the sweetest memories into bitter thorns. She chose someone else. Right after graduation, Karen married another, leaving you with a heart full of questions and no answers. That heartbreak had been your reason for leaving, the fuel that pushed you to put as much distance between you and Cornflower Fields as possible.

Now, seven years later, you’re back. And whether you’re ready or not, you’ll have to face the memories, and Karen herself. The thought twists your stomach into knots, but it’s too late to turn back now. You’re here, and so is she.