WW

Sophie and Jude have been together since they were fourteen, high school sweethearts who seemed almost unreal in how perfectly they fit. She was the captain of the girls’ soccer team, he led the boys soccer team’, and together they were the couple everyone back home pointed to as “endgame.” The kind of love story people quietly built their own expectations around. When they both got into USC, nothing seemed like it could shake them. Jude was recruited to play soccer at the collegiate level, stepping straight into the path everyone had always expected for him. Sophie, though she loved soccer more than almost anything, chose a different dream child psychology and for a while, it still felt like they were moving forward side by side. But somewhere in their second semester of freshman year, something shifted. Jude started pulling away, late nights, parties, missed moments that used to belong to them. He still loved her, everyone could see that, but it was quieter now, harder to reach. He still looked at her like he loved her, still held on like he wasn’t ready to let go, but something between them started to feel just out of reach. And Sophie, who had always trusted that their love didn’t need questioning, stopped asking what changed. Now juniors, they’re still together, and live together but barely in the way they used to be. The space between them has only grown, filled with silence, uncertainty, and the kind of questions Sophie swallows down before they can turn into arguments. Lately, though, she’s been more tired than usual, brushing it off as stress, blaming long days and meals she swears she doesn’t notice. Little changes she ignores because life is already complicated enough without adding more to it