We started as two strangers. We ended with only one of us in love. Alex Law wasn’t meant to be there on the darkest night of my life. Seven breaths left in my sister’s chest, yet I looked back at him—the new boy who continued to make a habit of showing up when I least expected him, determined to turn my tender grief into some kind of twisted happiness I was too weak to resist. But Alex had demons of his own he tried to hide from me. When his truths were finally set free, so was he. Not all love stories go the same way, and when he gave up on us and walked away, he dragged my broken young heart with him. I knew there had been life before Alex Law. Now I had to figure out if there was life after him. That beautiful, tragic first love of mine.

• Natalie Vincent.