"she realized something with a sudden clarity as she lay there.

claire was falling for karl all over again."

in which:

claire had known karl jacobs and his family for as long as she could remember. they saw each other all the time, but it was at their cozy cabin in the woods where they were really themselves. it was an autumn tradition: every year, they spent an entire week out at the cabin. the woods were theirs to wander, the trails were their own. the four troublemakers: karl and his sister along with claire and her brother.

claire looked forward to this every single year. she loved spending time with her second family, the jacobs'. she especially looked forward to seeing karl, who she had secretly had a crush on since she was seven years old.

but when the two families suddenly fall apart, claire is afraid she'll never see karl again. years pass and no one from either family spoke a word to one another. until one day, karl's sister, jess, reaches out with a proposition: a week at the cabin in autumn; the four best friends reunited. 

but that leaves claire to wonder: will the spark she felt with karl reignite? or has too much time passed for things to ever be the same?

started: january 8, 2023
first published: march 20, 2023
finished: may 17, 2023

(i kinda stopped editing after the first half, so i'm sorry if any of it sucks)

|no smut or swearing|
|lowercase intended|
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