It was the summer before everything changed.
The kind of summer that smelled like sunscreen and gasoline, where nights blurred into mornings, and time felt like it was folding in on itself.
Mikaela had always been one of the boys—sprinting barefoot through sprinklers with Levi, arguing over video game strategies with Felix, and watching Noah charm his way through girls like a Netflix queue he couldn't finish.
Mikaela, Felix, Noah, and Levi had known each other for as long as they could remember. Their friendship wasn't just their own — it was rooted in the bond between their parents, who had been close for years.
Mikaela and Levi lived in the same quiet neighborhood, where after-school visits and spontaneous weekend plans were part of everyday life. Felix and Noah lived a short drive away, but the distance never kept them apart. Family gatherings, birthdays, and holiday cookouts brought them together often enough that it felt like they lived next door, too.
Their connection ran deeper than convenience. What started with their parents' friendship had grown into something of their own — steady, familiar, and full of shared memories that stitched their lives together like a patchwork quilt.
They were a unit. A crew. But somewhere between late-night drives and bonfire confessions, Mikaela began to notice something different—something she wasn't supposed to notice.
It was the way Felix, the usually unbothered, eyes-glued-to-his-phone Felix, had started paying attention. Real attention. Like the kind where his eyes lingered a bit too long when she laughed, or how he'd instinctively pull her aside when the guys got too wild. Subtle. Soft. Like he was seeing her for the first time—and maybe he was.
The problem was, she wasn't sure if she was ready to be seen like that...
Especially not by one of them.
How they Met.
The first time Mikaela met the boys, she had a scraped knee and a mean right hook.
The three boys were building a crooked treehouse in Levi's backyard—if "building" meant arguing over who got the hammer and eating way too many Popsicles.
Mikaela wandered over in muddy sneakers and a Batman t-shirt, chin up like she owned the place.
"Girls aren't allowed," Noah had said, arms crossed, missing a front tooth.
Mikaela punched him in the shoulder. Hard.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"For being dumb."
Felix raised an eyebrow from behind a sketchpad where he was drawing blueprints that nobody followed. "She's right."
From that day on, she was in.
They spent summers like a pack of puppies—bike races, dares, prank wars, and late-night movies in someone's garage.
This summer..
The treehouse is still there.
A little more crooked, a little more faded. Its ladder creaks with every step, and half the roof leaks when it rains, but no one can bring themselves to tear it down. It's not a clubhouse anymore—it's a time capsule.
Tonight, the four of them sit on the rooftop, watching the stars blink into view above the sleepy neighborhood. Music hums softly from Levi's phone. The scent of cut grass and barbecue smoke still lingers in the warm air.
Levi lies on his back, hands behind his head, chewing on some gum he bought at the grocery. "Anyone else feel like this is the last real summer?"
"Dude." Noah stretches his legs out and pulls his cap lower over his eyes. "Why do you sound like a 90s coming-of-age movie?"
"Because I have depth," Levi replies, completely straight-faced.
Mikaela smirks, legs swinging off the edge of the roof. "You have delusions."
"Same thing."
Felix doesn't laugh. He's seated quietly beside her, arms resting on his knees, watching the sky like it's telling him secrets.
She glances at him out of the corner of her eye.
He's changed. They all have, but Felix most of all. He's taller now, still quiet, but not in that awkward, hiding kind of way. It's more like... he only speaks when it actually matters. And lately, when he looks at her, it makes her feel like she matters, too.
She catches him staring now—quickly, like a reflex—and he looks away just as fast.
Her stomach does a little twist. She tells herself it's just because it's hot. Because they're bored. Because it's easier to pretend nothing's shifting when she's still "one of the boys."
But it is shifting.
Noah doesn't flirt with her, but he's protective in a way that wasn't always there. Felix has gone from distant to present, and not in a way that feels brotherly. Levi, who used to be the loudest, now watches more than he jokes.
They're still her boys.
They still laugh at the same jokes, still drink from the same shared Slurpee cups, still spend nights talking about everything and nothing at all.
But something unspoken lives in the silence now.
And Mikaela knows—this summer, something's going to change.
She just doesn't know who's going to break it first.