Juniper POV
My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
It had been going off all week—mom’s name flashing on the screen like a warning I kept trying to ignore. At first I let it ring. Then I started silencing the calls. By Thursday she switched to texts, each one sharper than the last.
Juniper, it’s my birthday on Saturday. You will be there. No excuses.
Don’t embarrass me by not showing up. The family is expecting you.
And when are you bringing that new boyfriend of yours? Tristan, right? The whole neighborhood is talking.
I stared at the last message until the screen went dark. My stomach twisted. Not just from the words—though those were bad enough—but from the way my body had been feeling lately. The constant low-level nausea that I kept blaming on stress. The way my jeans were starting to
