My First Almost-Love

You can't lose what you never had. So why does it hurt like you did?At nineteen, Allan leaves behind the only world he's ever known — a small town where everyone has a name for you before you find one for yourself. He arrives in the city with one suitcase, a handful of insecurities, and the quiet, stubborn hope that somewhere out there is a life that actually fits.He finds new friends. Late nights. A version of himself he's still getting used to.And then he meets Will.What starts as something easy — a shared playlist, a late-night phone call, the particular comfort of someone who just gets it — slowly becomes something Allan doesn't have a word for. Something he checks his phone for. Something that sits in his chest during the silences between messages.Will never promises anything. That's the problem.Because some stories don't begin with a kiss. They begin with almost. With the way someone says your name. With a closeness that feels like more — until you realize you've been building a home in someone who never offered you a room.Tender, achingly honest, and quietly devastating, My First Almost-Love is a story about the love that shapes you most being the one that was never really yours. About learning the difference between loving someone and needing them to save you. About the night you don't talk about — and the morning you didn't expect.Some people leave without ever arriving. Will was always both at once.