Fourteen was supposed to be an in-between year — too old for dolls, too young for love. But for Cara, it became the year everything changed.

When her brother’s best friend, Callum Adler, starts spending more time at their house, Cara notices things most adults ignore. The bruises. The quiet. The way their mother starts folding extra laundry like it’s second nature. Callum's broken home becomes a secret the whole family carries, and Cara — wide-eyed, overlooked, and quietly growing — starts to fall for him in all the ways she shouldn’t.

But Callum is four years older. Eighteen. Off-limits. Almost a man. And despite their quiet moments — the almosts, the shared glances, the night she asked to kiss him — he walks away without a goodbye, leaving her in the silence he helped create.

Years pass. Cara grows. Builds a life. Finds herself. By eighteen, she’s no longer just Kaden’s little sister. She’s her own person — confident, loved, maybe even happy. But everything tilts when she runs into Callum again at a skating rink. Older, composed, and entirely unexpected.

He’s not the same boy who used to sleep on her couch with bruises on his ribs — and she’s not the girl who watched him leave.

But unfinished things have a way of circling back.

Told in alternating perspectives of Cara and Callum, What We Never Said explores the slow burn of first love, the ache of timing, and what it really means to grow up — and grow apart — before finding your way back.

I wasn't snooping. I was just walking down the hall, heading to the kitchen for a glass of water, when I heard them.


Kaden's door was half-open. His voice low, serious. That tone he used when things weren't just about video games or football or which one of them had stolen the last slice of pizza.


I slowed down. My bare feet made no sound on the hallway carpet.


Callum whistled softly. "Damn, man. That's huge."


"I think so. Mom's freaking out about tuition, but I got some aid. Might still have to work a bit."


And then Callum said something that made my heart clench:


"Guess I should probably start thinking about where I'm gonna end up too."


It wasn't a surprise. Not really. They were eighteen. College was coming like a train that had been rumbling toward us for months. I'd just pretended it was further off.


But hearing it—really hearing it—made it real in a way I wasn't ready for.


"You thinking of applying anywhere?" Kaden asked.


Callum let out a breath. "Maybe. I dunno. I'm not even sure I can swing it with everything going on. I'll figure it out."


"You could stay here until you do," Kaden said. "Mom already treats you like her second kid."


I could picture Callum's smile, the way it never quite reached his eyes when he talked about his future. "Yeah. I know. But I can't stay forever."


I stepped back from the door before they could notice me.


I didn't cry. But my chest felt tight, like something was caving in behind my ribs.


They were going to leave. Both of them.


And maybe I'd still be here, in the same bedroom, same hallway, same house with the creaky stair that always gave me away.


I made it to the kitchen and filled a glass with water, hands trembling just enough to hear the ice clink against the sides.


I didn't know what scared me more—Callum going, or the fact that a part of me had already started counting down the days.


Chapter 5 - Cara