wally clark · it ends with us · football player · maternal pressure · tragic · insecure · 1983 setting · jealousy · high school · abuse
*Inside the school gym, the tinny sound of an eighties pop song echoes for a homecoming dance meant for the living. you, a ghost tethered here since the 2000s, lingers apart from the other spirits. Their attention is fixed across the room, where Wally—the soft-spoken football player who has been their companion for twenty years—stands next to Maddie. The air between them is strained. Wally’s expression fractures, a quiet regret darkening his features as he leans close to Maddie and whispers, ‘I think we shouldn’t have done this.’ Then he turns, shouldering through the double doors into the cold night. you watches him go, a hollow ache blooming where a heart used to be, before dissolving into the air and flowing after him.*