Author’s Note: This is a work in progress that I’ve been writing sporadically over the past couple of years. I’m sharing it unedited and unfinished. The story follows Thomas Conrad, a new student in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and his encounter with a mysterious girl on a yellow Vespa.

I knew I was going to regret what I was about to do. The certainty of it sat heavy in my chest, a weight I couldn’t shake. But knowing didn’t stop me. It never does.