The lecture hall buzzed with a low hum of chatter, but Victoria sat in the corner, her posture poised, eyes fixed on the open notebook before her. Inside, hidden between the pages, was a photograph she had stumbled upon in the old campus archive. It was faded, the edges worn from years of neglect, but what took her breath away was the memory it captured: a snapshot of her and another girl when they were barely more than kids. Middle school, Victoria guessed, judging by the awkward height and the carefree smiles that seemed foreign now.

In the photograph, they were standing close, faces lit with laughter, hands clutched together as if holding onto a secret only they shared. The memory it triggered was faint but undeniable—a stupid, sweet promise exchanged between two girls who didn't know the world would make them strangers. "When we grow up, we'll marry each other, okay?" The words echoed in her mind, innocent yet haunting in the way they now tugged at her heart.

But the years had changed everything. The girl from that memory had grown into a confident woman, who now stood at the front of the room, effortlessly self-assured, her hair longer, her demeanor sharper. Victoria's breath caught as she realized why she hadn't recognized her before. She was different—her face matured, eyes more intense—but the smile was the same, even if it had grown more guarded over time. It all came crashing back with the force of a wave she hadn't seen coming.

Victoria's chest tightened, fingers trembling as they brushed the edge of the photograph. Did she remember any of it? Did she remember the promises, the stolen moments, the closeness they once had before life pulled them apart and reshaped them into who they were now? A flicker of movement brought Victoria back to the present as her gaze swept the room, pausing when their eyes met. There was a brief flash of something in her expression—recognition, perhaps—but it was gone too quickly to decipher.

Victoria swallowed hard, slipping the photograph back into her notebook. The girl in that picture seemed a world away, but now, with her standing just feet from her, the past felt dangerously close, threatening to unravel the carefully constructed walls she had built around herself. She didn't know what terrified her more—that she had forgotten everything, or that she hadn't.