Love, Discovered

Sixteen-year-old Iris returns from a family holiday to find her world subtly shifted. Her best friends have made new connections, her place feels less certain, and then there's Ava. Quiet, brilliant, and guarded, Ava draws Iris in with an intensity she can't quite explain. What begins as a tentative friendship deepens into late-night conversations, shared walks, and a fragile closeness built on trust, care, and unspoken longing. As Ava struggles with disordered eating and self-destructive coping, Iris becomes her anchor, the one person Ava leans on, confides in, and trusts completely. But Iris is hiding something too. Beneath her steady presence is a growing truth she's terrified to name: she's falling in love. Torn between wanting to protect Ava and wanting to be seen herself, Iris begins to fracture under the weight of secrecy, guilt, and her own desire. When a moment they can't take back forces everything into the open, Iris must confront what she's willing to risk, for Ava, and for herself.