Yearning to Go Back to a Simpler Time? This YA Romance Might Be Just What You Need

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The young adult romance “What Happens After You Confess Your Feelings to Someone?” is about a high school sophomore named Chloe with a big crush on a junior at her school named Mordecai. At the start of the story, Chloe has already confessed her feelings to Mordecai, but he has never shared his feelings about her. Sometimes it seems that he may like Chloe as more than a friend. But his actions—like going from one girlfriend to the next and constantly breaking Chloe’s heart with his indifference to her feelings—say otherwise.

Meanwhile, Chloe has a good friend named Simon. Simon is the opposite of Mordecai—generous, reliable, and parent-approved. But Simon does have something in common with him—he hasn’t told Chloe how he feels about her. Even so, Simon’s love for Chloe is obvious from the start. But he chooses to stay in the friend zone rather than confess how he feels. That means he’s often the one to pick up the pieces after Mordecai breaks Chloe’s heart.

The Setting

This YA romance is set in 2005—at least, that’s when the story begins. I set it in this time period because that’s when I was in high school. And I wanted to fill the story with elements from my high school years that wouldn’t make as much sense if the setting was more modern.

What are some of the benefits of setting the story at this time? Here are four of them.

4 Benefits of a YA Romance Set in the 2000s

1. A Chance to Revisit the Past

   If you went to high school before the internet had become such a big thing, along with all that comes with it—like smartphones and social media—you may sometimes feel nostalgic for a time when things were simpler. A time when you sometimes had to call your crush on their house phone and risk speaking to their parents. A time when it wasn’t so easy to see what all your friends were up to. A time when you would go to the library if you were out and about and wanted to look something up.
   
   This story will allow you to revisit that time. And as you read it, you may find yourself remembering things—like when your computer was this huge machine that was connected to a huge monitor. Or when you had to go to a payphone if you wanted to call someone when you were out. Or when a flip phone was your new favorite toy.
   
   I’m not going to pretend that I don’t enjoy some of the benefits of where technology is today. But sometimes it’s nice to remember a different time. Sometimes it’s nice to go back, especially when things are a little more chaotic than usual. While this story won’t take you all the way back to 19th century simplicity—oh, to a receive a handwritten love letter back then—it will still allow you to go back to a simpler time while still keeping things modern.

2. Fewer Distractions

   Chloe and Mordecai’s friendship isn’t very public at the start of the story. Most of their interactions are limited to instant messaging or IM and phone calls. And even though Simon and Chloe’s friendship is public, they still have their share of IM conversations. I think it’s fun to watch the characters interact this way. They’re not constantly updating their social media pages or looking at those of their friends. Instead, all they can do is talk to each other and find out what’s going on by asking or seeing for themselves.
   
   This means you get to focus more on the characters and how they express themselves, rather than on how they try to present themselves to the world—or how they perceive other people’s presentations. And I think that makes it easier to connect to them and for them to connect to each other.

3. Less Heartbreak for the Main Character

   Because Chloe is in love with someone who knows how she feels but hasn’t shared how he feels about her, you know there’s going to be some heartbreak. Chloe actually experiences a lot of it throughout the story because her feelings for Mordecai are so strong. But if I had set the story in modern times, there would have been even more potential for heartache.
   
   For instance, when Chloe tries to erase Mordecai from her life, she might still have been tempted to glance at his social media pages. And that means she would have been able to know what he was up to when they weren’t speaking. And that might have made her feel worse about everything if she saw that he wasn’t saying anything about her or missing her and was focused on just enjoying his life.
   
   Instead, she’s left to wonder—wonder what he’s up to, whether he’ll reach out, and whether he’s even thinking about her. This is better for her emotionally than being able to check in on him easily.
   
   Also, because Mordecai is often dating someone, Chloe would have been able to take glimpses of him with all his girlfriends. And that might have made her feel even worse about her situation and maybe even herself. Seeing them together in vivid color might have made her question her own value more than she does. She might have also started comparing herself to all the girls Mordecai goes out with and maybe even tried to change herself to be more like them.
   
   As it is, she’s able to hold onto some sense of sanity because she and Mordecai aren’t public friends and she’s not always aware of when he’s dating someone or what his girlfriends look like. While crushing on someone like this is, of course, not the ideal situation for anyone, it’s better than what might have happened if Chloe and Mordecai were friends in more modern times.

4. More Focus on Emotional Connection Than Connection Through Technology

   While the characters in this story do manage to stay connected through phone calls, texting, and IM, that’s not the same as the constant sense of being connected that we get with the internet and social media. And so, when you experience Chloe’s connection to Mordecai, it’s more of the emotional connection that you’re getting.
   
   She feels this connection even when they’re not talking. He’s a constant presence in her life even when they’re not actually communicating. This might have been harder to pull off in modern times, especially if Chloe and her friends were actively using social media. If that were the case—and I probably would have done it that way—she would have likely been tempted to constantly check out Mordecai’s social media pages even when they weren’t actively communicating.
   
   While it’s true that social media was starting to become a thing when I was in high school, it hadn’t reached the height of where it is today. That means it’s more believable that none of the characters are on social media. So, what you’ll find in this story are characters who only connect through technology when they’re actively communicating. Otherwise, the connection they feel is emotional. And I think that’s a much more powerful connection.

Not Your Typical YA Romance

Something you should know about this story is that it’s an atypical young adult romance. And I say that because I’m not giving you the ending. It’s up to you to decide the ending.

At the start of the story, Chloe isn’t allowed to date. And she won’t be able to until she becomes a senior. So, the question is, when she’s finally allowed to date, who will she pick?

Will Mordecai finally get his act together and ask her out? Or will she choose Simon, the constant friend who’s been there for her all along? That decision is in your hands.

Because this isn’t a typical story, I’ve designed it so that you’ll need to join the What Happens After You Confess membership to experience it. When you join, you can start reading the main story. And when you reach the chapter where you get to decide who Chloe chooses, you can read the chapters that correspond to the outcome you select.

If this sounds exciting to you, feel free to click here to learn more about the story and the membership.

Final Thoughts

While technology can be a wonderful and useful thing, sometimes it prevents us from connecting deeply with others. And sometimes it can distract us from what really matters.

While this story is set in a time where things like the internet and cellphones do exist, it wasn’t the same type of connectedness as what we have today. This means less heartbreak for the main character and more connecting on an emotional level. Setting the story in the 2000s also allows you to go back to a simpler time if you’re feeling nostalgic for the not-too-distant past.

If you enjoy high school YA romance and this sounds like a story you would like to dive into, I hope to see you in the What Happens After You Confess membership!

~ Ashley C.

P.S. If you would like to sample some of my story-writing style, you can click here to read some short stories that are currently available.

Last updated: April 20, 2025