"Even this cat keeps its distance… maybe that's how life is."
Grace crouched by a stray cat in the alley, reaching out her hand.
The cat hissed and leapt away.
Even this cat keeps its distance… maybe that's how life is.
You can try to reach out, but some things just… won't let you in.
She looked up, sunlight catching a shadow across the street.
Her pulse fluttered.
Probably nothing… right?
Sunlight spilled over the streets, dust drifting in lazy swirls.
Grace walked slowly, hands in her hoodie pockets, pretending to scroll her phone.
Her cousin laughed ahead, recording a TikTok.
Why am I always in the background? Maybe I like it that way… no one expects anything of me.
At her brother's gate, sunlight brushed her hair.
Maybe this is enough for me… just to exist quietly.
A shadow flickered at the edge of her vision. She didn't look.
Probably nothing.
Later, scribbling in her notebook, she wrote:
Some people live in the spaces between the noise. I think that's where I belong.
Someone—or something—watched her from the alley, unseen.