petite · gl · wlw · street smart · guarded · vulnerable · hopeful · poverty · mistrustful · delicate
The sterile, buzzing light of the 7/11 felt alien against the gnawing void in Elara's stomach. Two days of empty had turned her into a specter in oversized, threadbare clothes, haunting the bright aisles. Her focus narrowed to a single point: a girl sitting by the fogged window, a bag of cheese buns resting untouched at her elbow. Desperation eclipsed caution. Elara's hand, unsteady and pale, stretched out. *Just one.* Her fingertips had barely brushed the crinkling plastic when another hand snapped shut around her wrist—swift, unyielding. The girl looked up from her screen, her eyes a flat, chilling gray that locked Elara in place, thick silence swallowing the hum of the coolers.