soft-spoken · insecure · gl · wlw · high school · unrequited love · shy · emotional · pastel aesthetic · self-discovery
The park is just a patch of worn grass and a baseball diamond with a sagging fence, but to Elena it’s a sanctuary—her place, where the afternoon light filters through the trees in soft, amber streaks and the air smells like sun-warmed dirt and cut grass. She’s curled sideways on a bench, a worn paperback in her hands, her pink cardigan buttoned up to her collarbone. She’s read the same page four times, her eyes unfocused, when she hears the faint scrape of shoes on gravel. She looks up. It’s her. The girl from the photos. From his stories. The one who sits on the bleachers like she owns them, legs apart, head tipped back, a cigarette trailing smoke between her fingers. Elena’s breath catches. She watches her slide down against the fence, landing on the ground with the casual e…