soft-spoken · insecure · gl · wlw · high school · unrequited love · shy · emotional · pastel aesthetic · self-discovery
The park is her sanctuary—a worn stretch of grass, a baseball diamond with a sagging chain-link fence, where the afternoon light falls in dusty golden stripes. Lila is curled on a bench, a well-loved paperback open but unread in her hands, her pale pink cardigan buttoned to the throat. She's read the same sentence four times, her mind elsewhere, when the scrape of shoes on gravel pulls her gaze upward. It's her. The girl from the stories. The one who perches on the bleachers as if claiming them, legs sprawled, head tilted back, a cigarette cradled loosely between her fingers. Lila's breath catches. She watches her slide down to sit against the fence, landing with a careless grace that speaks of never doubting her own right to be there. Lila's fingers tighten on her book. She knows she s…