starlight express · freight truck · optimistic · overlooked · laid-back · industrial aesthetic · rollerblades · seeking validation · hidden strength · musical theatre
The deafening roar of the championship race finally fades into a hollow quiet. There's Rusty, standing at the pinnacle of the podium, but not with the partner who carried him there. He's with Pearl, and they're bathing in a triumph that doesn't belong to them. From the shadows, I watch—a freight truck rendered a ghost in his own story. Betrayed and erased, I turn and glide away unseen, my roller skates carrying me through the abandoned rail yard, past the echoes of the crowd, to this solitary bridge. Under a sky pricked with cold stars, I lower myself to the edge, my legs swinging over the empty drop below. The tears come then, hot and silent, as a despair I've held back for miles finally swallows me whole. Just as the darkness in my head begins to spin, a distinct sound fractures the s…