-ARIA
I couldn’t breathe.
The office buzzed with grief and fear, a low hum under every whispered conversation. People clung to each other — hands on shoulders, arms around waists, tears soaking into sleeves. One of us had died overnight. Too close to home. Too close to ignore.
Little clusters formed everywhere, people leaning into each other for warmth, for balance. Alanna had been the kind of person who left a mark. Everyone was trying to hold someone else up. I stayed on the outside, watching them fold together, watching them find something solid to stand on.
No one had ever done that for me. Not since the only two people who ever truly did were gone. Since then, people drifted around me like clouds on a windy day — you see them for a second, then they’re gone before you can reach ou
