-Raya-
Most of the crowd had thinned by now. Booths that once buzzed with color and conversation were either already packed up or in the final stages of tear-down. Even the music had faded into low static, replaced by the ambient hum of a late afternoon—birds, wind, the occasional squeak of rolling carts and distant laughter from the other side of campus.
I didn’t really plan on going anywhere. My feet just… led me.
Past the science building. Around the back of the gym. To a quiet patch of space where the sunlight poured golden between the trees, catching on the steel railings of the bleachers.
They stood empty, quiet and a little weathered, like they’d witnessed every victory and defeat without saying a word.
I climbed halfway up, found a middle row with just enough shade, and settle
