CARMEN
The sound startled me so badly I nearly choked on my own food. I pressed a fist over my mouth, eyes widening as the laughter kept bubbling up anyway, raw and bright and completely uninvited.
It was the first real laugh I’d had in years.
Not a polite or fake one. Not the careful, strained kind I used to give when I pretended everything was fine before things got worse.
This was the kind that burst out of me because something was genuinely funny.
That realization hit with a force that left me reeling, as if it might knock the breath right out of me.
I froze in place, my hand still clutching the breakfast wrap, and looked down at my lap, uncertain what to do next.
That had felt good.
Wrong, maybe. Strange, definitely. But good nonetheless.
For a moment, my chest felt lighter,
