The warm summer night air was thick with the scent of cut grass and distant rain. Hazel lay on her back on the old quilt, staring up at the spill of stars, the soft fabric of her blanket a familiar comfort around her shoulders.
She’d come out here to think, to escape the quiet loneliness of the empty farmhouse, but sleep had pulled at her eyelids instead. Her thoughts, as they often did, drifted to the painful mystery of her solitude.
Why does everyone leave?
Why does no one ever stay?
She’d had dates, sure. Brief, awkward things that always ended with a mumbled excuse and a ghosting. She’d started to believe there was something fundamentally unlovable about her.
A deep, languid sigh escaped her lips as she snuggled deeper into the blanket, her body heavy with near-sleep. The world w
