It was a quiet night, the kind that felt like a breath of fresh air after a storm. Noor’s house was cozy, the familiar scent of her mom’s cooking lingering in the air as we all settled into the living room. The girls were gathered in a loose circle on the floor, blankets and pillows scattered around us like a fortress of comfort and warmth. We didn’t need much—just each other, and for the first time, that felt like enough.
The chaos of the past few months was behind us, and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked around at the faces of my friends—Zenaida, Paisley, Valencia, Noor, Sarai, and, of course, Kallum. We had all come so far, each of us finding our way in our own time, yet always coming back to this unshakable bond we’d forged.
Noor, ever the careful planner, had set up a stack of
