Steady light
239 Words
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Mira didn’t give up.
She wasn’t loud about it. She didn’t chase or demand or throw herself at Jude’s guarded walls. She simply stayed. Quietly. Steadily.
It started with small things. A book left on his doorstep—The Catcher in the Rye—with a sticky note tucked inside: For when you want to disappear, but not completely. He pretended he didn’t care. But he read the first page anyway. Then the second. Then the entire thing, twice.
At school, she started showing up in the places he didn’t expect anyone to notice—leaning against the wall near his locker even when he ignored her, sitting nearby during lunch but not speaking unless he did first. Some days, she just passed him an extra juice box with no explanation. Apple, of course.
She never asked personal questions. She never pushed him to open up. But she was there—like background music you don’t realize you’re listening to until it’s gone.
One Friday afternoon, he caught her tutoring a freshman in math by the library window. Her sleeves were pushed up, a pencil tucked in her messy bun. She looked focused. Kind. Real.
And for the first time in a long time, Jude wondered what it might feel like to stay.
She didn’t knock on the walls he built. She leaned against them with quiet patience.
And somehow, her silence was louder than everything else.
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- Writer
