A letter to a stranger 🫂

29th June 2025

To The Girl on the Clinic Bench,

You did not look up when I sat down next to you. You merely shifted over slightly, not away, not toward, as if trying not to be too there. Your eyes were fixed on the pebbles. Your nails dug into your legs. I remember wondering if you were chilly or if you were just clinging.

The nurse's door creaked open and close, open and close, and each time your body jerked as if a secret was being peeled off your skin. You looked hollow. Not broken, not yet, but like you were getting ready for something that would break you.

We didn't speak. Not even a...