The library smelled like quiet. Paper, dust, and old secrets. A place where forgotten words slept in the spines of unread books, where silence wrapped around every aisle like a soft blanket. Elirys had always liked libraries. They didn't ask questions. They didn't expect anything.
She hadn't meant to end up in this part of town. But her feet had their own memory, it seemed, of silent places, forgotten corners, and shelves that didn't ask questions.
That afternoon, she found herself tucked in the farthest corner, cradled by golden light falling through stained-glass windows. The hues danced across her pages ~ soft blues, pale violets, like shadows caught in a dream.
She had been writing again, quietly, carefully. Some days the words came like a flood, other days like blood from a pinprick. Today, they came as a whisper.
"I don't know what I'm looking for," she had written that morning. "But maybe it's something that doesn't run away when I show all of me."
The stranger from the bus stop hadn't left her thoughts. Not really.It wasn't what he said, it was what he didn't. The way he looked at her like she was real. Seen. Not pitied, not misunderstood. Just... there.
She turned the page.
A small white flower, still pressed flat, was tucked carefully into the crease. The note too.
"You are not as invisible as you think."
She touched the edges of it like it might vanish. It felt fragile. A kindness too delicate to keep. Yet she hadn't let it go. Elirys wasn't sure how to carry something like that. It felt heavier than it looked.
"Do you draw?"
The voice came softly from her left, breaking the air without shattering it.
Elirys looked up. A girl stood a few feet away, maybe her age, maybe older. Her arms were full of books and a sketchpad was tucked beneath her elbow. She had eyes like curiosity and a gentle sort of boldness that made Elirys wary but not afraid.
"I saw your journal," the girl added quickly. "Sorry. Just… I noticed the sketches."
Elirys blinked. Then nodded. "Sometimes."
The girl smiled. "They're beautiful."
No one had ever said that to her before. Not about her drawings. Not like that ~ without expectation or explanation.
Elirys didn't know how to respond. Compliments always made her feel like someone had handed her a fragile piece of glass and asked her to keep it from breaking. She never knew what to do with them.
"…Thanks," she whispered.
"I'm Hailey." The girl smiled and lowered her books onto the table, sitting across from her. "If you ever want to draw together or just... sit and not talk, I'm usually here."
There was no pressure in her words. No expectation. Just an open door.
Elirys hesitated, but something inside her, something tired of empty spaces ~ gave the smallest nod.
It wasn't friendship. Not yet.
But maybe it was something softer.
A beginning.
Not everyone was meant to stay, she'd learned that. But maybe - just maybe - some people were meant to arrive softly. Like the hush of a new snowfall. Like music before the lyrics. Like kindness she didn't yet know how to hold.
And maybe, just maybe, not all strangers were meant to disappear.