"Mia, are you still not going to eat anything?" Verena asked, her voice quiet but carrying a firm edge of concern as she looked at her sulking friend.
Mia sat in the corner, coiled into herself, hugging her legs so tightly it was as though she wanted to vanish inside them. Her forehead was buried against her knees, hair cascading down like a curtain, shielding her face from the world.
There wasn't the faintest flinch, not even the barest twitch of acknowledgment. Mia remained unmoving, wrapped in the cocoon of misery she had built around herself.
Verena sighed, long and weary, before lowering herself beside her. The ground was cold and rough beneath her, but she ignored it. Her gaze lingered on Mia's frail form, the outline of her shoulders trembling ever so slightly with each shallow breath.
