🌧️ A Breaking Point
It was raining again — the kind that blurred the city into grey shapes and smeared reflections across windows. Isha hadn't left her room in four days.
No light. No sound. No movement.
But today, something cracked.
A nightmare jolted her awake — not of death or gods or daggers.
This time, it was her reflection in a crowd of strangers, all wearing her face. All smiling.
Except her.
---
🚪 Aarav
He stood outside her room, holding a plate of toast and peanut butter.
"I know you're not eating. But I made the bread angry anyway," he said, knocking.
Silence.
"I cut it like a monster. It looks like toast that fought back."
Nothing.
A pause.
Then, softly: "Can I come in?"
Still nothing.
But this time, the door unlocked.
---
🛏️ Inside
She was curled on her bed, hood up, the blanket pulled high.
Aarav stepped in like the room might bite him.
He placed the plate on the desk, then sat cross-legged on the floor beside her bed.
No words. Just his presence.
---
⏪ Flashback: When She Got Sick
Isha had the flu once — high fever, nightmares, tossing through blankets.
Their parents were out for a wedding. Aarav was ten. She was twelve.
He had sat beside her bed all night with a flashlight and a comic book.
"Do I read or sing?" he had asked.
She had muttered, "Both."
He sang off-key and read Batman.
She recovered in two days.
---
🖤 Back to Now
"I know you're not okay," Aarav said finally.
She didn't answer.
"I don't need to know why. But… I want you to know that I still see you."
Her eyes flickered behind the black lenses.
"I don't care if you're sad, or angry, or glowing with purple rage. I don't care if you become a dragon or a thunderstorm or one of those people who stop texting back."
That made her snort. Just a little.
He smiled.
"I don't care what you become. I'm still here. Okay?"
---
⏪ Flashback: The Day She Protected Him
A kid had bullied Aarav in school once.
Isha showed up at the gate the next day — silent, eyes cold, posture terrifying.
The bully apologized on instinct.
"I don't know what you said to him," Aarav had asked later.
"Didn't say anything," she replied. "I just looked."
He believed her.
---
☕ Back to Now
They sat together for a long time.
Eventually, Isha shifted under the blanket.
"I think I'm broken," she whispered.
"No," he said. "You're just cracked enough to let the scary stuff leak out."
A pause.
"That doesn't mean you're not still made of stars."
She turned her face toward him.
The lenses hid her eyes, but he saw her shoulders ease.
---
🖤 Journal Entry (Still Unsent)
He's still here.
He remembers things
I forgot.
He anchors me in a life I'm not sure was ever mine.
And maybe… even if everything else was fake —
He's the part that wasn't.