Sana, a twenty-two year old girl, is the star player on her college's women's basketball team — fast, focused, and terrifying on the court, but so soft off it that people often forget how fierce she can be.
Off the court, she's the girl who'll lend you her notes, sit up with you through panic attacks, cover your mistakes — and no one exploits this better than Aaira.
Sana was seventeen when she wrote the first rule in her cheap diary:
"Be useful. Be kind. Be enough."
It started with Aaira - the friend everyone envied. Pretty, clever, magnetic. But Aaira carried storms inside her ; storms she poured into Sana's lap at 2 a.m., whispering about her anxiety while Sana bit her tongue about her own.
Every time Aaira cried, Sana held her.
Every time Aaira won, Sana clapped the loudest.
And every time Aaira needed something; a favor, a cover, an excuse, she gave it.
Until she watched herself disappear in Aairs's pretty, tragic orbit.
She lost her own-self caring for others.
And when Sana needed someone? Aaira was gone - just like the others who loved her only when she was useful.
By nineteen, Sana knew her worth in other people's eyes was conditional.
By twenty, her hands wouldn't stop shaking.
By twenty-one, she was diagnosed with Anxiety Disorder.
She earned all those, just by putting others in front of her.
And Today…
Aaira — flawless skin and sugary smiles — still clings to Sana when she needs help:
"I feel so anxious these days, Sana… You're the only one who understands…"
Sana does understand, she's been living with a diagnosed anxiety disorder for a year now — but she never talks about it. She just listens, comforts, fixes.
Aaira drops sweet whispers,
"Sana's so intense, don't you think? A bit clingy… controlling, maybe…" —
And watches as Sana's circle shrinks until she has only her basketball team left.
But Sana never breaks.
The only place she feels weightless is on the court.
The bounce of the ball.
The thud of sneakers.
Sweat dripping down her back, clean and honest.
On the court, she runs until her lungs burn, because that pain makes the other pain quiet.
She couldn't with hold the pain arising in her heart, she decided to Quit. Quit, but also gave herself some time. Thus, she decided to live only for a decade.
"10 years, Its enough.
Make enough money, Make sure your parents live lavishly.
10 years, then , BE FREE!!!
2035, that will be it" , she wrote on her journal.
Sana knows exactly how much she can take, and how much she can't.
When the chance for a scholarship abroad comes up; a dream, an escape — she takes it without telling Aaira until the night before her flight.
Aaira clutches her wrist at the airport. "You're really leaving me? I thought we were best friends!"
Sana's voice trembles but her eyes are steady.
"We were. But I need to be my own best friend now."
Aaira doesn't understand. Sana hugs her anyway and walks through the gate, her phone buzzing with unanswered messages - one last mercy for a friendship that gave her nothing back.