Certain of my entire identity.
Like I didn’t even get a say in it.
Something tight pulls low in my chest.
I shut it down.
She’s not wrong to be careful.
I’ve seen enough to know that.
But being careful and being right aren’t the same thing.
I drag a hand through my hair, forcing my thoughts back into something I can actually control.
This doesn’t change anything.
She’s here because she needs a place to stay.
That’s it.
Three months.
A job. A roof. Enough money for her to get back on her feet.
Then she’s gone.
Out of my space. Out of my routine. Out of whatever the hell this is that keeps pulling my attention back to her whether I want it to or not.
My jaw tightens.
I’ll help her out. My mama raised me better than to turn my back on someone that needs help.
But that’s where it ends.
I nod once to myself, the decision settling in.
She stays behind the walls I build.
Because that look…
I’ve spent years learning how to ignore it.
And I’m not about to start caring again.
???
Alexis
By the time the light starts to fade, I’m still sitting on the edge of my bed.
I don’t remember how long it’s been since I walked out of the kitchen, only that I haven’t moved much since. The room has shifted around me slowly, the pale morning light turning softer, dimmer, until it slips into that quiet gray that comes just before night settles in.
I’ve spent the whole day going over it, turning every possible option over in my head, searching for something I might have missed, some way out that doesn’t end in disaster.
But no matter how many times I go through it, it always circles back to the same place.
Nowhere.
