Building 13 and Building 3.
Windows facing each other like destiny decided they’d never be far.
Inez’s mom had moved in when Becca was just a little girl. From that moment on, they were inseparable.
Same schools.
Same bus routes.
Same trouble.
Rebecca smiled at the memory.
Sneaking out at fifteen.
Lying for each other without hesitation.
Covering tracks like professionals.
No one had their backs the way they had each other’s.
Becca, the baby of five — three brothers and one sister who practically helped raise her. Her mother adored her, maybe spoiled her a little. But Inez? Inez understood her.
Understood what it meant to grow up fast.
After high school, life did what life does.
Different states.
Different campuses.
Different dreams.
Inez earning her master’s in children services — always the nurturing one.
Rebecca chasing her MFA, chasing art, chasing something bigger than the buildings she grew up in.
They never fully lost each other.
But they drifted.
And when Rebecca moved to Pennsylvania and poured everything into building her name, her shop, her reputation…
She poured less into everything else.
The house suddenly felt quiet again.
Too quiet.
She grabbed her wine glass and stepped onto the patio, the cool Pennsylvania air brushing against her skin. The mountains in the distance were dark silhouettes under the moonlight.
For a second — just a second — she felt it.
That subtle awareness.
Like eyes.
Watching.
