I don’t know

I clearly just don’t

I’ve lost the right words

I’m to far gone to turn back

I don’t know how to be this

I can’t be this

I am this

I’ll never run

I can figure it out

A single day at a time

I can keep trying

Keep learning from the failures

I just don’t know how many more failures are coming...

[Reader Discretion Advised]

Chapter Nine (Sea Breezes)

It came while she was out.

Just after sunset.

Lena returned to her room with a bag of books and a faint ache between her legs she still hadn’t decided whether to name.

The envelope was the first thing she saw.

Black. Matte. No name.

It sat dead center on the floor, perfectly aligned with the threshold. As if placed with care. As if it...

There are millions of rooms in the mind of a muse,

All dim-lit with thoughts too wild to choose.

Worlds unfolding with a blink of the eye,

Castles, deserts, lovers—gone by goodbye.

One foot in the grocery aisle,

The other in a kingdom lost to time.

While the barista speaks of soy or oat,

They’re sculpting moons from windswept rhyme.

Traffic lights blink—green, then red,

But in their mind, a pira...

[Reader Discretion Advised]

Chapter Eight (Sea Breeze)

The door clicked shut behind them.

Ari didn’t speak. She leaned against the wood with her eyes on Lena, hands still in the pockets of her coat. Her hair was damp from the night, curls stuck to her jaw. She looked tired—but not distant.

Present.

Lena stood in the middle of the room, heart beating so hard it hurt her ribs. Her hands ached...

[Reader Discretion Advised]

Chapter Seven (Sea Breezes)

The text came just after nine.

Ari: Just drinks. Just us. Cal’s place. No performance. Come if you want.

No emoji. No hook. Just enough casualness to feel like bait.

Lena stared at it for a full minute before replying.

Me: Are you sure I’m supposed to be there?

The response came before she could set her phone down.

Ari: You alread...

[Reader Discretion Advised]

Chapter Six (Sea Breezes)

The sun was already up when Lena opened her eyes.

She hadn’t moved all night.

The dress still clung to her—wrinkled, damp at the hem, twisted at the waist. Her skin stuck to it in patches, and yet… she couldn’t bring herself to take it off.

She sat up slowly.

The air in the room felt too sharp, like it had teeth. Her thighs ached in ...

[Reader Discretion Advised]

Chapter Five (Sea Breeze)

The message came before sunrise.

Lena woke to the low buzz of her phone against the nightstand, the blue glow of the screen slicing through the dark.

Ari: Don’t wear underwear today.

No punctuation. No greeting. No emoji to soften it.

Just an instruction.

Lena stared at it, still half inside her dream—something about mouths and mirror...