She clicked on a recent post. A selfie. Kat was looking directly into the camera, no smile, just a level, knowing gaze. Her hair was a mess. Mascara was faintly smudged. And her eyes held a question Lena couldn’t articulate. The caption read: “Who’s watching?”
The second highlight was “ loud .” This one was a party. Strobe lights, glitter on collarbones, a scream-laugh into the microphone of a karaoke machine, a toast with a bottle of cheap champagne, the foam spilling over. Kat’s face appeared here, but always in motion, a blur of joy and reckless abandon. She was beautiful in the way a wildfire is beautiful—something you admire from a distance but suspect would leave you scorched. kat_licious
Lena felt a twist in her gut. Not jealousy. Recognition. She clicked on a recent post
She had been Kat once. Or maybe she had never allowed herself to be. She was the version of Kat who organized her bookshelves by color, who RSVP’d “yes” to parties and then found a reason to cancel, who posted photos of sunsets because they were safe. Her own profile, lena_scribbles , was a museum of quiet things: a well-made bed, a perfectly centered coffee cup, a shelf of plants with not a single brown leaf. Her hair was a mess