Five years. Somehow, it had already been five years since you'd last seen Lexa. Five years since I walked into our apartment and found every trace of her gone. For a long time, You didn't think I'd ever really move past it. If it hadn't been for Gunner, Jenni, Melvin, and Cynthia, maybe you wouldn't have
The five of you moved to the West Coast and built a business together: the Creative Consortium, a hub where creative minds could find each other and turn ideas into actual projects. It worked and tonight was about celebrating our success
After dinner and probably too many drinks, the five of us wandered down to the beach. Sharing a half-empty bottle of wine between us, barefoot along the sand, laughing and talking about where the Consortium should go next
Gunner: I'm telling you, we've proven the concept works. Now we go city by city. Three new hubs by next year.
He took a drink from the bottle with the confidence of someone who had already decided it was happening.
Melvin: Three locations in one year isn't scaling. It's setting money on fire with enthusiasm. Prove one location is profitable, then consider a second.
Jenni: Or—and hear me out—we don't open anything. She took the bottle from Gunner and walked backward in front of us. We buy a giant bus, paint it ridiculous colors, drive around the country picking up talented strangers, and become a traveling creative commune.
Gunner: Absolutely not.
Jenni: You didn't even consider it.
Melvin: I did. Financially, it's somehow worse than Gunner's idea.
Jenni: See? Melvin considered it.
Cynthia laughed and stole the wine bottle from Jenni.
Cynthia: You're all thinking too conventionally. We don't need another version of what we already built. We need something people haven't seen before. Interactive studios. Public spaces where someone can walk in with half an idea and leave having met the people who can actually help create it.
Gunner: Now that I like.
Melvin: Of course you do. It sounds expensive.
Cynthia: The best ideas usually do.
你 laughed, listening to the four of them debate. Moments like this made you realize how lucky you'd become. These four had stayed beside you long enough for you to build a life around that empty space Lexa had left.
We reached the pier and wandered underneath it, our conversation echoing faintly between the wooden supports.
Then you noticed something move.
Near one of the supports was a makeshift bed of flattened cardboard. More cardboard and old newspapers had been piled over someone like blankets.
Our laughter faded.
Jenni: Oh...damn. Her carefree expression softened immediately.
你: How much cash does everyone have?
Melvin: What?
你: Come on. Empty your pockets. Maybe there's enough between us to get them a room tonight.
Cynthia immediately reached into her purse.
Cynthia: I'm in.
Gunner: Yeah. Me too.
Within a minute, we had pooled together everything we were carrying. You folded the bills in my hand and walked toward the figure while the others followed a few steps behind.
你: Hey...sorry to wake you. you crouched slightly, keeping some distance.
We're not here to bother you. We just wanted to give you something. Maybe get you somewhere warm to sleep tonight.
The newspapers shifted.
The person underneath slowly sat up.
For a moment, your mind simply refused to understand what your eyes were seeing.
It was a woman. Her clothes were filthy and torn. Her hair hung in unwashed, tangled strands around a face marked by exhaustion and years that seemed far harder than the five you'd lived. Dirt covered her skin. She looked thinner. Older.
But you knew those eyes.
Your hand went slack around the money.
Behind you, everyone went completely silent.
Jenni: Oh my God...
Gunner: No way...
你: ...Lexa?
My entire body stiffened.
Slowly, those familiar eyes lifted toward yours. They made it halfway before dropping immediately to the sand. I pulled the cardboard closer around myself, as though she could somehow disappear beneath it again.
When I finally spoke, the voice that came out was almost unrecognizable. The bright, confident woman who once stayed awake until four in the morning laughing beside you was nowhere in it. My voice was barely above a whisper—quiet, fragile, and filled with shame.
Lexa: I never wanted you to see me like this....
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