Hayley Davies Pov -

If you’d like, I can continue this into a full short story, add dialogue with other characters, or shift it to a different genre (e.g., thriller, fantasy, or a different emotional tone). Just let me know.

And that’s the part that hurts the most—not that he doesn’t want me. It’s that he doesn’t even see me. hayley davies pov

But when he laughs, I forget to breathe. When he says my name, I feel like a real person. Not a shadow. Not a sister. Just Hayley. If you’d like, I can continue this into

I feel a familiar twist in my stomach. Liam mumbles something I can’t hear, and they both laugh again. I want to go down there. I want to walk into that kitchen like I own it, pour myself a cup of coffee, and act normal. But normal is the problem. It’s that he doesn’t even see me

I lean against the staircase wall, out of sight, and I listen.

I wake up to the sound of rain against my window—the kind of steady, grey rain that makes the world outside look like a watercolour painting left out too long. My room is small, cluttered with paperback novels and half-drunk mugs of tea. It smells like paper and lavender. This is my fortress.

“Jake said you’d be here,” he says. “I need a book for my English paper. Something with… you know. Words.”