My girlfriend doesn't know that I live next to her flat

I live in a city where buildings stand cramped together, barely three or four feet apart. Most of them are white, making the place look monotonous, like a film set. The only pop of color comes from the bright blue sky above. I live on the top floor of my building, which gives me access to the terrace. It’s my favorite spot, where I sit for hours looking at the sky. I often see birds flying mostly eagles, which show up around noon or evening.

One evening, I was sitting there, thinking about my friend Anna. We met at tuition class, but I had stopped going because the teacher was terrible. He didn’t know how to teach, so I decided to study on my own. When I left, Anna messaged me, worried about my absence. I told her I’d quit, but she thought I was sick. For a week, we stayed in touch through messages, but then she stopped replying.

I had asked if she was okay, but she never answered. Days turned into weeks, and I couldn’t figure out what went wrong. At the very least, she could’ve told me why she was ignoring me. The silence was unbearable. I started believing no one cared about me, that I wasn’t worth loving.

After that, I spent most of my time sitting on the terrace, doing nothing. Even brushing my teeth felt exhausting. But today, something felt different. The sky had a strange purple tint, and the light reflecting off the buildings had a soft, violet glow.

While I was sitting there, I noticed a girl in an orange kurti step onto the terrace of the flat opposite mine. She was hanging laundry. At first, I didn’t pay much attention, but then it hit me. it was Anna.

I panicked and tried to hide my face, but she saw me. For a moment, she froze, staring at me in surprise. Then she whispered my name, though I couldn’t hear her.

She came to the edge of her terrace, and I walked to the edge of mine. “You live here?” I asked, shocked.

She nodded and asked me the same thing. We started talking, and she told me what had happened. A month ago, her mother collapsed at home and had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery. Her father was working abroad, so Anna had to handle everything on her own. The experience left her traumatized, and she didn’t know how to talk to anyone, not even me.

As she spoke, I could see the relief on her face. She had been carrying all this pain by herself. Then she invited me to visit her mother, and I agreed.

It felt good to talk again. The sky didn’t seem so strange anymore. it looked beautiful, like it had been waiting for this moment all along.

SM ❤️