@rainbowbriterunaway
It wasn’t rare for Nico to be reminded of the people she’d left behind. She saw a flash of purple hair and swore it was Gert until she got close enough to make out someone else’s features under the cut. She saw broad shoulders and expected Chase to approach, to yell at her for leaving only to find herself staring at a stranger. A pink hat became Molly until the girl wearing it turned her head, thick rimmed glasses were Alex’s until she looked at the face underneath them. She saw Karolina the most, of course. She saw Karolina everywhere she went --- in the cafe where she hung out to enjoy the free wifi and heat, on the sidewalk where she let herself blend in with the crowd, in the park where she huddled on a bench and waited for a cop to make her leave. She saw Karolina everywhere, but it was always only in her head.
Except… maybe this time it wasn’t.
After all, imaginary people didn’t typically bump shoulders with you in a crowd, and strangers who looked just enough like someone familiar to fool your eyes for a moment didn’t stare at you wide-eyed and shocked as if they were looking at a ghost the same way you were. A city half the country away from the one she’d left with a population in the millions, and Nico still managed to bump into the person she’d been running away from. That probably said a lot about her luck, huh?
She swallowed as she searched for something to say, eyes darting around to look for an exit. And she liked to think she wouldn’t run away, but honestly? It was pretty damn tempting. “Uh,” she said, finally breaking the silence and wincing at the single syllable that came out. “Hey.” Good one, Nico. Glad we settled on that.
